PEOPLES’ ATTITUDE TO TIME

Nwanyanwu Chris

          The word “time” is a slippery one and of which a universal definition may be difficult to produce. One thing about it is that it is a very important concept of our existence such that it helps us to know and manage the environment very well. Time may be described as the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues; an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen begin or end, etc. Man cannot do without time because whatever he did, does and will do happens at one time or the other. One peculiar feature of time is that it has always been and will continue to be.

The people of every age made use of time then and while they lived in time, they died in time and left us in time to manage the world and her affairs in time. This shows that people have always known time to exist even before them and as such interacted with time to make their life better. This is a general consciousness under which everybody acts. But just as there has been time in the world which will continue to be, the attitude of people towards it is very funny and though differently taken by people, it is believed that we all have personal attitudes towards time. This attitude could be classified into positive and negative attitudes to time.

On the positive side of time, the peoples’ attitude towards it is that of complete consciousness of time such that they order their live activities very well regardless of space. This is shown in how people despite their various commitments are always not found wanting in any of their duties. It is never magic and cannot be; instead it is the result of the consciousness of the passing time and the desire to make good use of it. For people here, they are always conscious of their time which they intend to utilize very well.

On the negative side of time, peoples’ attitude to time is that of total unconsciousness of the ever passing time. This is very evident in people’s mismanagement of time. They find it very difficult to plan their life activities and as such cannot meet up with the expectations as they are often found wanting in their responsibilities.

Consequent on the above negative attitude towards time, people find it extremely difficult to make a choice of values with regards to the time they allocate for their different daily activities. Particularly young people these days, are so much engrossed in frivolities than important things, such that the time they spend on those frivolities is more than that they spend on important things.

We all are aware that most students spend more time in engaging in fruitless ventures and then spend little time on their studies. This is shown when a student during the academic session spends more than two hours on the screen with the football matches being displayed whereas he devotes less than an hour to his studies. And at the end of the day, he is found wanting in that part of his life. What about those of them that can afford to interact with their friends late in the night but will never pick up their books to read and where they tried to, they begin to sleep immediately. What about those of them that can never visit the library but will definitely be at the café always.

Apart from the example above, most people have lost the sense of religious worship such that they are always in a hurry to leave the church or other religious places. When they stay in the church for almost one hour, it seems to them that they are wasting their time there. But they spend closely four to five hours in the beer parlour and other places. The funniest part of it is that some people now have lost the sense of good use of time as they take the time for spiritual exercises for some other things which most often is very unimportant.

Another negative attitude to time is that of being in a hurry all the time, or to rush things at the dying minute. This is the case with some of our reckless drivers who are always in a hurry at the expense of both their lives and that of the passengers. Of course we all are well aware that this has lead to so many accidents on our roads. People no longer plan their activities in such a way that there will be no clash. This attitude has made people forget so many things that would have been useful to them especially when set out on a journey.

In essence, our attitude to time should be that of strict consciousness, so that while we manage it very well, we may be able to order our lives very well. If this is done, procrastination will be removed from our thought, hurriedness and other negative attitudes to time will never be part of us. And this will make our living better.