This article examines the effects of acceleration on the dynamic of time and power in generational relationships. The cultural patterns of an accelerated, hyperflexible life conduct in late modernity, it is argued, encourage a form of generational relationship characterized chiefly by the generational rivalry for time. In place of a steadfast ‘gift of time’ to younger generations appear various forms of the ‘annexation of time’. Insofar, late modernity is distinguished by a generative paradox: while there is increased demand for the intensity of generational ties and the quality of generational relationships and while accelerated societies necessitate greater capacities for coping with more complex lives and the respective conditions of growing up, the preconditions for this in generational relationships have nevertheless become more precarious in a variety of ways.
This essay examines the significance and transformation of shame in the context of digitalization, in particular, the psychosocial and psychological consequences of shifts in the boundaries between public and private manifest in the contemporary digital world. Moreover, it will examine the dynamic relationships of shame, humiliation and shamelessness as they develop in digital environments characterized by the dissolution of physical and communicative presence, as well as the, in turn, changing functions, ambivalences and affective pitfalls of self-presentation. On the basis of descriptions and commentaries by contemporary adolescents on the significance of social networks and on their own digital self-presentation, it will identify mechanisms for dealing with the imagined, projected or abnegated gaze of the other in the net.
This study presents a quantitative account of who uses or stops using digital self-tracking (ST). A representative sample of German adults aged 20–50 years ( N = 1022) completed an online survey on their ST practices, personality traits and attitudes toward numbers, on sociodemographic characteristics, mental disorders (particularly bulimia, burnout syndrome, and depression) and somatic disorders. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed on differences between self-trackers and non-trackers. Among others, they differ regarding age, civil status, social class, presence of mental and/or somatic diagnoses, performance-pressure, and strive for competition. A consequent binary logistic regression analysis suggests perfectionism, a somatic diagnosis within the last 5 years, a diagnosis of bulimia in the past, as well as a present mental diagnosis to be significant predictors for ST, though the predictive value of the factors was relatively low.
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