KCB201 WK6 Tell me more, Tell me more...Information, Education and Work

This weeks reading contained many themes that I could consider in today’s blog. However Castells theory of "timeless time" (Castells 1999, 405) is one I would first like to unpack. Castells hypothesises that the dominant logic of a network society is characterised by a relentless effort to annihilate time (Castells 1999, 405). He further argues that as time is measured by the succession of things the use of technology to compress years into seconds and so on suggests that time becomes an outdated concept within this society. The suggestion that within network society we can live “all our tenses at the same time” (Castells 1999, 405) suggests that time can be eliminated altogether. I agree that networks and new technology can compress the traditional concepts of time and space by connecting people with both, other people, concepts and products. However, I cannot agree that the concept of time can be eliminated by technology. Time is essentially a measurement and while technology may continue to compress more and more content and communication into each fraction of this measurement, it cannot eliminate the concept altogether. Indeed, I believe Castells makes this argument himself when he cites a fundamental societal struggle around “the redefinition of time” (Castells 1999, 406) where society members balance technological advancements with tradition biological concepts of time.

References:

Castells, M. 1999. Chapter 21: An introduction to the Information Age. In The media reader: continuity and transformation, ed. H. Mackay and T. O'Sullivan, 398-410. London: Sage Publications.