TY - BOOK ID - 35324642 TI - Tyranny of the moment : fast and slow time in the information age PY - 2001 SN - 074531774X 0745317758 9780745317755 9780745317748 PB - London Pluto Press DB - UniCat KW - Computers and civilization. KW - Information society. KW - Information technology KW - Time pressure. KW - Time KW - Social aspects. KW - Information society KW - Time pressure KW - Computers and civilization KW - Social aspects KW - Information technology - Social aspects KW - Time - Social aspects KW - Computer architecture. Operating systems KW - information technology KW - Internet KW - social media UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:35324642 AB - This fascinating and original book argues that slow time is an increasingly scarce resource in the information age. Using a wealth of examples, *Tyranny of the Moment*, takes a cool, diagnostic look at this 'hurried era'. It shows how phenomena such as soap operas, correspondence, youth culture, advertising and 'flexible work' are connected to the same logic, based on information technology, and how they link up with the history of modern society. At the same time, it indicates that there are deep contradictions in technology-driven contemporary society. Who would have expected apparently time-saving technology, from the filofax to e-mail and the mobile phone, to result in time being scarcer than ever? Since we are now theoretically 'on line' 24 hours a day, we must fight for the right to be unavailable - the right to live and think more slowly. Eriksen considers the main cause of the problem as the exponential growth in everything to do with communication - from web pages to air traffic. The result is potentially devastating, as life in western societies threatens to desintegrate into disjointed and incoherent fragments. ER -