What do you think?
Rate this book
Esclavos del tiempo. Vidas aceleradas en la era del capitalismo digital
La imagen de un individuo hiperconectado y adicto a su iPhone es recurrente. La mayoría de nosotros se queja de que no hay suficientes horas en el día y de que tenemos demasiados correos en nuestras bandejas de entrada. La idea ampliamente extendida de que la vida va cada vez más rápida de lo que solía ha germinado en nuestra cultura. Pero ¿no debería la tecnología hacernos la vida más fácil?
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2014
About the author
Judy Wajcman
18 books21 followersJudy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 7, 2023
Insieme ma soli
Obiettivo di Wajcman in questo testo è indagare il cambiamento che sta investendo la natura del tempo come entità sociomateriale e soggetta al fenomeno incontrollabile della accelerazione e alla spinta trasformativa dell'innovazione tecnologica. Contro alcune credenze, si afferma che il tempo libero oggi non è in decremento, ma aumentato: le finalità teoriche e sperimentali qui esposte cercano di ottenere uno sviluppo della qualità del tempo. Si sottolinea che oggi avere una vita indaffarata, piena di impegni, è segno di prestigio, ma in realtà costituisce l'approdo a una dimensione di tempo senza tempo o di un tempo istantaneo e policronico, dove a essere più intensamente percepita è la pressione temporale e la sensazione di disorganizzazione temporale.
Lo spazio di flussi (merci, persone, denaro, informazioni, comunicazioni), spiega Wajcman seguendo le tracce di Simmel prima e di Castells poi, divide la singola esistenza nella simultaneità di più vite contemporanee e, in conseguenza, nell'ubiqua ricerca dell'eterno e dell'effimero: il tempo viene talmente compresso e frammentato e sottoposto ad agency, cioè a una intenzionalità, da avvicinarsi alla sparizione.
Detto in altri termini, la velocità e la connettività costante, che sono caratteri della misurazione sociotecnica del tempo, fondano per le nostre relazioni plurigamma, cioè professionali e affettive e sociali in senso lato, una partecipazione corrispondente alla affordance della tecnologia sociale, con le anomalie e le patologie che questa aspettativa percettiva comporta. L'approccio della studiosa autrice di questo volume si ispira alla teoria del modellamento sociale e vuole mettere in dubbio l'idea che la tecnologia sia imputabile dell'accelerazione (nel lavoro, nel tempo libero, nella genitorialità); sostiene invece che le trasformazioni radicali riguardano i nostri modelli sociali, la composizione delle famiglie, la natura di ciò che è inerente alla valutazione del concetto di lavoro.
In conclusione, questo libro pone l'interrogativo se l'accelerazione sia una figura adeguata per rappresentare e comprendere la nostra attuale sensibilità nella relazione con il tempo: non siamo forse pressati dal tempo, ma disorientati; non capiamo in quale tempo stiamo vivendo, questo potrebbe essere il problema. Le categorie di velocità e accelerazione, naturalmente associate a idee di progresso e produttività, non sono adeguate a fornire un linguaggio appropriato, per formulare immagini e nozioni davvero nuove su come possiamo valorizzare il tempo stesso e la relativa tecnologia a nostro vantaggio.
Obiettivo di Wajcman in questo testo è indagare il cambiamento che sta investendo la natura del tempo come entità sociomateriale e soggetta al fenomeno incontrollabile della accelerazione e alla spinta trasformativa dell'innovazione tecnologica. Contro alcune credenze, si afferma che il tempo libero oggi non è in decremento, ma aumentato: le finalità teoriche e sperimentali qui esposte cercano di ottenere uno sviluppo della qualità del tempo. Si sottolinea che oggi avere una vita indaffarata, piena di impegni, è segno di prestigio, ma in realtà costituisce l'approdo a una dimensione di tempo senza tempo o di un tempo istantaneo e policronico, dove a essere più intensamente percepita è la pressione temporale e la sensazione di disorganizzazione temporale.
Lo spazio di flussi (merci, persone, denaro, informazioni, comunicazioni), spiega Wajcman seguendo le tracce di Simmel prima e di Castells poi, divide la singola esistenza nella simultaneità di più vite contemporanee e, in conseguenza, nell'ubiqua ricerca dell'eterno e dell'effimero: il tempo viene talmente compresso e frammentato e sottoposto ad agency, cioè a una intenzionalità, da avvicinarsi alla sparizione.
