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.

Week 4 | Passion and Career
Cal Newport, 2012, ‘The Clarity of the Craftsman’ in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work, NY Business Plus, ch.4.

Craftsman vs. Passion Mindsets, summary of readings

• Making key points that there are two distinct method of working. One pertains ‘what am I getting out of this job?’, the
other ‘how can I best do the job-is this right?’
• I didn’t really agree with some of the points brought up in the second method, as it is difficult to put 100% effort
into a role that you are not passionate about. It doesn’t make sense to grind away at a job if there is no benefit for
you as the worker.
• This also seems to contradict with the examples used-a musician born into a family of musicians has discovered this
‘passion’ very early on is quite different to somebody searching for their passion.

Relating this to my own experiences, I have always worked on my own projects regardless of the interest to me, and then preferences my other commitments around this. For example, I am inclined to put uni second to a creative brief that I will find more beneficial to my interests and professional development.

I think that suppressing thought processes such as ‘who am I’ and ‘what do I truly love’ are an intrinsic part in any position, and they can really shape finding a job that suits your passion.

I do like the phrase ‘be so good they can’t ignore you’ however. I find it gives me some additional drive to keep working at my skills, and that there is always room for improvement. Especially when you realise the scope of talented individuals working in your field, there is no room to plateau and disregard improvement and innovation in your practise.

Week 2 | Opportunities and Trends in The Global Entertainment Industries
Chris Lederer & Megan Brownlow, ‘’A World of Differences’: Special Report: Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2016-2020’. Price Waterhouse Cooper

The second week’s reading left me very confused and I felt as if I didn’t absorb much of the information. It was far more business orientated than what I am usually accustomed to. I found the part about the sales of physical music media quite interesting, as the data fluctuates between countries so heavily. Additionally, the fact that one singular artist such as Adele (via CD sales) could influence this statistic is particularly interesting.

The newer technologies seem like the easiest way to move forward, yet this statistic skewed by what the market is most accustomed to. This is similar to I, and many people born at a similar time feel-both technologies are available, and we are capable of operating both, but it comes down to personal choice about what is more preferable.

The reading primarily looked at ‘Entertainment and Media’, and the key trends affecting this on an international scale. There were a number of factors displayed, often within the same graph. Interestingly, the countries that had the biggest increased spending of E&M (in relation to GDP) were often the least developed, with Venezuela and Argentina topping the graph and US, Japan and Australia at the other end of the scale.

This report didn’t have a huge amount of relevance to what I studying or interested in, but in a broader sense it is always a positive to be aware of the larger situation. As somebody who is interested in travelling overseas to work, this piece is a good place to start to think about the wider implications and developments of technologies and media.