Collectors Collect All Day Now

Remember how you organized your day was in 1970. Your clock radio alarm went off and you listened to a bit of news or some music while the percolator made coffee. The morning newspaper was at the front door and you read that before going off to work. At your office you did your professional tasks while looking forward to a date later that night with your Apfelbaum Auction catalog or Linns or whatever philatelic item would come in the mail that day. People’s lives were compartmentalized and the change in this aspect of our lives is probably why you hear so little about conversations around the water cooler anymore. They no longer exist as the Internet age has let us have access to who and what we like, whenever we want. No more waiting to go home to read the news-it was reported today that 27% of people use their phones to get news updates numerous times per day. People no longer wait until they are off work to engage in philatelic matters-Stamp Auction Network reports its busiest time is during the US work day and hits to this blog are steady,  morning, noon and night. People are integrating their hobbies, social world and passions into their days that used to reserved strictly for work (and if the people in restaurants at dinner are any indication, people are also engaged in their outside interests when they used to be engaged solely with their family). The number of hours that Americans report that they worked has grown significantly in the last decade. Maybe that is because the boundaries between work and play have been merged.