Detto in altri termini, la velocità e la connettività costante, che sono caratteri della misurazione sociotecnica del tempo, fondano per le nostre relazioni plurigamma, cioè professionali e affettive e sociali in senso lato, una partecipazione corrispondente alla affordance della tecnologia sociale, con le anomalie e le patologie che questa aspettativa percettiva comporta. L'approccio della studiosa autrice di questo volume si ispira alla teoria del modellamento sociale e vuole mettere in dubbio l'idea che la tecnologia sia imputabile dell'accelerazione (nel lavoro, nel tempo libero, nella genitorialità); sostiene invece che le trasformazioni radicali riguardano i nostri modelli sociali, la composizione delle famiglie, la natura di ciò che è inerente alla valutazione del concetto di lavoro.
In conclusione, questo libro pone l'interrogativo se l'accelerazione sia una figura adeguata per rappresentare e comprendere la nostra attuale sensibilità nella relazione con il tempo: non siamo forse pressati dal tempo, ma disorientati; non capiamo in quale tempo stiamo vivendo, questo potrebbe essere il problema. Le categorie di velocità e accelerazione, naturalmente associate a idee di progresso e produttività, non sono adeguate a fornire un linguaggio appropriato, per formulare immagini e nozioni davvero nuove su come possiamo valorizzare il tempo stesso e la relativa tecnologia a nostro vantaggio.
September 25, 2026
she annoyed me. how are you saying the same thing over 184 pages? also why is she so positive, the world is ending
July 9, 2021
I came into this book hoping for the usual techno-luddite manifesto that convinces me that i’m living in the most catastrophic time in history etc etc etc, but instead i found a level-headed argument with alot of challenging well-though-out rebuttals to the usual paranoia.
+paradox: globally on average people are actually working slightly less, yet everyone complains of not having enough time. Despite accelerated culture, we are more sedentary than ever sitting infront of our computers.
+introducing time-saving tech like washing machines dont end up making us spend less time on rote tasks. Instead they raise the expectations for how ‘maintained’ your life should be. In turn, global power consumption keeps going up with the standards of living.
+capitalist culture has more to do with erosion of work life balance than tech itself. There are higher expectations today to be busy all the time, to spend more time with your kids, to have a productive hobby, to always respond to email, etc
+digital detoxes and tech-bro phone-free retreats create a false dichotomy between either being connected or not being connected. You cant escape tech entirely; the amount of good it does usually outweighs the bad for the average person.
+mobile phones can be - shock - GOOD for teens creating their own identity. Evidence is scant on phones being detrimental for young people.
+feeling time pressed involves feeling like you don’t have control over your leisure, as opposed to how much leisure time you have.
One thing i think the book is missing is how software is used for the benefit of corporations in obviously nefarious ways. Social media getting gamified with slot machine strategies; max-attention-grabber-algorithms getting built into news feeds - obviously these things are going to change the way we communicate for the worst.
Take it from someone who studied marketing strategies - you can’t totally separate late capitalism from technology.
Almost half of this book i err on the side of disagreement with. The strength of the book is the overly academic lines of argument it follows, which is a decidedly less fun way to write a book than making broad sweeping statements about society being in decline. Essentially its a good counterbalance to all the doomsday headlines that typically occupy this segment of tech talk. Worth a skim for the last few chapters alone.
+paradox: globally on average people are actually working slightly less, yet everyone complains of not having enough time. Despite accelerated culture, we are more sedentary than ever sitting infront of our computers.
+introducing time-saving tech like washing machines dont end up making us spend less time on rote tasks. Instead they raise the expectations for how ‘maintained’ your life should be. In turn, global power consumption keeps going up with the standards of living.
+capitalist culture has more to do with erosion of work life balance than tech itself. There are higher expectations today to be busy all the time, to spend more time with your kids, to have a productive hobby, to always respond to email, etc
+digital detoxes and tech-bro phone-free retreats create a false dichotomy between either being connected or not being connected. You cant escape tech entirely; the amount of good it does usually outweighs the bad for the average person.
+mobile phones can be - shock - GOOD for teens creating their own identity. Evidence is scant on phones being detrimental for young people.
+feeling time pressed involves feeling like you don’t have control over your leisure, as opposed to how much leisure time you have.
One thing i think the book is missing is how software is used for the benefit of corporations in obviously nefarious ways. Social media getting gamified with slot machine strategies; max-attention-grabber-algorithms getting built into news feeds - obviously these things are going to change the way we communicate for the worst.
Take it from someone who studied marketing strategies - you can’t totally separate late capitalism from technology.
Almost half of this book i err on the side of disagreement with. The strength of the book is the overly academic lines of argument it follows, which is a decidedly less fun way to write a book than making broad sweeping statements about society being in decline. Essentially its a good counterbalance to all the doomsday headlines that typically occupy this segment of tech talk. Worth a skim for the last few chapters alone.
