Finding Time in a Digital Age
Judy Wajcman

Ahhhh, my everyday life struggles of literally not having enough time in a day to do anything.

“So much to do, so little time” So. Damn. Applicable.

In an age and society (and particularly generation) that finds themselves constantly on the go, it genuinely is almost impossible to completely switch off from technology and work. Where you may be physically switched off, majority of the time mentally you’ll be running through work and keeping up socially.

I know for me, the first thing I do when I wake up is to check my phone, which sleeps under my pillow (I know, I know, very bad) for any texts / emails / social media notifications. Then I’ll brush my teeth and catch up on Kim, Kendall, Kylie, Kourtney, and Khloe’s Snapchat stories (work outs, applying music, mouthing along to lyrics, promoting Lip Kits), I’ll then drive to the bus stop, hop on the bus and go straight for instagram…. and so the cycle continues, including twitter and facebook. From early in the morning till at least midnight I am constantly switched on, I think my off button may be broken at this point. How very pathetic (I am very updated in the likes of pop culture, though).

So, really, is there such a thing as anyone being switched off anymore?

In this article, Wajcman contends that technology has the capability of reconfiguring time and that we need to recognise that time is a man-made creation. Although these machines were created to save time and make work production more efficient, the opposite has in fact occurred. Where computers were created to free up time and leave room for more leisure in our day, our lives are now based on this blurred line of work and play, because all this time saving technology has infiltrated our home lives. As a result of this, pretty much all of us now have the opportunity to work from home and design our own work hours (goodbye 9 to 5). So, technically, they can work as little, but more commonly, as much as they desire.

It is becoming increasingly prominent, this addiction and attachment to technology. Its foundations are indeed phenomenal, but the repercussions are infiltrating society. Goodbye to family dinners with open communication and conversation, kids no longer understand the joy of coming home from school, grabbing a snack and going outside to play with the other kids in the street — they now only know their phones and tablets and the apps they can download. It’s been noticed that there’s a general anxiety developing when these phones and tablets are taken away and — to me — that’s an incredibly distressing trend…

Another thing I enjoyed and agreed with in this article was the discussion of the difference in generations in regard to work, and how far more often these days people are working late (usually unpaid) and have a stronger attachment to work then their own personal leisure. And this, for the most part, is due to the fact we live in a world with such a competitive job market and there is now a pressure to perform better, to be better, and in turn to sacrifice those little joys in life.