The Time-Pressure Paradoxes in the Digital Age

Abstract

In the focus of this article lies one of the key topics of modern social philoso­phy – free time in its connection with digital capitalism. The author analyzes how free time is transformed in contemporaneity. Digital technologies, the inten­sification of capitalist production, and the diffusion of work and personal space characterize the world of modern man. Digital technologies, literally becoming a part of a person, can completely fill their off-hours. As a result, humanity is faced with an acceleration of the rhythm of life, which generates a permanent feeling of fatigue and lack of time for important things. However, most sociolog­ical research shows that free time has not been decreasing. This gives rise to the “time-pressure paradox”(Judy Wajcman), when there is more time, but you can't use it as you would like. As a result, a person's personal freedom in the dig­ital world, which, it would seem, will only increase as productivity increases, in fact becomes an important topic for modern critical thought. The basis of the problem of lack of time is that modern culture was unable to cope with the released productive forces and reflexively understand the nature of the im­pact of digital-mediated capitalism on everyday life.