Time, technology, and the rhythms of daily life

In this paper we explore the implications of new technologies for performances in relation to work, family time, leisure and other everyday activities. Importantly, we mobilize our analysis around temporal patterns of daily life, rather than deploying cartographic metaphors and the `boundaries' they produce. Through fieldwork informed by five families over a period of three years, we highlight the role that technology plays in constituting the rhythms of contemporary domestic life. We identify four particular rhythms and argue that digital technology is not homogenising time in the home, nor are daily activities demarked by boundaries. Rather, technologies are implicated in reordering the rhythms of domestic life. Attention to the presence of distinct temporal patterns is crucial to understanding everyday life, and to understanding the implications of digital technologies for everyday life.