Death of Appointment


Of late (no pun), I have been observing that appointments never happens on time. Either it gets delayed by minutes, or sometimes postponed at the last minute to a different day! 

By virtue of what the reason is, appointments can be broadly divided into, appointment for

  • Meeting
  • activity
  • viewing

Meeting Appointment:
  
In India, other than the fact, respect for others time is not on anyone’s watch-list; When it comes to internal meetings, people have a common excuse for late coming - my previous meeting got extended, I’ve an important mail to send across, something urgent has come up (official/personal).  Eternal meetings are more messy - Got stuck in traffic, The printer is not working (classic advertising agency servicing folks speak), 

Activity appointment:

The most irritating thing during an activity is, It is an important call, I need to attend to this; SMSing, Checking your mails on BB or smartphones, and to the more audacious one - mailing/chatting using their laptops!! Even during a visit to doctor, i find that both the doctors and the patients are busy not just with each other, but also with other activities

Appointment Viewing: 

The consumption of media at a predefined time is most affected due to technology. Be it reading a newspaper or watching a particular program (unless it is a live relay program), appointment viewing is on decline. People are most happy to consume the content at their liking; This will have a serious impact on capsule content (serials, soaps, documentaries, news articles, etc) where the consumption is not tied to a particular time-slot. What it means is that content would need to be played repeatedly on various time-slot (a shotgun strategy) and also be available on-demand basis (a bullet strategy)


That the technology has impact us a lot is cliched. Coupled with an indifferent feeling (as there are more reasons to justify not complying to one's previous commitment), the reason and need for appointments will soon fade. Your meeting reminders and schedulers will be acting as a lodestone and not as writing on stone

Some people still do feel regretful when they miss their appointment... but their number is dwindling, each passing day

image courtesy: www.masternewmedia.org


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