January 18, 2015
Do I blame technology for making my life busier? I asked myself the question few pages through ‘Pressed for Time’. If your answer is yes, this compelling analysis of the technology / life acceleration paradox will challenge your assumption. In contrast with the technological determinism thesis – that digital acceleration impinges on social change and thus accelerates the pace of life – this book demonstrates that contemporary experiences of hurriedness are determined by a culture which has itself appropriated digital technologies as the symbol of an accelerated pace of life. For instance, the writer explores the cultural meanings of leisure and busyness, discussing the shift whereby speed and productivity have today become to be regarded with prestige and recognition. As a result, it would be misleading to blame digital technologies alone for making our lives busier.
I found this book very accessible. The style is always engaging and reads clear. While I was already familiar with the Science and Technology Studies literature, the many historical accounts discussed made me reflect on the most unnoticed technologically mediated experiences in our daily lives. Past and contemporary academic debates are unfolded and complemented by the author’s own empirical research. For instance, analysing the use of mobile phones for work and leisure, the book demonstrates how these devices can enhance our time sovereignty and afford new spaces for connectedness and intimacy. Wholesale condemnation of the presumably negative effects of mobile devices is rejected. Instead, the writer argues, they ‘reconfigure the temporal and spatial dynamics of how people think and act’. Questions of time acceleration must therefore be answered by the politics of a culture permeated with social and economic inequalities. Mixing wit with empirical evidence the author convincingly dismantles common assumptions about time acceleration, the (not so) ‘inevitable’ consequence of technological developments in contemporary life.
I found this book very accessible. The style is always engaging and reads clear. While I was already familiar with the Science and Technology Studies literature, the many historical accounts discussed made me reflect on the most unnoticed technologically mediated experiences in our daily lives. Past and contemporary academic debates are unfolded and complemented by the author’s own empirical research. For instance, analysing the use of mobile phones for work and leisure, the book demonstrates how these devices can enhance our time sovereignty and afford new spaces for connectedness and intimacy. Wholesale condemnation of the presumably negative effects of mobile devices is rejected. Instead, the writer argues, they ‘reconfigure the temporal and spatial dynamics of how people think and act’. Questions of time acceleration must therefore be answered by the politics of a culture permeated with social and economic inequalities. Mixing wit with empirical evidence the author convincingly dismantles common assumptions about time acceleration, the (not so) ‘inevitable’ consequence of technological developments in contemporary life.
December 29, 2024
If it’s so intellectually written that I can’t make sense of what it’s saying, then who was this written for?
March 6, 2019
Very accessible STS approach to time that tries to pivot away from "crisis" narrative of time acceleration to look at intimacy within ICTs and how temporal acceleration is also dependent on "slowness". I particularly appreciated her arguments about temporal disorganization - how people being on different time schemes creates the feeling of less time.
March 3, 2018
In 'Pressed for Time', Judy Wajcman asks the crucial question: "If technology's goal is to automate much of our daily chores so that we have more leisure time, why is it that we still feel harried?" In her book (which is styled more like a thesis), Wajcman meticulously analyzes various aspects of our daily lives through the lens of a sociologist. Furthermore, she uses extensive technology jargon and examples to illustrate her point that we live in an 'acceleration society', one in which technological advancements and scarcity of time grows simultaneously. Such is the world we live in, and it is important to be mindful of this effect. I for one will definitely be more aware about my phone-checking and email-checking habits...
September 8, 2019
Вайсман довольно убедительно (но очень сухо) доказывает, что технический прогресс идет нам на пользу, а ваше ощущение якобы бешеной гонки крайне субъективно. Впрочем, последнего она не утверждает, но этот вывод маячит за каждой главой этой книги. Мне кажется важным, что она рассматривает гендерный аспект как досуга, так и домашнего труда; пишет о преимуществах новых технологий, вместо того чтобы видеть в них зло.
Иными словами: если вы стали рабами своих гаджетов, гаджеты в этом не виноваты.
Иными словами: если вы стали рабами своих гаджетов, гаджеты в этом не виноваты.
September 19, 2023
3.5
Bra kursbok och lätt att förstå, första halvan av boken klicka typ och fanns mycket relevanta saker när de kmr till Harmut Rosa-ish accelerationsanalys men andra halvan, esp kapitlen om digital youth o annan vardaglg digitalisering är lite outdated såhär 8 år efter, dessutom typ mega defensivt? och kanske inte jätterelevant för just mitt intresseområde men overall utöver det a great read🙏🏼
Bra kursbok och lätt att förstå, första halvan av boken klicka typ och fanns mycket relevanta saker när de kmr till Harmut Rosa-ish accelerationsanalys men andra halvan, esp kapitlen om digital youth o annan vardaglg digitalisering är lite outdated såhär 8 år efter, dessutom typ mega defensivt? och kanske inte jätterelevant för just mitt intresseområde men overall utöver det a great read🙏🏼
February 4, 2026
"... this accessible and engaging book ..." Ehm, no. Just no. Extremely academic and in-accessible? Oh, yes. It definitely has interesting facts, thoughts, and ideas. You just have to work really hard to find them.
