human need for control
The human need for control is deeply tied to the concept of time as a construct. Throughout history, civilizations have sought ways to measure, regulate, and control time, transforming it from a natural phenomenon into a structured framework. This drive reflects our desire to impose order on the unpredictability of the world and manage the inherent chaos of existence.
Acknowledging that time is a human construct doesn’t diminish its value—it only deepens our understanding of how we engage with it and the meaning we attach to it. Time is valuable not because it’s an immutable fact of the universe but because it’s integral to how we live, organize our societies, and find meaning in the world. Even if time is subjective or culturally defined, its significance lies in how it shapes our experiences, relationships, and productivity.
Cultural and Personal Meaning of Time: Time allows us to mark milestones—birthdays, anniversaries, historical events—that give structure to our personal and collective lives. For instance, though a “year” is a construct based on Earth’s rotation around the sun, the symbolic weight we attach to a year passing is immense. We celebrate achievements, mourn losses, and track progress over time because it helps us create narratives about our lives. The fact that time is constructed doesn’t make these markers any less meaningful; in fact, it gives us the flexibility to define and redefine how we want to value those moments.
Economic and Social Structures: Time, particularly as it relates to work and economics, is often viewed as a commodity—something that can be spent, saved, wasted, or invested. This perspective fuels productivity and the pursuit of goals, making time inherently valuable in professional and social contexts. Just because time is a construct doesn’t negate its role in driving efficiency or organizing labor. In fact, knowing it’s constructed allows us to better question how we use time and whether our structures around it serve us.
Mortality and Finitude: One of the most powerful reasons time is valuable is because, for humans, it’s finite. Whether or not we consider time as an objective reality, we experience life as limited. Each moment, hour, or year feels significant because we have only so much of it. Philosophers like Martin Heidegger emphasized this in his concept of being-toward-death, arguing that recognizing our finite time on Earth gives our existence urgency and purpose.
Relational Time: Time is also a construct that defines relationships. Time spent with loved ones—whether measured in minutes or years—shapes how we connect, communicate, and form bonds. Even if we accept that time is subjective and culturally mediated, its value in fostering relationships and human connection remains profound.
By recognizing that time is constructed, we don’t strip it of its value; rather, we are liberated to think critically about how we spend it. This awareness helps us question what systems of time serve us and which ones don’t, encouraging a deeper reflection on how we can align our use of time with our values and needs.
At its core, time as a construct is about power. Timekeeping devices, calendars, and clocks allow societies to synchronize activities, create schedules, and impose discipline. The industrial revolution, for instance, radically changed how time was perceived. In agrarian societies, time was connected to the seasons, the sun, and agricultural cycles—time was fluid, and tasks were dictated by natural rhythms. But industrialization required precision. Workers had to show up at specific times, production cycles had to be maximized, and the idea of “wasting time” emerged as an economic loss. Michel Foucault would argue that time, in this sense, became a tool of disciplinary power—a way for institutions to exert control over people’s behavior. Factories, schools, prisons, and offices all use time to regulate activity and productivity.
The standardization of time, such as the establishment of time zones and universal clocks, was another assertion of control. In the late 19th century, with the expansion of the railroad system, there was a need to synchronize schedules across vast distances. This led to the creation of standardized time zones, stripping away local variations of time and imposing a uniformity that benefited commerce and industrialization. But this wasn’t just about efficiency—it was about control. By regulating time, governments and corporations could better manage labor, transport, and communication. E.P. Thompson in his essay Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism delves into how industrial society disciplined people to the clock, fundamentally altering how time was perceived and used.
Philosophically, time is often debated as a human invention. Immanuel Kant proposed that time (and space) are not things in themselves but frameworks that humans use to structure their experiences. Without this framework, the human mind wouldn’t be able to make sense of the sequential flow of events. This aligns with the idea that time is less about the objective reality of the universe and more about how humans have created a construct to impose order and meaning on the world.
In a postmodern sense, time’s constructiveness is further deconstructed. Thinkers like Jean Baudrillard and Gilles Deleuze have explored how modern societies manipulate and distort the perception of time. Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality suggests that the way we experience time today is no longer directly linked to the reality of natural cycles but is mediated through technology, media, and consumer culture. In essence, our experience of time is increasingly virtual—a simulation of the real thing. Deleuze, in contrast, argued that time is nonlinear. In his philosophy, time is always becoming, not a series of linear moments but a constant flow of past, present, and future, all intertwined.
In the post-truth era, time as a construct takes on an even more fluid identity. With the rise of social media and 24-hour news cycles, the experience of time has become fragmented. The immediacy of information creates a sense that the present is constantly being updated, overwritten, and replaced. The past becomes something malleable, reinterpreted according to the needs of the moment. The future, in turn, becomes uncertain and unpredictable. This fragmentation is another reflection of our desire for control, but it’s also an admission of the limitations of that control. In trying to manage time through technology and media, we may have created a reality where time slips through our fingers, no longer entirely under our command.
Ultimately, time as a construct is an expression of human anxiety over uncertainty. By measuring, regulating, and standardizing time, we seek to bring the unknown into the realm of the known. But in doing so, we also reveal how elusive and subjective time can be, constantly shaped by the social, political, and technological forces that govern our lives.
