Synchronizing to the 24/7 economy

The possibility of mediated social interaction has even more deep consequences for personal time zones when people work in, or with, companies that do global business. Today in 2006, workers in Indian call centres synchronize their rhythm with American office hours, for example, which triggers certain food sellers to serve food in the middle of the night, which triggers some sorts of transportation to be made available, which means that the children of the taxi driver have to walk to school by themselves, and so on. Also, the way people interact in the morning is different to the way people interact at the end of a work-day or late at night. The synchronization people need to be able to connect in mediated presence, has an impact on their natural presence and their natural environment as well. Just as the natural presence influences the kind of mediated presence one is capable of carrying out. When interacting globally this is an issue of concern because the consequences of these kinds of adaptations of personal time zones in a 24/7 economy reach further than is easily discernable. But in 1989, at the GHP, the hackers had to leave the building of Paradiso that night.

CN