November 1, 2021
As someone whose life's work has explored the gendered nature of technology, Wajcman turns her attention to investigating the relationship between feeling harried in our lives and technological innovation – seeing if technology really is to blame. Naturally, her feminist reading is full of words like 'colonizing' to describe time constraints that seem more like an ideological superimposition than accurate assessment. All the same, she argues that technology evolves dialectically with material culture as opposed to the technological determinism many suspect. In this sense, while technology can be suggestive of how it should be used, people often discover other uses for it. She demonstrates that technology is multi-valanced, as the same devices that contribute to feeling rushed also save us time.
Ultimately, Wajcman concludes that smart phones do not contribute to feeling pressed for time. However, since the study was conducted, the social media landscape has growth tremendously and is rife with attention-captivating mechanisms that greatly eclipses the simple calling and texting she discusses. Further, in her example of Australian companies rife with interruptions, she argues that such disruptions are built into the expectations and workload of employees. This is markedly different than what I have experienced at multiple companies with open floor plans and daily client demands. Technologies like Slack and Teams, tools designed to assist in communication and collaboration, do just that but also enable tremendous disruption that compounds stress and turns the day into a revolving door of fire drills that force employees to stay at work later.
The so-called time paradox of feeling pressed for time yet having more time isn't unfounded, as Wacjman suggests. Indeed, she argues that technological innovations often do not actually save us time but just change how we use it. For example, with the invention of the washing machine and dryer, she argues that the same amount of time is spent cleaning except – only the rate at which laundry is done changes. Another example is the economic accessibility of cars, which allow people to live further from where they work but don't actually alter the commute time; rather, they cars make it allowable to live further away to maintain a given commute. Despite such examples, Wacjman fails to sufficiently scrutinize the phenomenology of time – why it's experienced as accelerated. Why does it feel like there is so much more to do? It's not simply YOLO culture – surprisingly left out of the book – but the information overload, paradox of choice and decision paralysis, and other postmodern phenomena that remain unaddressed that unfortunately leave her book feeling rather incomplete.
Ultimately, Wajcman concludes that smart phones do not contribute to feeling pressed for time. However, since the study was conducted, the social media landscape has growth tremendously and is rife with attention-captivating mechanisms that greatly eclipses the simple calling and texting she discusses. Further, in her example of Australian companies rife with interruptions, she argues that such disruptions are built into the expectations and workload of employees. This is markedly different than what I have experienced at multiple companies with open floor plans and daily client demands. Technologies like Slack and Teams, tools designed to assist in communication and collaboration, do just that but also enable tremendous disruption that compounds stress and turns the day into a revolving door of fire drills that force employees to stay at work later.
The so-called time paradox of feeling pressed for time yet having more time isn't unfounded, as Wacjman suggests. Indeed, she argues that technological innovations often do not actually save us time but just change how we use it. For example, with the invention of the washing machine and dryer, she argues that the same amount of time is spent cleaning except – only the rate at which laundry is done changes. Another example is the economic accessibility of cars, which allow people to live further from where they work but don't actually alter the commute time; rather, they cars make it allowable to live further away to maintain a given commute. Despite such examples, Wacjman fails to sufficiently scrutinize the phenomenology of time – why it's experienced as accelerated. Why does it feel like there is so much more to do? It's not simply YOLO culture – surprisingly left out of the book – but the information overload, paradox of choice and decision paralysis, and other postmodern phenomena that remain unaddressed that unfortunately leave her book feeling rather incomplete.
December 6, 2020
I didn’t care for Pressed for Time. The reasons for this are a) it’s a sociology book and sociological language obfuscates a point beyond all layperson understanding; b) it has a few good points to say but can’t say them effectively. I guess that’s really the same reason.
Wajcman notes the invention of the telegraph as the first time information can travel faster than humans, which is a fascinating distinction. Past this point (and somewhat before this point) technology is generally defined as an innovation that makes an action faster. A train gets you to San Francisco faster than horses and trains demand a consolidation of time. You have to be on the platform at 8:19, or at least by the time the train departs at 8:21, or you won’t be going to San Francisco today.
I wish Wajcman would have delved more into a historical understanding of time. I can imagine that ancient peoples may have understood time as cyclical—stuff like “spring comes every year”. Day follows night, the moon waxes and wanes every 28 days, there is a time for planting and a time for harvesting. We tend to forget a lot of this stuff, especially in our unusual year where our typical delineations of time don’t apply.
