Time is not a social construct

This is a particular pet peeve of mine, so I hope you’re ready for some tiresome nitpicking loosely dressed as comedy.

Today’s topic: “time is a social construct”. 

Time-related Things That Are Social Constructs 

• Foods that correspond to specific times of day

• Punctuality, being “on time” vs. “late”

• The idea that you must hit certain cultural milestones by specific ages or it will be too late.

• Measuring time by the sun vs. by the clock 

• Daylight savings 

• Specific measurements of time, e.g. how many years there are in a decade, or how many months there are in a year

I think those kinds of things are what people mean when they say “time is a social construct”. But there are also lots of: 

time-related things that are not social constructs, but instead Observable Features of the Universe

• The linear nature of time, the continual movement from one moment to the next 

• The existence of the past and the present 

• The fact that many people will be angry with you if you make them wait, regardless of whether 2pm is a real thing 

• Mortality and decay 

• That even though our self-imposed deadlines may be too strict, and are in fact more flexible and malleable than we think, our time is not an unlimited resource (see above)