HOW-OF-WHY

By Michael John Moynihan

"Time is the fire in which we burn."
-Gene Roddenberry

What time is it? What time does it start? When will it end? When? “When” is right up there with “Why” and “How” as far as questions go. Maybe even more than “Why” or “How” we want to know “When”.

And we wanna know “Right Now”. Which, of course, is when literally everything happens: right now. We only have right now. Past and present are concepts that occupy much of our thought, but in terms of direct waking experience, it is always right now.

Even our memories of the past or projections of the future happen right now. To be “media literate” one would understand the time elements of the various media. TV can be called “time based media”. The creator of the media pretty much determines the timing of its presentation. A VCR, DVR or TIVO allows the media user to re-view or skip elements, but re-arranging the elements, or editing to ones own tastes or purposes is not something very many TV viewers want to “spend time” doing.

Time perception and how it has changed throughout cultures and history, because of technological developments of time measurement is the subject of another... time. My purpose here is to suggest that the more well versed and aware we are of the effect and importance of “timing” in media, the more creative, competent and effective we can be in mediating information.

After all that is what the present “media” is. It is the “middle man” between you and information. Most broadcast and cable programming puts specific time parameters on the programs it runs. On television a 30 minute program is not really 30 minutes, not because there is any information indicating that that is a good and proper length for a TV show, but simply because television began as an advertising tool based upon a previous tool called radio. And those traditions have remained, even on premium cable channels or noncommercial broadcast channels.

Perhaps the best length for a TV show, based on human perception, is seven minutes and fourteen seconds, but we will probably never know and the people who create TV shows could care less. From a TV watchers point of view, the common rule of thumb is shorter is better. TV has taught us how to watch TV and commercials (the entire point of most broadcast and cable TV) started out being one minute long (Pat Weaver, actress Sigourney - Alien films- Weaver’s daddy thought that one up, along with the Today and the Tonight shows.) Over the years commercials have moved to shorter formats. Most today are 15 seconds and Milwaukee's own Master Lock Company actually had a 1 second TV commercial.

But shorter might not be better or smarter when thinking and conceptualizing time. To investigate your own time-mind, I suggest you take a trip to the library and try The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand and Einstein's Dreams by Alan P. Lightman. Both are quite small books with big and challenging ideas, that can be read in a short time. If you like long books try Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Whatever you decide, take the time to spend some time rethinking how you use time when you mediate the media. Do it now, because now is the only time you have.