The other thing I wish Wajcman had touched on more was what the acceleration of time is doing to our brains. In chapter 4, she details a study about time spent on “episodes” during a workday—essentially, time spent focusing on a single thing. 90% of these are 10 minutes or less. I’d like to read a Walter Ong-like book about the human capacity for concentration and focus in our modern era. It’s far more difficult than writing and orality, but worthy of discussion, I think. In everything from the four-minute segments of Sesame Street to the 30-second read of a tweet, our minds are constantly encouraged—if not demanded—to shift focus to something else. It becomes hard to sit down and focus on a book for an hour at a time.
Wajcman notes the invention of the telegraph as the first time information can travel faster than humans, which is a fascinating distinction. Past this point (and somewhat before this point) technology is generally defined as an innovation that makes an action faster. A train gets you to San Francisco faster than horses and trains demand a consolidation of time. You have to be on the platform at 8:19, or at least by the time the train departs at 8:21, or you won’t be going to San Francisco today.
I wish Wajcman would have delved more into a historical understanding of time. I can imagine that ancient peoples may have understood time as cyclical—stuff like “spring comes every year”. Day follows night, the moon waxes and wanes every 28 days, there is a time for planting and a time for harvesting. We tend to forget a lot of this stuff, especially in our unusual year where our typical delineations of time don’t apply.
The other thing I wish Wajcman had touched on more was what the acceleration of time is doing to our brains. In chapter 4, she details a study about time spent on “episodes” during a workday—essentially, time spent focusing on a single thing. 90% of these are 10 minutes or less. I’d like to read a Walter Ong-like book about the human capacity for concentration and focus in our modern era. It’s far more difficult than writing and orality, but worthy of discussion, I think. In everything from the four-minute segments of Sesame Street to the 30-second read of a tweet, our minds are constantly encouraged—if not demanded—to shift focus to something else. It becomes hard to sit down and focus on a book for an hour at a time.
April 18, 2015
I wound up skimming this. It read like a research paper and there wasn't enough to keep my engaged. Pieces were interesting; I think it just wasn't what I was looking for.
I think I was hoping more for strategies on dealing with the acceleration of life. Which to be fair, wasn't what the book was intended to be about.
It was an interesting idea that it isn't tech's fault that we have time stress. Which I suppose is true - tech is just a tool.
I think I was hoping more for strategies on dealing with the acceleration of life. Which to be fair, wasn't what the book was intended to be about.
It was an interesting idea that it isn't tech's fault that we have time stress. Which I suppose is true - tech is just a tool.
September 18, 2015
So academic as to be both uninteresting and unreadable -- or perhaps rather: there may have been some insights here, but they were so buried in poststructuralist syntax that it wasn't worth the effort to dig them out.
February 21, 2024
Too far above my reading level
June 11, 2025
Read more like a thesis than I was expecting. Contained some interesting ideas, but I wish it was less academic in its language.
January 8, 2019
I like to "stay on top of things" with my calendars, tasks list, scheduled reminders, and such, so it has been somewhat hard for me turn off notifications for my work emails even though I am out of the office on break. I tell myself, I am only seeing it pop up to have a heads-up, but I don't have to do anything about it until I get back. Then, I was replying to a slack chat when my coworker chided me in capital letters that I need to stop. I felt caught/embarrassed, then I felt a great amount of appreciation that I currently belong to an office culture that values the "work/life balance," given where I came from before.
That same day at the library, I began reading this book about the acceleration of life in digital capitalism, which is so much of what I need to kick off 2019, especially to ease my harried state of being that dominated the first half of 2018. It was not inaccessibly academically written at all, but it depends where you are coming from. I am thinking of redundant, jargon-heavy prose styles. Judy Wajcman reinforced the highlight in this one post that Daviel [Shy] wrote, that I framed and hung on the wall next to my writing desk, which is: "The personal sovereignty I have over my time, without a full-time job, kids or school is my most precious resource." Being reminded of this encourages me to protect my time even more, and I can feel it so much more instinctively now when to say "NO" to projects that I don't feel 100% about taking on. Omg!
Also: shout out to Toggl, a tool I looove using to track my time doing work and certain personal projects. I would have liked more exploration at the bottom of page 165 on how this kind of practice allows us to take control of our time. Since I am optimistic and think I can accomplish things in way less time, I end up allocating shorter time for things that take longer to complete, and get super stressed out later near when it's due. Interested to hear more on people who buffer way too much time as well, like my mom will have groceries and a dentist appointment and she'll reference it as an all-day project <.<
I took some notes in my journal throughout reading this=====>
- "[The] important things in life can't be quantified, timed, measured, or accelerated." (viii)
- time-pressure paradox: disconnect between amount of free time available to us vs. contemporary feelings of harriedness
- "conflicting temporal regimes that require coordination" (5)
- weird pronoun reference to "he" (8)
- Robert Hassan: digitally compressed network time, oriented toward pure speed, colonizes all other realms of life, LEAVING NO TIME FOR READING, REFLECTION, AND RESISTANCE (25)
- timekeeping is an essential and habitual activity that traces back to the institutionalization of "clock time" under capitalism (37) except that it also dates back even before then by this little boy on a farm somewhere who kept a timetable of his day
- the pace became more important than the destination (40)
- obedience to the clock (41)
- the way punctuality is taught in schools by awarding certificates for attendance // also like how when we respond quickly to an email, we get praised by the recipient, which teaches us to do it again
- ideological nub of progress is its impatience with the way things are, that human good lies in the struggle for improvement (44)
- there was a whole chapter on the speed of vehicles and the irony/frustration of traffic jams (the drive to save time = counterproductive)
- "For busyness to be visible, external behavior, it needs to be reflected in long hours of paid work." (72)
- "The professionals who survived job cuts & conversions to contingent/contract employment end up working longer hours to ensure their job security and promotion. It demonstrates commitment and ambition." (72)
- Time as measured by a ticking clock is not able to capture our quotidian experience of multiple/overlapping temporalities.
- The same flexibility that gives high-end workers more autonomy is also the same that gives low-end workers more job precariousness in the form of contract and fixed-time work.
- why email is pointed as the main problem source: paradox of stress/loss of control yet allows you to feel in control as you mark each one as read; #fomo; accruing sociomaterials. (96)
- routine housework is never complete (118)
- Internet of Things: this vision of domestic life celebrates technology and its transformative power at the expense of home as a lived and living practice (130)
- "We are in danger of conflating caring as a behavior with caring as a feeling—machines can take care of us, but they do not care about us." (133)
- Re: phones colonizing personal time with work, it's not entirely true, which matches up with what Claire Evans was saying. People use technology to socialize/hang out more than do work. (143)
That same day at the library, I began reading this book about the acceleration of life in digital capitalism, which is so much of what I need to kick off 2019, especially to ease my harried state of being that dominated the first half of 2018. It was not inaccessibly academically written at all, but it depends where you are coming from. I am thinking of redundant, jargon-heavy prose styles. Judy Wajcman reinforced the highlight in this one post that Daviel [Shy] wrote, that I framed and hung on the wall next to my writing desk, which is: "The personal sovereignty I have over my time, without a full-time job, kids or school is my most precious resource." Being reminded of this encourages me to protect my time even more, and I can feel it so much more instinctively now when to say "NO" to projects that I don't feel 100% about taking on. Omg!
Also: shout out to Toggl, a tool I looove using to track my time doing work and certain personal projects. I would have liked more exploration at the bottom of page 165 on how this kind of practice allows us to take control of our time. Since I am optimistic and think I can accomplish things in way less time, I end up allocating shorter time for things that take longer to complete, and get super stressed out later near when it's due. Interested to hear more on people who buffer way too much time as well, like my mom will have groceries and a dentist appointment and she'll reference it as an all-day project <.<
I took some notes in my journal throughout reading this=====>
- "[The] important things in life can't be quantified, timed, measured, or accelerated." (viii)
- time-pressure paradox: disconnect between amount of free time available to us vs. contemporary feelings of harriedness
- "conflicting temporal regimes that require coordination" (5)
- weird pronoun reference to "he" (8)
- Robert Hassan: digitally compressed network time, oriented toward pure speed, colonizes all other realms of life, LEAVING NO TIME FOR READING, REFLECTION, AND RESISTANCE (25)
- timekeeping is an essential and habitual activity that traces back to the institutionalization of "clock time" under capitalism (37) except that it also dates back even before then by this little boy on a farm somewhere who kept a timetable of his day
- the pace became more important than the destination (40)
- obedience to the clock (41)
- the way punctuality is taught in schools by awarding certificates for attendance // also like how when we respond quickly to an email, we get praised by the recipient, which teaches us to do it again
- ideological nub of progress is its impatience with the way things are, that human good lies in the struggle for improvement (44)
- there was a whole chapter on the speed of vehicles and the irony/frustration of traffic jams (the drive to save time = counterproductive)
- "For busyness to be visible, external behavior, it needs to be reflected in long hours of paid work." (72)
- "The professionals who survived job cuts & conversions to contingent/contract employment end up working longer hours to ensure their job security and promotion. It demonstrates commitment and ambition." (72)
- Time as measured by a ticking clock is not able to capture our quotidian experience of multiple/overlapping temporalities.
- The same flexibility that gives high-end workers more autonomy is also the same that gives low-end workers more job precariousness in the form of contract and fixed-time work.
