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Why You Should Read “Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism”
by Judy Wajcman
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 hurried?
What if technology isn’t making us busier — we are choosing to be busy?
Judy Wajcman, one of the UK’s leading sociologists, shatters our common assumptions about technology and time pressure.
Her insight? We are not hostages to our devices; we are architects of our own hurriedness.
The Time Paradox
Remember when they said technology would give us more leisure time? Wajcman reveals why this promise failed:
“Weren’t modern machines supposed to save, and thereby free up, more time? Not so long ago, commentaries about postindustrial society predicted a ‘leisure revolution’ driven by automation in industry and the home.”
The truth: John Maynard Keynes predicted we’d work just three hours a day by now. Instead, we’re more time-starved than ever.
The Papua New Guinea Insight
Wajcman shares a revealing personal story about making coconut milk in a PNG village: