Technology puts the 'fast' in fast-paced 

Conducting business activity via a cellular phone in Town Centre Mall 

At midday the food court is a crowded place but in the midst of all the people buying food, this businessman has to conduct business activity on his phone, quite oblivious to his surroundings. He even ignores his lunch companion.  According to an article in the international journal of weekly science "Cities are social accelerators," says mathematician Luis Bettencourt. "Everything's speeding up." Cities like Port-of-Spain are becoming increasingly globalized with the rapid technological advancements in communication technologies. This phenomenon is now beginning to put the fast in fast-paced. Not only are people’s daily movements on fast forward but it is now enhanced by technology. Urban theorists Amin and Graham (1997) term this the Multiplex City which comprises “a set of spaces where diverse relational webs coalesce, interconnect and fragment”. They further state that this is facilitated by globalization through the inventiveness of persons worldwide. Technology has become so interwoven into our daily lives in the city that it oftentimes adds to this fast-paced lifestyle.

Urban theorist, Lewis Mumford lends credence to this point by stating that, “the clock is not merely a means of keeping track of the hours, but of synchronizing the actions of men.” For the gentleman in the picture above, time is highly valued and seen as an opportunity to interact with business associates since to him, “time is money.” The 21^st century is characterized by a speeding up of communication and rapid circulation of data, knowledge and ideas which has served to decrease time delays in communication (Hall and Barrett, 2012). Technology has therefore enhanced the fast-paced lifestyle of persons in the city by offering a means of increasing the level of productivity achieved in a given space of time. Time coupled with technology such as cell phones, laptop computers and most telecommunication devices have enhanced the pace at which city-dwellers previously conducted daily activities and have thus given the fast-paced life a new face.

References

Amin, Ash and Graham, Stephen. (1997). The Ordinary City. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 22, 411-429.

Big cities need a fast-paced life to grow. (2007). Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070416/full/news070416-2.html.

Mumford, Lewis. (2010). Technics and Civilization. University of Chicago Press.

Hall, Tim. and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4th edition. London and New York: Routledge.