- why email is pointed as the main problem source: paradox of stress/loss of control yet allows you to feel in control as you mark each one as read; #fomo; accruing sociomaterials. (96)
- routine housework is never complete (118)
- Internet of Things: this vision of domestic life celebrates technology and its transformative power at the expense of home as a lived and living practice (130)
- "We are in danger of conflating caring as a behavior with caring as a feeling—machines can take care of us, but they do not care about us." (133)
- Re: phones colonizing personal time with work, it's not entirely true, which matches up with what Claire Evans was saying. People use technology to socialize/hang out more than do work. (143)
March 30, 2018
¿Por qué la gente está cada vez más agobiada? ¿De dónde viene esa acelaración que percibimos a nuestro alrededor? Si alguna vez te has hecho preguntas de este tipo "Pressed for time" es un libro que puede ser muy interesante.
Escrito por Judy Wajcman, profesora del London School of Economics, el libro es académico de principio a fin, haciendo referencias a otros trabajos y autores y con más de un "palabro". Pero a pesar de estar escrito como una tesis doctoral y de ser una lectura algo difícil, "Pressed for time" contiene datos muy interesantes que invitan a pensar y reflexionar (siempre digo que si un libro ayuda a pensar, bienvenido sea).
El tema central es que, como muchas otras cosas en la naturaleza humana, hay contradicciones en cómo percibimos y gestionamos el tiempo: sí, la gente se queja de tener "menos tiempo" pero, si se analizan los datos de los EE.UU, la jornada laboral media (este dato es importante) apenas ha aumentado 15m en los últimos 40 años. Por otro lado nos quejamos de falta de tiempo pero se admira a la gente que trabaja mucho y sale a las tantas de la mañana (en España somos campeones de eso). Decimos que la tecnología nos agobia (el famoso debate sobre contestar correos fuera de horario de oficina), pero la realidad es que los smartphone nos permiten estar más conectados que antes con amigos y familiares. Otro (y muy importante) debate es cómo son ahora esas relaciones.
El libro "toca muchos palos": el entorno laboral, las nuevas relaciones familiares y de pareja, la influencia de la tecnología... Para l@s que les guste pensar cómo evoluciona la sociedad este libro es una buena recomendación.
Escrito por Judy Wajcman, profesora del London School of Economics, el libro es académico de principio a fin, haciendo referencias a otros trabajos y autores y con más de un "palabro". Pero a pesar de estar escrito como una tesis doctoral y de ser una lectura algo difícil, "Pressed for time" contiene datos muy interesantes que invitan a pensar y reflexionar (siempre digo que si un libro ayuda a pensar, bienvenido sea).
El tema central es que, como muchas otras cosas en la naturaleza humana, hay contradicciones en cómo percibimos y gestionamos el tiempo: sí, la gente se queja de tener "menos tiempo" pero, si se analizan los datos de los EE.UU, la jornada laboral media (este dato es importante) apenas ha aumentado 15m en los últimos 40 años. Por otro lado nos quejamos de falta de tiempo pero se admira a la gente que trabaja mucho y sale a las tantas de la mañana (en España somos campeones de eso). Decimos que la tecnología nos agobia (el famoso debate sobre contestar correos fuera de horario de oficina), pero la realidad es que los smartphone nos permiten estar más conectados que antes con amigos y familiares. Otro (y muy importante) debate es cómo son ahora esas relaciones.
El libro "toca muchos palos": el entorno laboral, las nuevas relaciones familiares y de pareja, la influencia de la tecnología... Para l@s que les guste pensar cómo evoluciona la sociedad este libro es una buena recomendación.
July 30, 2017
Very quick run through this book and not totally agree with the author. For most of people who are heavily using smart phone to contact with others yes, your time will never be enough, because it's part of your social life. All the social media, all your friends are on line, you feel excluded if you don't catch up. That is your problem, not the technology. For me, social media is not to make friends, what for to have all these digital friends whom you might never meet? For me, social media is a tool to let my family and real friends know i am still alive, that's all. I get back to the real knowledge learning without staying on FB to click like all over. Imagine all year round, how much time you waste on pleasing people who are not even important for you just by clicking likes or commenting shit on line. You could use it better to read a book, audio book or digital book, listening to some useful lectures instead of posting garbage stupid stuff on line.
If your time is pressed, that is because you are not using it efficiently, bragging people's attention on line with your "fake happy life photos" like all the young people do.
Technology has given me a lot of benefice, it provides me uncountable access of information on line like youtube, knowledge websites. You need to know what kind of place, what kind of people you want to spend time with so you won't end up wasting your time for no learning anything.
Time is so precious. I know this book through FB page where people share books. Use well technology, then pressed time became you double time.
If your time is pressed, that is because you are not using it efficiently, bragging people's attention on line with your "fake happy life photos" like all the young people do.
Technology has given me a lot of benefice, it provides me uncountable access of information on line like youtube, knowledge websites. You need to know what kind of place, what kind of people you want to spend time with so you won't end up wasting your time for no learning anything.
