Shadow Work

by Madeleine Kando

When I was little, technology was in its infancy. There was no internet, no email and people still drove to brick and mortar stores to buy things. We had ‘electric’ inventions, like sowing machines, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators, but 'electronics' was just beginning.

In the sixties and seventies it all started to change when many new marvels were about to pop out of their incubation period. I came of age to benefit from the birth control pill, the invention of the pantyhose, soft contact lenses and Teflon. My very first Macintosh computer which came on the market in the early 1980’s, was a major stepping stone towards the age of enlightenment.

Looking back it was an exciting time, everyone was convinced that the future would bring about the 'leisure society' in which an endless supply of mindless, tireless 'robots' would free us from the drudgery of daily tasks. We would sprawl out on our couches, guiding our 'electronic slaves' to do our dirty work. In the words of 1960s guru and psychologist Abraham Maslow, mankind would finally be able to self-actualize and move to the fulfillment of its higher needs.

Forty years later, with a lot more gadgets on the market and wrinkles on my face, I am trying to figure out what happened. Where is the Utopia that we were all waiting for?

Daily life has become a lot more complicated. I spend an obscene amount of time getting rid of spam before I can read my email. The daily virus threats make me feel like I live in a trench on a battlefield, and the never-ending learning curve to keep up with more sophisticated software is exhausting. Weren’t things supposed to get easier? What happened to the robots?

And that’s just the ‘computer’ stuff. I used to take it for granted that, once I unpacked a newly bought appliance, I would have the satisfaction of using it right away. Nowadays, it takes me a week to figure out how to use a puny remote control. We live in an age where it’s not just food that requires preparation. Even buying furniture takes hours of assembly, with the inevitable rise in blood pressure when screws don’t fit or the instructions are printed in Chinese.

Not only are things increasingly complicated, but there is a lot more that we have to do ourselves. Automation has created more “shadow work” for the consumer, a term coined by Austrian philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich in his book ‘Shadow Work’. We are spending time doing things that were done by others before.

Technology has forced us to take on the job of bagger at the supermarket, of bank teller as we pay our bills online, of gas attendant as we pump gas in the freezing rain, of booking agent as we buy our tickets and check ourselves in, and of tax accountant as we file our taxes. All this is ‘shadow work’ for which we don’t get paid. The robots are here, but they benefit the producers and distributors of goods, not us.

Soon, mail delivery will be a thing of the past as there is already talk of closing many post offices and mail routes. We will have to haul our own trash to the dump, repair our own cars, teach ourselves calculus and who knows what else.. So don’t take anything for granted and enjoy the little service that we still get while it lasts. ‘Shadow work’ is here to stay and will only increase over time. leave comment here

I got inspired to write this article by reading: ‘Our Unpaid, Extra Shadow Work’ by Craig Lambert in the New York Times’.