Timer

Work Title: Timer
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 2009
Writer(s): Jac Schaeffer
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

In the near future, people can put a timer on their wrist that counts down until they meet their soul mate, as long as that person also has a timer. Step-sisters Oona and Steph, nearly 30, are slaves to their timers: Steph's won't go off for years and Oona's is blank (her soul mate doesn't yet have one). Then Oona meets Mikey and Steph meets Ben. Mikey is younger than Oona, a bit Bohemian, his timer set to go off in four months: he likes Oona and invites her to go with the flow for a change. For his own reasons, Ben doesn't have a timer, but he likes Steph and it's mutual. In this scientific world, is there room for love - and would anyone know it if it stared them in the face?

  • Self-Written?: 1
  • Source Name:
  • Source URL:
Era/Year of Portrayal: near_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

Almost everyone has a "timer" implanted in their wrists because of the 100% guarantee to find "true love" when your timer is up-- and almost everybody lives by it.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: A "Timer"
  • Description of the technology: "Timers" are implanted on wrists by a single company, only by the request of the person-- similar to making a doctors appointment. The timer will turn on and begin a count down clock to when you meet your true love, but only if you "true love" also has a timer implanted. If your "true love" does not have a timer implanted, then your timer would be blank. The timer has a 100% guarantee, and so the people in the movie truly rely on their timers to prepare for the moment they meet their true loves.
  • Nature of task or activity: The users participate passively once the timer is implanted, as they simply wait for the years, months, days, and/or minutes to decrease until when they meet their match.
  • Performance of the Technology: The technology does exactly what it is suppose to do throughout the movie. However, the "catch" is that the timer will not work if the user's "match" does not have a timer, in which the case the user will have spent the time and money for a "timer" that is of no help to them.
  • Description of creator(s): The store that sells the timer looks similar to a cell-phone store. However behind the store, there are small rooms similar to rooms in a doctors office. The main character that we see selling the "timer" to Oona is a lively and bubbly female who is
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): The technology was made to assist people in finding users in finding their matches, and to curb the curiosity that use to be when dating someone. The creators also made a good business plan, as the timer costs $79.99 and then $1.99 monthly after that.
  • Description of users of technology: Almost everyone in the movie has a timer, except for a couple of major characters who are off-beat and defiant to the device that everyone is so reliant on. There is one part in the movie when a man is getting a timer for the first time and the woman selling it says, "How did you make it to 33 without a timer?" and the man replies "I'm from Oklahoma", so timers are probably more popular in cities and higher populated areas.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: social_presence
  • Description of presence experience: Once the timer is imlanted and counting down, the user is illusioned into thinking that the timer will put them face to face with their "true love" once the time is up. Once the user knows the exact day, the technology becomes obsolete, as if it is not there. More so, it is expected that everyone has a timer, like it is a natural part and extension of the body. Overall, the technology is playing a huge role in the experience because without the timer, the user may not know if a person is their "true love" or not.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: The characters are very aware that they are using a timer—they have to buy it first! I think though that after the initial moment the user finds out when they will meet their true love, it is a little less obvious that they are using the technology to plan out their lives.
  • Valence of experience: This differs for every person. Many people, like Oona’s family in the movie, live by their timers and truly believe that it is the best invention. However, others like Steph are resilient to the timer because they don’t want a clock to run their lives.
  • Specific responses: Oona’s brothergets a timer when he is “timer eligible” in his first month of his 9th grade year in high school, and his timer has only 3 days on it. His reacts less excited than his family, because he is not ready to find the person he will be with for the rest of his life. Oona’s parents are ecstatic and often very animated about the “timer” and its potential. This is to the point that they forced Oona’s brother to get his timer at such a young age—like getting a drivers license at age 16. So, they disregard the feelings of others when they’re forcing the timer onto others. Mikey is Oona’s boyfriend, whose timer is set to go off in four months when he starts dating Oona. He is somewhat desensitized to the timer, because even though he knows he will be meeting his true love in four months, he lets himself get involved with Oona. More so, he tells Oona that he “loves” her before meeting his match—which begs the question if a person could have “one true love”.
Long-term consequences:

The story ends with basically everybody finding their true love as according to their timer—but it is not altogether happy. The watcher becomes invested in relationships between characters that are not matched as according to their timers, and so it is frustrating to see these characters split up by a piece of technology. This alludes to the long-term consequences of a device like the “timer”. The characters struggle with how to continue their lives with timers that have long or no countdowns—knowing that their match is out there, but unable to meet them until that timer is up. The device basically tells the future, and users make changes to their lives accordingly. There is no more curiosity, no more point in meeting people or dating, there is just a countdown on the timer.

Other:

Coder name: Kyra Sanborn
Coder email: kyra.sanborn@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University