Time is so precious. I know this book through FB page where people share books. Use well technology, then pressed time became you double time.
December 23, 2022
"The question posed by this book is whether acceleration is an adequate trope for understanding our emerging relationship to time. Rather than being endemically pressed for time, perhaps we are confused about what time we are living in.
Part of the problem may be that the categories of speed and acceleration, and their association with progress, productivity and efficiency, do not provide us with the appropriate language to formulate fresh ideas about how we might leverage the digital infrastructure ... Too often, however, critical reflections on the impact of digital devices are framed negatively, as if we are victims of a “crisis” that needs correction. Such readings make it difficult to formulate an alternative politics of time (and in particular a gendered time politics) which cannot be separated from either the emergence of digitalization, or its entanglement with the shifting temporalities of social life." (183-4)
Part of the problem may be that the categories of speed and acceleration, and their association with progress, productivity and efficiency, do not provide us with the appropriate language to formulate fresh ideas about how we might leverage the digital infrastructure ... Too often, however, critical reflections on the impact of digital devices are framed negatively, as if we are victims of a “crisis” that needs correction. Such readings make it difficult to formulate an alternative politics of time (and in particular a gendered time politics) which cannot be separated from either the emergence of digitalization, or its entanglement with the shifting temporalities of social life." (183-4)
December 27, 2023
Great book that asks the question whether time pressure felt by people is due to technological progress. Short answer- no it is more of a reflection of our current day society which is obsessed with busyness at work and being able to cram more things into the day. This book mirrors alot of the things I've mentioned in my book The Flexibility Paradox- where I explore today's work, work life balance, gender and leisure culture through the lens of flexible working. Here the author uses the lens of technology instead. However similar conclusions are made. We need a serious reflection on the way we live our lives
June 27, 2025
Non posso dire che questo libro mi abbia tenuto incollato alle pagine o che aspettassi con trepidazione il momento per riaprirlo. Il tema è interessante, però richiede l'impegno che non ci si aspetta da un semplice libro di divulgazione, quanto più quello previsto per un manuale universitario.
Vorrei ricordare qui il delirio finale in cui secondo l'autrice i giovani sono giustificati a sfruttare arbitrariamente le nuove tecnologie perchè pensano più velocemente dei vecchi. Con l'immagine di una figlia che mentre "accudisce" la madre catatonica scrolla il telefono. Tutto giusto.
Vorrei ricordare qui il delirio finale in cui secondo l'autrice i giovani sono giustificati a sfruttare arbitrariamente le nuove tecnologie perchè pensano più velocemente dei vecchi. Con l'immagine di una figlia che mentre "accudisce" la madre catatonica scrolla il telefono. Tutto giusto.
March 3, 2024
“Lejos de andar endémicamente faltos de tiempo, quizá estemos confundidos acerca de en qué tiempo vivimos. Parte del problema puede residir en el hecho de que las categorías de velocidad y aceleración, y su asociación con el progreso, la productividad y la eficiencia, no nos proporcionan el lenguaje apropiado para formular ideas nuevas acerca de cómo podríamos explorar la infraestructura digital.”
March 3, 2026
I'm happy to read an STS book again, but I'm not sure how much I liked it. On the one hand, it's kind of wordy and the writing isn't very smooth, with many instances of "we'll explain this in detail in a later chapter," making for a poor reading experience. On the other hand, regarding the research itself, the empirical data isn't as strong as the author claims. I tend to think the author didn't write this book carefully, but the topic itself is still meaningful.
May 31, 2019
Crap scholarship from someone whose only life skill is climbing the academic ladder.
The life isn't "accelerated" in anyway. Humans still sleep about a third of the day. The noticeable difference is that you can pop a tray in the microwave oven and eat five minutes later instead of having a woman chained to the stove. Only this is a big problem with Wajcman.
The life isn't "accelerated" in anyway. Humans still sleep about a third of the day. The noticeable difference is that you can pop a tray in the microwave oven and eat five minutes later instead of having a woman chained to the stove. Only this is a big problem with Wajcman.
February 2, 2019
Very boring book
Repeated ideas in 200 pages.
Long for the idea a lot of theory and philosophy
Repeated ideas in 200 pages.
Long for the idea a lot of theory and philosophy
Repeated ideas in 200 pages.
Long for the idea a lot of theory and philosophy
Repeated ideas in 200 pages.
Long for the idea a lot of theory and philosophy
April 5, 2022
Compare to her other works, this one is rather substandard. Her writing is verbose, and her arguments are not well thought out.
Read
February 28, 2023Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism by Judy Wajcman (2014)
March 21, 2023
Chapter one is (chef kiss) 🥳
Read
October 23, 2023Mel de magraneta.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews