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In a society where most households have clocks, phones, and televisions in almost every room, and daily schedules are demarcated by minutes instead of hours, many Americans suffer from stress and constantly complain that they don't have enough time to do everything they want to do. This complaint appears paradoxical because we know there has been an almost exponential development in technology. Our computers are faster and more powerful, we have more machines to do our tasks for us, and even our transportation gets us where we need to be much more quickly. Still, we have less time than ever to spend leisurely, and I will argue that this problem is not because technology has failed to achieve its goal of improving efficiency, but rather, because technology has created more pursuits and Americans are subject to a basic ethical drive for "More".

Many Americans complain they don't have enough time. As a society, most of us get caught up in a schedule of going to work each day, coming home late, then taking care of mundane details before finally falling into bed only to get up early the next day to continue the routine. In most households, both parents work full-time, so are busy working throughout the week, which leaves them only the weekends to take care of household duties like cleaning and doing the bills. As a result, many parents feel ostracized from their children because they don't have the time or energy to spend with their kids. Many people suffer from chronic stress because they don't take the time out from their busy lives to just relax. What little free time people do have, they spend on the phone, in front of the TV, or on the computer so that they are still not relaxing, but actively engaged in a cognitive process. People can wile away hours in front of a TV, and not come away feeling relaxed because they've spent that entire time keeping up with the constant flash of images, storing information about characters, plots, themes, products and other aspects of the media and all without realizing that they're doing so. The influx of media is just one element of the reason why people don't have enough time.