This week reading on Finding Time in a Digital Age by Judy Wajcman discusses how we do not have the leisure time especially in today’s fast-paced lifestyle. It is said that the “future”, the one we are living now was supposed to give us more leisure time and lesser working days since technology has advanced to produce things faster. However, in today’s world, we are more occupied with our work than ever and little free time to enjoy. We become so busy at work that we chased time to complete instead of enjoying the time we have. Wajcman also touches on gender issues such as women having to balance work and leisure which includes taking care of the family. Also, how women are not considered in the research development for technology. Technology may have made us to work faster but at the same time we still rely on technology as a form of leisure and also manage our time effectively. Technology will continue to advance in the future with the invention such as self-driving cars, future kitchen and etc. In conclusion, we will have to make time for ourselves even when there will be more technology integrating our lives.
I agree with Wajcman that we need to let ourselves find the time to enjoy and relax. Technology and work seem to control our life. I feel that we are allowed to wind down and have a slow living for a moment. Wajcman mentioned that “speed and slow down have always coexisted in modernity”. We should learn how to balance a fast-paced and relax life so that we will be able to control our time better than time controlling us.
Wajcman, Judy. (2015). ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’; Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, ch7. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
