The Institute for Public Knowledge<http://ipk.nyu.edu/> invites you to a talk for Judy Wajcman's new book Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism<http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo19085612.html> (Chicago 2015). The author will be in conversation with Harvey Molotch and Natasha Schüll. Monday, October 19, 2015 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Institute for Public Knowledge - 20 Cooper Sq, Room 503, New York, NY 10003, USA The technologically tethered, iPhone-addicted figure is an image we can easily conjure. Most of us complain that there aren't enough hours in the day and too many e-mails in our thumb-accessible inboxes. This widespread perception that life is faster than it used to be is now ingrained in our culture, and smartphones and the Internet are continually being blamed. But isn't the sole purpose of the smartphone to give us such quick access to people and information that we'll be free to do other things? Isn't technology supposed to make our lives easier? In Pressed for Time, Judy Wajcman explains why we immediately interpret our experiences with digital technology as inexorably accelerating everyday life. She argues that we are not mere hostages to communication devices, and the sense of always being rushed is the result of the priorities and parameters we ourselves set rather than the machines that help us set them. Bringing together empirical research on time use and theoretical debates about dramatic digital developments, Wajcman offers a bracing historical and cross-cultural perspective, showing us how changes in work patterns, family arrangements, and parenting all affect time stress. Judy Wajcman is Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, the author of TechnoFeminism, and the coauthor of The Social Shaping of Technology and The Politics of Working Life. Harvey Molotch is Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies at New York University, where he conducts research on urbanism, product design, and development. His books include Urban Fortunes (with John Logan) and Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers, and Many Other Things Come to Be As They Are, among others. Natasha Schüll is Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU. Her book Addiction by Design examines compulsive gamblers and the designers of the slot machines they play to explore the relationship between technology design and the experience of addiction. Her new project concerns the rise of digital self-tracking technologies and the new modes of introspection and self-governance they engender.