ABSTRACT
This chapter critically engages with intimations of boredom associated with the digitisation of contemporary societies. It sketches an account of how the twin processes of acceleration and routinisation associated with technological modernity have become intensified in the social media age. It focuses upon connections between narratives of digital temporality and those of boredom, particularly how a shift from ‘clock-time’ to ‘iTime’ arguably intensifies the emotional flatness associated with modern boredom. The chapter identifies key aspects of a discourse of ‘digital boredom’ which characterises contemporary life as technologically mediated, repetitive, rushed and denying solitude, and in which multiple practices of presencing, tracking and connecting are at once efforts to alleviate boredom, contributing to experiences of boredom, and occluding the possibility of a more profound boredom. I discuss these multiple and often contradictory elements involved in accounts of digital boredom, going on to ask some critical questions about the analyses of digitisation and temporality being brought to bear on those of boredom.
