(ITD5a) Work, Play, Display I: Exploring the Shifting Landscape of Time, Media, and Technology in Post-Pandemic Society

This session welcomes inquiries into the intertwined narratives of work, leisure, media, time, and technology, notably against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to explore the shifting digital landscape where the boundaries between work, leisure, and social connections have been redrawn. This session aims to spark discussions on the contemporary challenges and transformations in the post-pandemic world, setting a platform for future explorations. We anticipate engaging contributions that dissect the complex interplay of media, technology, work, and leisure, shedding light on the evolving social dynamics in these uncertain times. Tags: Equality and Inequality, Technology, Work And Professions

Organizers: Spencer Huesken, Queen’s University, Christian De Vrij, Queen’s University; Chairs: Spencer Huesken, Queen’s University, Christian De Vrij, Queen’s University

Presentations

Spencer Huesken, Queen’s University

The Hybrid Turn: A Sociological Examination of Hybrid Working Arrangements, Self-Optimization, and Employer Expectations in Post-Pandemic Society

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted the ways that many people understand and engage with the workplace (Baldwin, 2020; Dwivedia et al. 2020; Iivari et al., 2020; Nagel, 2020; Alon, et al., 2020; Hite and McDonald 2020; Habáni et al., 2021). Alternate models such as ‘remote’ and ‘flexible’ work and the incorporation of digital technologies (e.g., Microsoft Teams and Slack) into existing work practices have precipitated a range of scholarly and policy discussions orientated around the notion of ‘hybrid work.’ While these practices, as well as the term itself, existed long prior to COVID-19 (Barsness et al., 2005; Thompson 2019), the advent of the pandemic has facilitated an unprecedented and rapid adoption of alternate working models across many ‘traditional’ sectors of work to adequately support organizational and individual productivity and ensure the success of Canada’s broader economy. Given the ubiquity, speed, and variance of these changes, there is no clear definition of the term, or an understanding of how it is being differentially utilized, and we have little knowledge of how this is being experienced across different contexts of work. The shift to ‘remote’ or ‘hybrid’ models raises important sociological questions about inequities in the organization and experience of work, particularly how specific framings and uses of digital technologies have shaped the experiences of pandemic disruption in terms of working practices, and the expectations and possibilities of reorganizing work/life arrangements in the post-pandemic period. This research presentation will present preliminary data from my PhD dissertation project which has two broad aims: (1) to understand how hybrid work is being framed in different sectors of the Canadian economy at the institutional and policy level, and (2) to examine the ways that hybrid work practices are being differentially adopted and understood at the individual level. This includes the ways that these practices are shaping relationships with work and the subjective experiences of those novel practices, and (3) examining how workers across two key sectors — public and private— are adapting to, negotiating, or developing alternative models of hybrid work through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alex Miltsov, Bishop's University

Blurring Lines: The Integration of Work and Leisure in the Digital Age

In the modern digitized workplace, the traditional boundaries between work and leisure are increasingly blurred. This study delves into the dynamics of how employees integrate personal online activities within their work environments. Central to this analysis is an exploration of the motivating factors behind such behaviours and the impact of evolving work structures – including flexible employment and task-based work – on the nature and extent of personal activities during work hours. The theoretical framework of this research draws from Autonomist perspectives on labour and digital technology (Berardi, 2009, 2010), situating personal activities at work within the broader context of political, technological, economic, and cultural transformations. It views personal online activities at work as both a product of lifes increasing digitization and a cognitive tool helping workers navigate fragmented work experiences. Specifically, this study focuses on the experiences of workers engaged in the cognitive labour sector. Conceptually linked to “knowledge work” and “information labour”, cognitive workers include accountants, lawyers, academics, designers and other types of typically white-collar occupations. While the notion of cognitive labour has been criticized for being too broad and imprecise (Martín-Cabrera, 2012), it is a useful concept as it captures effectively what unites many of these occupations across different sectors of the economy – the emphasis on cognitive skills in the production and manipulation of information. Employing a mixed-methods design, this research combines quantitative data from a representative sample of cognitive workers from Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with qualitative insights from in-depth interviews. Regression analyses are used to analyze the interplay of gender, age, and different work-related factors with diverse forms of personal activities in the workplace. The findings reveal a gendered nature of personal online use in the workplace; men predominantly use digital technologies for entertainment, while women are more engaged in online activities related to shopping, banking, and household management. Interestingly, restrictive policies have a significant effect on the personal online activities associated with networking and communication but not on entertainment-oriented activities. Also, younger employees, as well as those who work on projects and experience job precarity, are more likely to engage in personal online activities during work time. This research makes several contributions. It shows how irregular working conditions influence the timing, methods, motives, and duration of personal activities among cognitive workers. Using a cross-national sample, the study illuminates the interplay between varying labour contexts and employee engagement in "non-productive" activities at work. Lastly, it provides insights into how the digitization of work and the rise of non-standard employment shapes contemporary perceptions of work-life balance. Overall, this research provides nuanced insights into the increasingly blurred lines between work and leisure in the digital age, enriching our understanding of contemporary workplace behaviours and their implications for workers lives.

