{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","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":"bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","id":"bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","uuid":"bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","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/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","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/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/bff2be14-96b0-46f1-8e61-474593cba908/search"},"page":{"printed_page":107,"pdf_page":119,"physical_index":119,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"98b4111b93a39a6e3faf297d73dd297de3044282b13496554c78d76d1b8790f1"},"chapter":"Pressed for Time","content":"Conclusion\n\nThe dramatic restructuring of workplaces in the face of economic forces and heightened global competition has meant that there is often more work to do, with fewer people to do it. Networked workers’ jobs have also become more complex and demanding as they are continually required to update their skills to keep up with the latest technology. ICTs increase the speed and ease with which information can be gathered, processed, analyzed, and shared, fostering a higher volume of mediated communications. In combination with a cultural norm of speedy responsiveness, the pace of work quickens. At the same time, as new technologies become routinized, we are seeing the emergence of radically diferent temporal rhythms and modes of working.\n\nWorking practices are always inscribed in the dense materiality of the sociotechnical infrastructure. Today information networks “shape not only the work routines, but also the ways people look at practices, consider them ‘natural’ and give them their overarching character of necessity. Infrastructure becomes an essential factor shaping the takenfor-grantedness of organizational practices.”44 This does not mean that ICTs have efects independent of human actors. Information technologies that augment management control and extend the reach of surveillance also reconfigure the ways in which work is performed, and generate new economic and social arrangements. Indeed, digital technologies are uniquely malleable and open to modification and interpretation by users. An STS lens directs our attention to the complexities and contingencies of technological developments. In doing so, it immediately casts doubt on the determinist view that ICTs, per se, are driving the intensification of work.\n\nThat networked workers’ everyday experience of these technologies is riddled with contradictions is hardly surprising. On the one hand, ICTs are a source of personal autonomy and flexibility, enhancing control over one’s availability. On the other hand, in downsized, high-pressure workplaces, these same tools add stress and escalate collective expectations of constant communication and engagement with work. Paradoxically, the more intense pressure people feel, the more they deploy digital devices in order to save time.\n\nWorking with Constant Conne c tivity\n\n107","previous_page":106,"next_page":108}