Time's measurement is everywhere. The gridded screen surrounds you like barbed wire. . . . Urban modernity lives under an assault of clocks. Alarm clocks put the frighteners on sleep: the first thought in so many people's minds, every single waking day is "what's the time? Am I late?" Digital clocks with digital seconds seem to speed time, relentlessly tightening deadlines. Increasingly-clocked schedules puncture time. In the U.S. paper was the traditional gift for the first wedding anniversary: now it is clocks. Crystal was the tradition for the fourteenth anniversary; now it is watches.
— Jay Griffiths, A Sideways Look at Time