Work Work Til You Go Berserk
Apr. 25th, 2019 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingHyperemployment, or the Exhausting Work of the Technology User
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/hyperemployment-or-the-exhausting-work-of-the-technology-user/281149/
It’s easy to see email as unwelcome obligations, but too rarely do we take that obligation to its logical if obvious conclusion: those obligations are increasingly akin to another job—or better, many other jobs. For those of us lucky enough to be employed, we’re really hyperemployed—committed to our usual jobs and many other jobs as well. It goes without saying that we’re not being paid for all these jobs, but pay is almost beside the point, because the real cost of hyperemployment is time. We are doing all those things others aren’t doing instead of all the things we are competent at doing. And if we fail to do them, whether through active resistance or simple overwhelm, we alone suffer for it: the schedules don’t get made, the paperwork doesn’t get mailed, the proposals don’t get printed, and on and on.
But the deluge doesn’t stop with email, and hyperemployment extends even to the unemployed, thanks to our tacit agreement to work for so many Silicon Valley technology companies. Increasingly, online life in general feels like this. The endless, constant flow of email, notifications, direct messages, favorites, invitations. After that daybreak email triage, so many other icons on your phone boast badges silently enumerating their demands.
Where is the lie, honestly.
I'm actually a narcissistic little dopamine gremlin who loves getting notifications that people like me, but I've also gotten to the point in the semester where every email I receive physically hurts me.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/hyperemployment-or-the-exhausting-work-of-the-technology-user/281149/
It’s easy to see email as unwelcome obligations, but too rarely do we take that obligation to its logical if obvious conclusion: those obligations are increasingly akin to another job—or better, many other jobs. For those of us lucky enough to be employed, we’re really hyperemployed—committed to our usual jobs and many other jobs as well. It goes without saying that we’re not being paid for all these jobs, but pay is almost beside the point, because the real cost of hyperemployment is time. We are doing all those things others aren’t doing instead of all the things we are competent at doing. And if we fail to do them, whether through active resistance or simple overwhelm, we alone suffer for it: the schedules don’t get made, the paperwork doesn’t get mailed, the proposals don’t get printed, and on and on.
But the deluge doesn’t stop with email, and hyperemployment extends even to the unemployed, thanks to our tacit agreement to work for so many Silicon Valley technology companies. Increasingly, online life in general feels like this. The endless, constant flow of email, notifications, direct messages, favorites, invitations. After that daybreak email triage, so many other icons on your phone boast badges silently enumerating their demands.
Where is the lie, honestly.
I'm actually a narcissistic little dopamine gremlin who loves getting notifications that people like me, but I've also gotten to the point in the semester where every email I receive physically hurts me.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-25 07:53 pm (UTC)Then again, I get anxiety over too many icons on my desktop (nothing is on it except the recycle bin) or too many emails piled up in my inbox. If I get an email from a thing that doesn't make me happy and isn't mandatory to my life, I unsubscribe from it. I have my phone set to automatically go on do not disturb when I take my lunch break so I don't get texts from friends gossiping which then pisses me off and ruins my one hour of solitude. There's just so much all the time pelting us in the face, whether it's emails or notifications for the million apps we have. I remember I dropped off of Facebook around Thanksgiving time and... I really don't miss it. But there are so many things that are integrated into social media or other bits that You Need To Stay On Top Of Or Else You Fail The End that it makes me so sad. Like Twitter for writers. Rule #1 of Succeeding As A For Reals Writer always includes "be active on Twitter" and I'm like... but do I have to???? Which honestly, that and trying to figure out an online handle for professional writing is what's holding me back from diving into pro writing
...that and I have too many fic ideas and I like interacting in fandoms and stuff, but yeahI do love my daily emails from AO3 in the morning of the kudos I got. We can be gremlins together.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-26 04:34 pm (UTC)Same! Facebook has been yielding diminishing returns since around 2016 for me, and I don't miss it at all.
In my (admittedly limited) experience, Twitter is a job that requires a certain level of experience to do properly, and the correlation between "being active on Twitter" and "finding opportunities" isn't direct or obvious (or, at least, it isn't to me). As in all things, extroverts with high levels of self-confidence seem to be more successful. Also, the site is already so saturated with "content" that it's difficult to gain a foothold. I'm still trying to figure out how to use it effectively, to be honest.
At a certain point I'm probably just going to be on Dreamwidth and AO3 and nothing else, because GODDAMN social media is exhausting.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-26 08:38 pm (UTC)and then there's apparently FUCKING DISCOURSE over people tagging their friends in gifsets and fanart and shit because they're clogging up their feeds???? fuck, if someone tagged their friend in a thing I made, I'd be sitting here hoping that friend got to see the thing and liked it. fucking people, dudeI swear I'm going to be on my deathbed still posting shit to AO3. One of my friends jokes with me that she's going to visit me at a nursing home and inch her way in on her walker and be all, "Bitch, where's my rarepair smut you owe me?!"
no subject
Date: 2019-04-30 03:25 am (UTC)