The Challenge of Representing Time to a Teenager in New Story

The Challenge of Representing Time to a Teenager in a New Story

I look at my open hand. Yes, it's true … it's not even imagination any more. I can see clearly my past, present and future and spark of choice resting on my palm. They may be invisible shapes in the sensory world but the meanings are written clearly across my brain along with a surge of power that respecting my Timeline is now up to me ... 

excerpt from A Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand. 

My first blog introduced the rationale and quick summary of a new e-book called A Teen Girl Makes Time in the Sand. There are three basic reasons for writing this timely e-book.

1. How to stop social media from taking advantage of a rash and brash teenage brain still in development personified here as a Giant Clown Face of epic proportions...

2. How to start looking at value of Time and power of choice as a super power tool to avoid making bad mistakes that may affect or change the total Time Line...

3. How to use diagrams as a base for discussion of growing up in a mass media social world, and structuring the experience of time without counting numbers. (Blog 3)

It is worth noting that there was a major challenge in representing the value of Time, especially to young vibrant teenagers who view life as inevitable passion to grow up on their terms with their technical gadgets. 

Ask a teenager what is the most valuable thing or power you have and the answer, most probably, won't be time itself.  After all, what happens today is not as important as to what happens tomorrow for fun, excitement, group and self-identity.

In fact, for most people, the primary focus of time is counting numbers in a tactical system measured by minutes, days, months, years, decades, etc.  However, how do you count or measure the quantity of EXPERIENCE which is the content between the numbers?  It is the quality of experience and foresight that makes the difference…but how do you explain this to a 14 year old?

So the story progressively explains the "shapes" of Time as circles for the Present, blocks for the Past, and open-ended lines for the Future.  It is easier to picture how they may be interconnected on a time line and web of life. 

The Yesterdays, whether good or bad, can pile up like a wall not to be replayed or rebuilt. The Tomorrows are visionary directions of hope. They can embody huge amounts of time. But Today is the only living circle of opportunity where to choose your future life lines or directions.

But here is the strangest paradox of Time. It can only be managed in a very small time frame called TODAY. And TODAY can sometimes be sparked by a tinier matter of CHOICE.  

Herein lies the tragedy or the triumph.  As tiny as choice may be, it holds the seeds of reaction, decision, habit and everything else in between.  Doesn't it make better sense to broaden the scope or power of this moment?

The climax of the story is to discover a super power tool that respects the passage of time as a simple exercise to enact in immediate situations to help make a smart choice in respect to Time itself.  It answers the early question:

What would you do differently if you had the choice of seeing the future?

A Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand makes sense as a grandmother leads her young granddaughter to talk about her experiences in a "Selfie-Celtie" world, her regrets, and redemption to believe more in her true self and natural abilities with positive ways to connect to the internet. 

Check this unique e-book with many simple diagrams to help explain the complex infinity of making good choices and living wisely. 

Your experiences, with or without teenagers, and comments about the passage of time are important to share and learn from.

Sincerely,

Annemarie 

 

Excerpts:

Thinking back, there is no training how to deal with changes in technology when my brain's biology remains unchanged.  A teenager is still young, still curious, still wants to be liked, feel attractive, praised and rewarded again and again...

They buy into the electronic Hall of Mirrors where everyone is watching and comparing themselves, trying to find some piece of wisdom in a crowd or mob, not sure how not to stop suckling from an alternative reality not their own.  

But all is quiet. I think there is something wrong with this picture when a young teenage brain in normal growth patterns of fitting into normal society also has to try to find a place in a newly fractured culture of Social Media without rules, constraints or limitations with abnormal expectations of adulthood.

Yes, I certainly have made bad choices in the past but they are now a wall of blocks behind me and there is a vision of a more open-ended and liberating future ahead of me….
I see a room full of yesterdays; but also a bright circle of today where I can make real living choices using my super power tool.

…..