Media 6: Week 5, Errol Tyson

Week 5 | Finding Time for It All
Judy Wajcman, 2015, ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’ in Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ch.7.

This reading raised an important and concerning issue about time management in the increasingly interconnected world. These are not only related to the current time, but looking ahead it can only get more complex and convoluted.

Because of when I was born (1993), my attitude towards these new technologies is a bit two-sided. In one sense I’m excited for all of the possible innovation, and the technical side of my brain is working overtime thinking about the possibilities. But the other part of me is worried about the dependence that will develop from this, and the decline of simple skills such as face-to-face communication, which will be overshadowed by use of technology.

We will considerably have more on a monitored and quantifiable lifestyle, with all of our data being able to be utilised to generate tailored media suited to every person. I believe the ‘pressures of time’ mentioned in the readings will create a slew of psychological issues, presented as more extreme versions of cases that have happened recently. This is referring to cases of severe anxiety or stress that occurs from constant internet and/or social media use. This overexposure will proceed at such a rapid rate that is unprecedented to how the acceleration has occurred in the past. Strategies that Wajcman mentions, such as time management strategies, are useful to note but simultaneously seem to be feeding into the problem. While this may solve the issue of not having enough time, it is another method of monitoring that will track your daily activity and movements. Call me old fashioned, but this whole approach to future time management does make me feel a little uneasy.

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