Christian De Vrij, Queen’s University

Everyone's Doing it: A Study of Media Portrayals of Leisure During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered individuals' daily routines and lifestyle choices (Korkmaz Aslan, Kılın, and Kartal 2022), ushering in a paradigm shift in leisure activities (Hamedy 2021). This paper explores the discourse surrounding hobbies as portrayed in popular media during the pandemic. Utilizing content analysis, a method widely validated in media studies (Macnamara 2005) I analyze 100 news articles published between 2020-2022 to understand the evolving narrative on hobbies over the pandemic.". My study reveals three predominant themes: First, the resurgence and revaluation of hobbies as a coping mechanism, aligning with findings that stress-related coping strategies have evolved during the pandemic (Fullana et al. 2020; Moore et al. 2020; Lades et al. 2020). Second, the transformation of solitary hobbies into digital communal activities, reflecting broader trends in digital engagement (Matthews 2016). Third, the media's role in the stigmatization or validation of certain hobbies, a phenomenon previously observed in leisure studies (Mock et al. 2013). I argue that the substantial media focus on hobbies not only provided a conduit for individuals to navigate the stressors of the pandemic, but also fundamentally changed the way in which hobbies are engaged in. The findings underscore the inequality of leisure, echoing concerns about resource accessibility raised by recent studies (Cantor et al. 2022). I hypothesise that the media's representation of hobbies significantly influenced public perception and engagement, serving as both a reflective and prescriptive entity in shaping leisure pursuits; and that this role played by media has only been further cemented in the post-pandemic era. The paper suggests that future research should explore the long-term effects of the pandemic on hobby engagement and how this media narrative was understood and experienced by the public. Through this examination, I unearth the interplay between media discourse, leisure activities, and the pandemic, offering a nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics underpinning leisure activities during times of global distress, contributing to the growing body of literature on pandemic-related social changes (Perez-Cepeda and Arias-Bolzmann 2022; Wassler and Talarico 2021).

Amber-Lee Varadi, York University

"TikTok isn't a hobby": Media(ted) connections, identities, and leisure among contemporary high school-aged youth

In a cultural context where high school-aged youth spend almost as much of their time online as they do sleeping – or participating in any other daily activity – serious debates have emerged regarding the effects of cellphone and social media use on the well-being of today’s young Internet “addicts” (boyd, 2014; Pascoe, 2011; Vaterlaus et al., 2016). The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding social distancing measures and isolation mandates have sparked further conversations about the role of cellphones and social media in young people’s lives and the ways in which today’s youth create and foster community, friendship, identity cultivation, and fun in leisure contexts. Indeed, the pandemic quickly and intensely diversified the role of cellphones and social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter) to become more than technological artifacts for social connection alone, but also untameable tools with online affordances that seemingly offer youth boundless opportunities and freedoms to strengthen friendships, learn skills, develop new hobbies, and even “experience a type of beauty or self-expression that would be corporeally unachievable” (Miller and McIntyre, 2023, p. 3625) through the use of “beautifying” face filters that make eyes and lips larger and noses slimmer. These boundless opportunities and freedoms have fuelled and challenged contemporary moral panics surrounding young people’s online engagement and sparked dystopian and utopian ideas about youth’s media consumption (boyd, 2014). Unsurprisingly, these ideas and panics are reproduced across media reports and public conversations that often leave out their very subjects. Accordingly, recent interdisciplinary work of youth scholars and digital sociologists highlights the need to not only spotlight young people’s voices in conversations about their experiences of these technologies, but also draw on youth’s understandings of cellphones and social media to nuance simplistic and homogenous ideas about these technologies (boyd, 2014; Tilleczek and Srigley, 2019). Using preliminary insights on in-progress research, this presentation works to fill these silences by drawing on the narratives of a sample of Ontario-based, high school-aged youth (age 14-18) to consider how young people’s cellphone and related social media use impacts the ways in which they understand their connection to others, self-expression and identity, and leisure engagement. These preliminary findings demonstrate how youth resist shallow understandings of their cellphone use. First, while cellphone and social media engagement can strengthen friendships, online acts of friendship cannot replace offline interactions. At the same time, online events can ruin long-lasting friendships that are irreparable offline. Even more, some youth highlight how the “always online” qualities of some text-based apps make offline interactions feel awkward. Second, and noted across all participants, online acts of self-expression were described as limited and meticulously edited, which counter popular narratives that position youth as reckless over-sharers. Finally, youth framed their media consumption practices (e.g., doom-scrolling, texting, watching videos) in ways that did not align with more romanticized notions of leisure that suggested rest and fun are best achieved without cellphones. This youth-centred work aims to challenge contemporary understandings of young people as either digital natives or digitally naïve, and reinforces that apparently novel forms of online participation are often shaped and regulated by lasting gender norms, heteronormativity, and consumerist ideals.