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> “The effectiveness of social interaction is determined by our capacity to synchronize our activity with that of the individual with whom we are dealing,” Droit-Volet writes. “In other words, individuals adopt other people’s rhythms and incorporate other people’s time.”

Reminds me of all the other mimicry humans will unconsciously engage in, like mirroring body language or even subtly mirroring an accent in conversation.

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But mimickry of conversational tics is only one side of the coin - as much as we all like to lather ourselves in a common medium, it's also pleasant to distinguish ourselves from our peers, not just for an ulterior audience, but also one-to-one. What of course tends to happen - in a nice conversation at least - is that you lead each other in a kind of dance, with wilful flattery one moment, and cheesy antagonism the next.

Maybe time's the same - too much stimulating newness or aggravating nagging, and you zone out.

I think that distinction urge tends to be very superficial. People distinguish themselves as Mac or PC users, but don't generally put much of their identity into being a purple baboon instead of a Mac user.

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