I think the point of the analogy is that a clock isn't very useful for an individual, unless enough other people around you also have one. You don't gain much from being able to accurately tell the time down to minutes or seconds, because by far the biggest non-specialist use of clocks is synchronizing with other people. You'll come by the store at 08:00 sharp, and discover it's closed, because the day is cloudy and the storeowner's rooster overslept, so he still thinks it's early.
Such fundamental technologies have also a perverse tipping point, a kind of strong network effect in disguise. Continuing with the analogy, once enough people have clocks and start coordinating with them, they'll start forcing their preference on others, and soon enough everyone has to get a clock, or else they won't be able to synchronize with the society around them.
With timekeeping, this arguably happened before most of us were alive. But a more recent example, one that's being regularly lamented in bars and in press, is cellphones (and even more recently, smartphones): they went from a rich people's toy to being ubiquitous in ~decade, and these days there's a strong social expectation that you own one, and that through it, you're accessible during waking hours. People slightly older than I am call it an invisible chain/tether. Our children will probably call it "normal", just like my generation considers clocks normal.
Such fundamental technologies have also a perverse tipping point, a kind of strong network effect in disguise. Continuing with the analogy, once enough people have clocks and start coordinating with them, they'll start forcing their preference on others, and soon enough everyone has to get a clock, or else they won't be able to synchronize with the society around them.
With timekeeping, this arguably happened before most of us were alive. But a more recent example, one that's being regularly lamented in bars and in press, is cellphones (and even more recently, smartphones): they went from a rich people's toy to being ubiquitous in ~decade, and these days there's a strong social expectation that you own one, and that through it, you're accessible during waking hours. People slightly older than I am call it an invisible chain/tether. Our children will probably call it "normal", just like my generation considers clocks normal.