Pressed for time : the acceleration of life in digital capitalism /

Sociologist Wajcman (London School of Economics) has written an exceptionally clear and insightful analysis of the "time-pressure paradox," which is the pervasive feeling of being increasingly harried rather than liberated by communication and productivity advances. New technologies are producing not the widely predicted world of great leisure but rather an often alienating acceleration in the pace of everyday life. Intensification of workplace and interpersonal connectivity increases desirable flexibility and empowerment but also creates stress and insecurity. The "cult of speed" blurs the traditional boundary between production and consumption, replacing pleasurable "quality time" with information overload and dehumanizing efficiencies such as speed dating. Self-driving cars, for example, are lauded as a mechanism that will allow travelers to work additional hours. Organizations often employ new technologies to increase control over the time and anonymity of citizens, consumers, employees, and the poor. Gender inequities grow because child care, routine housework, and sustaining affective bonds (tasks disproportionally performed by females) are the least likely to be automated. Wajcman argues against a hard technological determinism, calling for judging digital progress in terms of increased life satisfaction rather than principally by its success in maximizing productivity. Very well written. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Thomas H. Koenig, Northeastern University

"Why do we turn to digital devices to alleviate time pressure and yet blame them for driving it?" This "central paradox," as Wajcman calls it, is the subject of her book, which alternates between ethnographic inquiry and philosophical rumination on our relationship with time. As it turns out, contemporary technology is full of such contradictions. "New modes of transport massively compress the time of travel," she writes, but they "also lead to standing still in traffic jams in big cities." Some tools allow us to shift, rather than save, time. The baby bottle, for example, "enables mothers to exercise more control over the timing of feeding." And the old saw turns out to be true: Time really is money. The rise of standardized clock time is linked to the Industrial Revolution and the development of the railways. Since the advent of the consumer society, "temporal sovereignty" - the author's term for controlling how one's time is spent - has become a marker "of a good life." On the other hand, "busyness" is now considered an emblem of success. "Pressed for Time" is a fine work of sociology that evinces deep concern for how we actually use gadgets, rather than how we talk about them. The author notes: "Fears about 24/7 electronic connectedness have to be understood in the context of the harsh economic climate and its attendant insecurity." Here Wajcman's central paradox reveals itself again; our smartphones may be empowering, but they may also be little more than flashing amulets, held close during troubled times.

Wajcman (TechnoFeminism), professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, offers insights into our use of high-speed technology and how that technology skews our perceptions of time. She says "modern" workers have always felt rushed, from the mill workers of the Industrial Revolution to today's nomadic office professionals, yet studies show that since the advent of computers, hours spent working have not actually increased. The "time-pressure paradox" we feel is due to our increasing tendency to blur work hours with family and personal time, coupled with technology that untethers us from our workplaces. New devices lead us to expect to perform many things quickly, but overlapping demands of work, family, and personal life keep tripping us up. Wajcman backs up her arguments with a wealth of reference material and earns points for spotlighting the gender gap created by the extra demands on women from work and family. While sentences such as "The relationship between technological change and temporality is dialectical, not teleological" can make reading a challenge, Wajcman's conclusions are thoroughly supported by research, and delivered with sympathy, reminding us that "we make the world together with technology, and so it is with time." (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.