Accelerated Leisure in a Digital Age: Transformations &

Tribulations

Prof David McGillivray

Chair in Event & Digital Cultures, UWS

BEING THERE:

KNOWLEDGE

PRODUCTION

&

CIRCULATION

IN PRE-

DIGITAL AGE

CURATING THE DIGITAL

ACADEMIC

• transformations taking place in how we conceive of and experience leisure lives in a digital age;

• the professed benefits available from digital leisure participation;

• illustrations of the darker side of digital;

• research into digital participation in mega sport event media narratives

• research agenda for Leisure Studies scholars

Join in: @dgmcgillivray #lsa2014

COVERAGE

CHANGING

SPACES

OF…WORK

(RE) CONCEPTUALISING LEISURE IN

DIGITAL AGE

AND OF… LEISURE

DANBURY, CT—Entertaining outlandish delusions of actually

getting in a solid eight hours of sleep, 29-year-old Josh Briner

is honestly under the impression that he will be going to bed

early, sources confirmed Thursday. “I made sure I had no

plans tonight so that I can just turn in at 10 and get some

serious rest,” said the poor, naive fool who despite having a

laptop next to his bed, four different shows he needs to catch

up on, and a proclivity for wasting hours at a time on social

media sites is genuinely convinced that he will be asleep at a

reasonable hour. “It’ll be nice to wake up feeling refreshed for

once.” At press time, Briner reportedly said “f@*k it,” resumed

watching Sherlock on Netflix, and vowed that tomorrow he’d

definitely be in bed by 9 (The Onion).

ACCELERATION, LEISURE TIME & SPACE

‘Long-standing notions of shared experience atrophy, and

yet one never actually attains the gratifications or rewards

promised by the most recent technological options…the

lived realities of this relationship are disjunctions,

fractures, and continual disequilibrium’ (Crary, 2013: p31)

ATROPHY OF SHARED EXPERIENCE

ALWAYS ON (THEM)

SPREADABILITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

SURVEILLANCE?

CONTROL

THE DARK(ER) SIDE OF DIGITAL

RESISTANCE AND CREATIVE

REIMAGINING

DIGITAL IN/EXCLUSION

Source: Carnegie Trust (2013) Across the Divide

The Scottish

Government

must

recognise

that every

individual has

an

undeniable

right to digital

inclusion

(RSE, 2014)

MEGA EVENT & ACCELERATED NARRATIVES

www.citizenrelay.net

www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk

A RESEARCH AGENDA

• Methodologies and methods to explore meanings

found in big data produced in the digital age

• Experience of those disempowered and

disenfranchised by digital turn and barriers to

participation

• Moral and ethical implications of leisure lives mediated

in digital environments

• Stresses, anxieties and emotional responses

generated by digital engagement

• Oppositional force of the digital

THANKS

@dgmcgillivray

W: davidmcgillivray.netW: westscotland.academia.edu/DavidMcGillivrayW: researchgate.net/DavidMcGillivrayW: creativefutur.eu/