Do Smartphones Result in iTime?

The next speaker in this AoIR 2015 session is Veronika Kalmus, whose interest is in the idea of iTime, or the impact of smartphones on our perceptions of social time (and space). There is a sense of the acceleration of social time and social life, partly due to the impact of digital technologies. What are the social, political, and psychological implications of such a speeding-up?

Ben Agger introduced the concept of 'iTime', referring to the impact of smartphones o n our perceptions of time. This challenges boundaries between public and private, between work and leisure time, and it has both upsides and downsides. There are also intergenerational differences, of course - some older users might see this as a nightmare, for under users it is simply normality.

There is little empirical research on iTime, however, beyond some basic multitasking studies. Veronika's research tests empirically how iTime impacts on users, and how this is different across generations, in Estonia. She used a survey of attitudes toward smartphones, and this has generated clear results that show divergences in smartphones perceived to generate more flexibility, remove boundaries between work and leisure, and changing social identity and communicative conventions.

These imaginaries of smartphones have been differently internalised by different age groups. Interestingly, all three are perceived by the 15-20, 21-30, and 71-79 age groups (though that last group was very small and may not be statistically significant), so this is not simply a matter of differences between younger and older people.

These different groups also perceive their availability of work and leisure time differently, of course; age groups in the middle of their professional lives feel most pressured for time, unsurprisingly. Younger generations are claiming to engage in more multitasking, too.

Of the consequences of smartphone use, greater flexibility is correlated positively with multitasking, and negatively with a lack of time; vanishing boundaries positively with lack of time, surplus time, multitasking, and trying to change time allocations. Overall, this indicates the develop,met of coherent and meaningful social imaginaries, but only partially confirms Agger's iTime thesis – the situation is not as black and white as the iTime concept might suggest.