As such, the shower belongs to a set of domestic devices whose popularity has grown precisely because they promise to help people cope with the temporal challenges of modern life. For Shove, the new habit of showering can be understood only in relation to concerns about a time squeeze and its qualities as a technology of “convenience.” The idea here is that appliances facilitate complex scheduling, delayed tasks as well as simultaneous activities. Washing machines, for example, allow clothes to be washed while you do other things, and with freezers, frozen food can be bought and used at a later time. As I noted in chapter 3, convenience food can be seen in these terms, as a hypermodern form of convenience that is directed toward time shifting rather than time compression.20
This time-shifting property of convenience technologies is harnessed during periods of intense busyness in order to generate and protect pockets of quality time.21 Certain times of the day, for example, mornings and meal times, are more frantic than others. This is when the density of activity takes place and when time pressure is most acute. Domestic devices are used to preserve and manage distinctions between “rush” and “calm.” However, according to Shove, convenience devices enter a feedback loop whereby they paradoxically increase problems of scheduling, exacerbating the sense of harriedness: “more gadgets generate more rush.”22 While the idea of convenience as legitimating and sustaining specific forms of consumption is illuminating, in my view it understates the myriad processes through which users interpret and appropriate machines. People are extremely adept at deploying suitable devices in their endeavor to make time for valued interactions. This is not only the case for domestic appliances but, as we shall see in the next chapter, also applies to ICTs.
Doing Domestic Time
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