Technology and Temporal Disruption

Summary

Human temporality and temporal cognition have always been hybrid structures that combine biological and sociotechnological components. Contrary to common assumptions that modern sociotechnology causes temporal disruption through integration, disruptions actually result from the disintegration of these biological and sociotechnological components. Drawing on neuroanthropology and neuroscience of temporal cognition, the paper argues that human temporal capacities like memory and sense of time have always been partly sociotechnological. Reviewing sociological research on technology and time, recognizing this hybrid structure provides theoretical resources for identifying and addressing temporal disruption.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract ‘Modern times’ are consistently associated with a sense of temporal acceleration and disruption brought on by the breakneck speed of modern sociotechnology. But how does modern sociotechnology impact our sense of time and temporality? This paper seeks to establish the relationship between human time and technology in order to explain the contemporary phenomenon of temporal disruption. In the first case, I will argue that human temporality and temporal cognition have always been hybrid structures: involving both biological and sociotechnological components. Second, I will argue that understanding the hybrid structure of human time provides a systematic framework for diagnosing disruptive effects of contemporary sociotechnology. Contrary to commonplace presuppositions that temporal disruptions are caused by sociotechnological integration, dirsuptions result from the disintegration of the biological and sociotechnological components of hybrid human temporality. By combining insights from neuroanthropology and the neuroscience of temporal cognition, I will argue that human temporal capacities, such as memory and our sense of time, were at all times partly sociotechnological, hybrid structures. I will then review sociological research concerning the relationship between modern technology and human time and show how recognizing the hybrid structure of human temporality adds crucial theoretical resources for identifying and dealing with the problem of temporal disruption.