ABSTRACT

IMPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL HOUSEHOLDS: DIGITAL DOMESTIC WORK

The changes brought about by the pandemic affect the most private and personal place in society: the home. One’s residence is currently the environment in which one can perform various professional activities with the help of technology. The digitalization of households brings with it a new responsibility, which involves the realization of a new activity that was not so much studied by sociology: digital domestic work. This article answers three research questions: What are the main digital household tasks performed by members of digitized households? How is digital domestic work organized in a digitized household? and How do members of digitized households relate to digital domestic work? In this qualitative research, I used the method of thematic analysis of social documents. Thus, I analyzed the content of 32 audio-video materials documenting the life of four digitized households. The main results of the study capture the pro-active, active and reactive ways of performing digital domestic tasks. The members of the digitized households that were analyzed, represented by content creators (YouTubers), assume the responsibility of carrying out the digital domestic tasks, which, however, they consider optional. The implications of the emergence of digital domestic work directly affect the quality of personal and professional activities carried out within the household, and indirectly the technology industry and labor policies.

Keywords: digital domestic work, digital household, pandemic, digital tasks, digital devices.

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