Modern technology leaves fewer hours for volunteering, free time

In a small town, there were two business owners, both of whom were in their 60s and had their businesses one block away from each another.

One day, at the barber shop, Fred, who owned the factory, said, “You know Bob, every morning for 40 years as I have passed your jewelry store, I have set my watch by the big clock in your front window, and the whistle we use to let our employees know it is time to start, eat lunch and quit is based on that clock.”

To which Bob replied, “Gosh Fred, for 40 years I’ve been setting that clock by your whistle!”

Instead of two leaders, there were really two followers.

Time has become one of the two new currencies. Information is the other. At a recent summer conference for chamber executives in Indiana, a speaker used the term “time poverty” in discussing the reasons that fewer and fewer people join organizations and volunteer.

It has not been that long ago that computers were entering the offices and factories. In the beginning was the fear that the computer would replace entire shifts of workers. We now understand the tool that the computer is.

This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.