The paradox of time experience in the digital age and its roots

Abstract This study based on the perspective of the history of philosophy to systematically demonstrate the essential identity between time and consciousness, revealing the essence of time as the basic form of human perception, experience, and cognitive world. Building on this theoretical foundation and incorporating insights from critical social theory—particularly the critique of social acceleration—to analyze temporal experience in the digital age. Our research finds that the digital technology revolution is causing unprecedented temporal alienation: the dialectical coexistence of ephemerality and permanence, acceleration compulsions and experiential scarcity, busyness and meaninglessness. Through critical analysis, we identify the deep-rooted source of this temporal paradox, that is, the dual differentiation of the nature of time brought about by technological acceleration, which detaches time from the structure of consciousness, leading to the dual split of individual time and social time, and causing individual time to be completely subordinated to the social time system. Through this analysis, the study advances the critique of social acceleration theory by establishing its deeper philosophical foundations.