Cultural attitudes to time differ in the relative importance attached to past and future. Americans are not concerned about the past, which is relatively unimportant when compared to the future. In contrast, in Europe and Asia people have a long history and deeply rooted traditions thus they pay attention to the past and follow traditions. In high-context cultures time is viewed as open, less structured, more responsive to the needs of people and less to external goals. In low-context cultures time is highly organized in order to be able to live and work with others.