Colonising digital time. A study of users’ temporal experience on digital platforms.

Drawing on 40 auto-ethnographic diaries, this contribution investigates young users’ temporal experiences with digital platforms in Italy. Findings reveal patterns of intense algorithmic media consumption to alleviate boredom and sadness, alongside feelings of frustration and inadequacy due to perceptions of time wasted. In this scenario, I argue that digital platforms contribute to the construction and colonisation of users’ temporal experience through captivating infrastructures, communicational affordances and gamification features, which enable users retention and the datafication of their behaviour. These dynamics favour the further expansion of extractive practices and forms of colonial power into the micro-texture of everyday digital life.