ABSTRACT
The experience of modernity in the Caribbean has created particular attitudes towards an individual's relationship to work and leisure. The term pressure refers simultaneously to the subjective pressures of paid employment, poverty, worries and the pace of town life. From the perspective of many Jamaicans, 'pressure' is the result of an imbalance. Just as men's and women's bodies may be differentially affected by the experience of 'pressure', there are also gendered distinctions associated with the release of 'pressure'. As in many other countries, the phone plays a significant role in the management of loneliness, but it can also extend the more specific issues of 'pressure', such as the sense of feeling overburdened. But there is an even more basic relationship between the cell phone and 'pressure', which stems from the belief that 'pressure' is created from the lack of communication itself.
