One of the great deceptions of the ‘digital age’ is the idea that digital technologies tend to lessen the need for hard work and generally improve people’s working lives. Technology marketing will often promote the sense that new and exciting things simply get ‘done’ through digital technologies without the need for work at all. At best, most people tend not to think about the work and labor involved in their use of digital technology. Yet the continued expansion of digital technology is intrinsically entwined with work. The ongoing digitization of contemporary society clearly involves substantial amounts of mental and manual labor, alongside significant shifts in the coordination and distribution of work.
