Algorithmic Automation of Leisure from a Sustainable …
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mental states of individuals and their practices. In the network society, social divisions are formed around a new category: information (Castells 2000; Mroczkowska
and Kubacka 2019; Kubacka and Mroczkowska, 2020). The ways of using technology show different rules of access to information. The dual role of mobile and
communication technologies, indicated earlier, makes it possible to specify several
main domains of its mediation in shaping border areas:
1. Technologies are part of everyday practice, and therefore make it difficult for
the subject to see its role in his/her life. Laptops and smartphones are seen as
necessary tools to manage everyday activities effectively. They become almost
transparent, operating as if out of hiding and beyond the sphere of consciousness.
More and more often, the use of technology becomes thoughtless and embodied.
2. The paradox of technology’s operation lies in the fact that it naturalizes the lack
of borders by maintaining the appearance of its distinct existence. Their strength
is expressed in the fact that they are unnoticeable and that they can belong to both
facets of life at the same time (e.g. you can have a non-business laptop, but it is
still a laptop with the same capabilities; use of one smartphone in both spheres
of life).
3. Technologies increase the distraction between work and life in a non-invasive
way. Today, it is unlikely, if at all possible, to be wholly disconnected from use.
Its inclusion in the sphere of border areas is, therefore, a necessary condition for
the adequate performance of professional and family tasks. The penetration of
the area of work and life through technology is like a new form of adaptation to
the environment and life in the gray areas.
4. Technology deepens the legitimacy of the existence of gray areas: it legitimizes
them. This is due, among other things, to the fact that they lead to a situation
that can be called mental bilocation. Individuals, cognitively and emotionally,
are at work, at home, or conversely, at work but focused on family or personal
matters. Mobile and communication technologies are becoming tools with which
we give ourselves the right to control where the borderline is (de facto, it is a
situation of loss of activity with our own consent). Technological devices created
for the purpose of increasing individual freedom and independence (and, above
all, decision-making, e.g. regarding the time and place of receiving information)
lead to entirely different experiences (apparent freedom).
5. Technologies serve to increase efficiency (e.g. taking a nap on time) and to
reduce time—they make individuals feel compelled to respond more and more
quickly to messages or to notifications. It also becomes necessary to manage the
sphere of private and professional activity through mobile devices in such a way
as to simultaneously combine and demarcate online accessibility (because, for
example, the superior can see that the employee ignores the e-mail but is available
on social networking sites). There are norms of simultaneity, which emphasize
the immediacy and simultaneity of activities undertaken in different spheres of
life.
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mental states of individuals and their practices. In the network society, social divisions are formed around a new category: information (Castells 2000; Mroczkowska
and Kubacka 2019; Kubacka and Mroczkowska, 2020). The ways of using technology show different rules of access to information. The dual role of mobile and
communication technologies, indicated earlier, makes it possible to specify several
main domains of its mediation in shaping border areas:
1. Technologies are part of everyday practice, and therefore make it difficult for
the subject to see its role in his/her life. Laptops and smartphones are seen as
necessary tools to manage everyday activities effectively. They become almost
transparent, operating as if out of hiding and beyond the sphere of consciousness.
More and more often, the use of technology becomes thoughtless and embodied.
2. The paradox of technology’s operation lies in the fact that it naturalizes the lack
of borders by maintaining the appearance of its distinct existence. Their strength
is expressed in the fact that they are unnoticeable and that they can belong to both
facets of life at the same time (e.g. you can have a non-business laptop, but it is
still a laptop with the same capabilities; use of one smartphone in both spheres
of life).
3. Technologies increase the distraction between work and life in a non-invasive
way. Today, it is unlikely, if at all possible, to be wholly disconnected from use.
Its inclusion in the sphere of border areas is, therefore, a necessary condition for
the adequate performance of professional and family tasks. The penetration of
the area of work and life through technology is like a new form of adaptation to
the environment and life in the gray areas.
4. Technology deepens the legitimacy of the existence of gray areas: it legitimizes
them. This is due, among other things, to the fact that they lead to a situation
that can be called mental bilocation. Individuals, cognitively and emotionally,
are at work, at home, or conversely, at work but focused on family or personal
matters. Mobile and communication technologies are becoming tools with which
we give ourselves the right to control where the borderline is (de facto, it is a
situation of loss of activity with our own consent). Technological devices created
for the purpose of increasing individual freedom and independence (and, above
all, decision-making, e.g. regarding the time and place of receiving information)
lead to entirely different experiences (apparent freedom).
5. Technologies serve to increase efficiency (e.g. taking a nap on time) and to
reduce time—they make individuals feel compelled to respond more and more
quickly to messages or to notifications. It also becomes necessary to manage the
sphere of private and professional activity through mobile devices in such a way
as to simultaneously combine and demarcate online accessibility (because, for
example, the superior can see that the employee ignores the e-mail but is available
on social networking sites). There are norms of simultaneity, which emphasize
the immediacy and simultaneity of activities undertaken in different spheres of
life.