In the fullness of time

Technology and the porosity of leisure

Featured in

  • Published 20230801
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-86-3
  • Extent: 200pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

On the walk to work, at the weight room or in the last mile. Somewhere between the first tries and the finish lines. Pillow fights and pushing limits. That’s where you find fitness. Every moment matters and every bit makes a big impact. Because fitness is the sum of your life. That’s the idea that Fitbit was built on – that fitness is not just about gym time. It’s all the time. How you spend your day determines when you reach your goals. And seeing your progress helps you see what’s possible.

– Fitbit advertisement 

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Creative industry

Non-fictionThe hacker ethos helped solidify the idea that computers weren’t just utilitarian devices that performed tasks – they had expressive potential and could be used to facilitate new forms of art and activism in the right hands and under the right conditions. But this perpetuated a myth that anyone with access to computers could try their hand at being creative and participate in a new, digital culture. While the ethos achieved a great deal in the acculturation of utopian and countercultural values, a neoliberal core soon began to emerge – especially as early tech pioneers got rich. 

More from this edition

Revolutionary wave

Non-fictionThis was the late ’60s, early ’70s and surfing in Wales was regarded by the parent generation as delinquency. It was for losers, layabouts, rogue males. In those early days Welsh surfers numbered around one hundred, congregated on half a dozen beaches down fifteen miles of coastline west of Swansea, known as the Gower. I knew each one of those surfers by the styles they deployed on the waves. So idiosyncratic was early Welsh surfing that out on the road if you saw a car with boards on the roof coming at you, both drivers would pull over for a chat.

The geography of respect

Non-fictionStarting in 2019, Parks Victoria closed or restricted access for climbers to much of Gariwerd-Grampians while it assessed cultural heritage and worked with Traditional Owners and conservation experts to develop the Greater Gariwerd Landscape Management Plan (GGLMP). These closures drew strong reactions from many climbers. They saw Parks Victoria’s actions as impinging on their rights, and its apparent focus on climbing as a risk to cultural heritage and environmental integrity as overblown.

Virtue signals

Non-fictionThe sheer speed and volume at which data is processed, coupled with popular imaginings of the infallibility of machines, means that predictions produced by such processes are imbued with the aura of objectivity. As a result, hard decisions – acting in contexts of radical uncertainty, and having to determine winners and losers – become easy ones based on limited considerations directed towards improving the lot of as many individuals as possible while doing least harm. In other words, big data transforms the need to act politically into the possibility of acting only technically.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.