Virtual Time

Like space, time takes on different characteristics in the digitized city. The Internet has contributed to a new way of problematizing time as embodied in human agency and social institutions, a time that is produced on a global scale, irrespective of time zones. This essay examines the contours, content and deployment of virtual time and of the cyberweek that it makes possible. It contrasts real time with virtual time to show the malleability of the latter, examines the ways in which the collapse of temporal boundaries and the compression of time-distance have manifested themselves in the cybertiming and flexitiming of the civil week, explores the global and local aspects of the cyberweek, and analyses the practical ramifications of virtual time in the daily life of the digital city.