2008 Woodie Awards
Author John De Graaf Addresses America's Stress
Catherine Roberts
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Life
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Seattle author, television producer and sociologist, John de Graff gave a presentation to students about his "Take Back Your Time" campaign and encompassed the many ways in which American society suffers as a result of time mismanagement, relentless over-work and the endless pursuit of "Keeping up with Jone's," on Sept. 20.
About 20 students, faculty, staff and community members attended the "Take Back Your Time" lecture. The audience viewed the beginning of de Graff's, "Running out of Time" documentary which said that, "many Americans say they would trade a pay day for time alone."
The documentary illustrates how rushed Americans are, our lack of leisure time, how people have less leisure time than ever before even with all the time saving devices Americans have how "work ethics lead to illness, stress, burnout, and depression," eventually resulting in a "meltdown."
Freshman Bridget Quigley, who attended the lecture as part of her English class requirement and also read de Graff's book "Affluenza," said that she found the content, "interesting and eye opening. "(There were) statistics that opened my eyes about what a throw-away society we are."
De Graff illustrated how American's obsession with wealth and over consumption leads to the sacrifice of their families and healthy living. He said that his inspiration for his, "Take Back Your Time" campaign came as a result of his, "answer to the basic question 'how are you?'." "The answer became 'busy'", De Graff said. In his research on the state of the over-working and over-consumption plaguing America today, he said that, "what I learned came as a shock to me, how different the U.S. is to the rest of the world when it comes to running out of time."
To illustrate his point, he referred to the Spanish proverb, "Those who hurry arrive first at their grave." De Graff pointed out that "the majority of (American) society is feeling stressed," it is a social problem, "requiring social change." And he decided to have a day dedicated to acknowledging the stress issues Americans face concerning time. De Graff said that, "if 'Earth Day' could do that, maybe we could have a 'Time Day'." The first Time Day was October 24, 2003.
About 20 students, faculty, staff and community members attended the "Take Back Your Time" lecture. The audience viewed the beginning of de Graff's, "Running out of Time" documentary which said that, "many Americans say they would trade a pay day for time alone."
The documentary illustrates how rushed Americans are, our lack of leisure time, how people have less leisure time than ever before even with all the time saving devices Americans have how "work ethics lead to illness, stress, burnout, and depression," eventually resulting in a "meltdown."
Freshman Bridget Quigley, who attended the lecture as part of her English class requirement and also read de Graff's book "Affluenza," said that she found the content, "interesting and eye opening. "(There were) statistics that opened my eyes about what a throw-away society we are."
De Graff illustrated how American's obsession with wealth and over consumption leads to the sacrifice of their families and healthy living. He said that his inspiration for his, "Take Back Your Time" campaign came as a result of his, "answer to the basic question 'how are you?'." "The answer became 'busy'", De Graff said. In his research on the state of the over-working and over-consumption plaguing America today, he said that, "what I learned came as a shock to me, how different the U.S. is to the rest of the world when it comes to running out of time."
To illustrate his point, he referred to the Spanish proverb, "Those who hurry arrive first at their grave." De Graff pointed out that "the majority of (American) society is feeling stressed," it is a social problem, "requiring social change." And he decided to have a day dedicated to acknowledging the stress issues Americans face concerning time. De Graff said that, "if 'Earth Day' could do that, maybe we could have a 'Time Day'." The first Time Day was October 24, 2003.
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