{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","title":"Pressed for Time The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780226196473","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","id":"0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","uuid":"0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","title":"Pressed for Time The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism","normalized_title":"pressedfortimetheaccelerationoflifeindigitalcapitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780226196473","isbns":["9780226196473","9780226196503"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":228,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Pressed%20for%20Time%20The%20Acceleration%20of%20Life%20in%20Digital%20Capitalism","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/0cf5c9df-7116-426e-ae21-ce72b2ccbe50/search"},"page":{"printed_page":29,"pdf_page":41,"physical_index":41,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"04a959642394383e9a166ea76973ac2f91d8c7f8a55c0a59dbcad89dd09052f5"},"chapter":"Pressed for Time","content":"In other words, technologies result from a series of specific decisions made by particular groups of people in particular places at particular times for their own purposes. As such, technologies bear the imprint of the people and social context in which they develop. It follows that political choices are embedded in the very design and selection of technology.\n\nThere is now a rich field of STS, reflecting a variety of approaches to the social study of technology.37 I want to outline its distinctive perspective here, as I believe it provides the basis for understanding the complex intertwining of technology and time.\n\nOne way to begin is to think about things, the stuf we have, the material world rather than technology in general. Thinking about the use of things in this way connects us directly with the world we know rather than abstract ideas about the technology of our age. It encourages us to consider what we mean when we talk about technology and to be specific about which technologies have been most significant for acceleration.\n\nFor example, why do we immediately think about the latest digital gizmos when we think about speed? Why do the mundane material artifacts of everyday life, such as kitchen equipment, receive so much less attention in the narratives of technological progress? We live our lives surrounded by things, but we tend to think about only some of them as being technologies. It is common to think about technology as encompassing only very new, science-intensive things—ones with electronic or digital bits, for instance. And to think of the driving forces of history as being the steam engine, electricity, and computers rather than the washing machine, the stroller, and the condom. We tend to overrate the impact of new technologies in part because older technologies have become absorbed into the furniture of our lives, so as to be almost invisible.\n\nTake the baby bottle. Here is a simple implement that has “transformed a fundamental human experience for vast numbers of infants and mothers, and been one of the most controversial exports of Western technology to underdeveloped countries—yet it finds no place in our histories of technology.”38 This technology might be thought of as a classic time-shifting device, as it enables mothers to exercise more control over the timing of feeding. It can also function to save time, as bottle feeding allows for someone else to substitute for the mother’s time. Potentially, therefore, it has huge implications for the management of time in everyday life, yet it is entirely overlooked in discussions of high-speed society. This illustrates that the impact technologies are perceived to have on time largely depends on who is using them, and in what context, a point I return to below.\n\nHig h-Speed Society\n\n29","previous_page":28,"next_page":30}