It is a Saturday morning in spring as the sun shines generously through the burgeoning leaves of the trees that rejuvenate the park. In the wavering patchwork of light and shade, a father helps his son climb the ladder up to the slide, shoulder hunched, cellphone nestled habitually in the crook of his neck. When the child reaches the bottom, he emits a shriek of glee, searching his fatherās face, which discloses obliviousness to the boyās excitement. The father is now absorbed in a text message demanding his prompt attention.
There appears to be nothing particularly unusual about the above scene. Yet, this potentially ideal snapshot of free time, much like others that I have observed, has made me wonder about the way in which people use and experience free time and to what extent it is indeed āfree.ā I often hear people complaining about their crammed schedules saying, āI donāt have time.ā But what is meant by this commonly heard phrase? Does it mean time for the family, time for oneself or simply an opportunity to do what one chooses? And is our free time really a matter of free choice?
I asked myself how people feel about their free time and why they perform certain practices. Perhaps free time is not simply aimed at pleasure . Could it also be a site for self-management? I frequently see people walking or jogging energetically, checking their watches or phone apps as they do so. I wonder, is sport considered part of their free time or is it treated as yet another chore on a long list of daily requirements? Why are we constantly rushed, and lured to a plethora of devices promising to save time though they may actually consume more and more of our time? People seem to be forever time-pressured, yet watch television for hours. How can these contradictions be explained?
These questions led me to embark on the research on which this book is based. I wanted to gain deeper insight into how people experience and evaluate free time, what motivates practices in that regard, and how cultural repertoires available to them are related to the way they talk and think about free time. What do people feel about that time? Do they think about it in terms of freedom? And if so, by investigating free time, could we learn what people consider worth doing? I hoped that the exploration of free time would thus reveal what is highly valued in our culture and how free time is related to the self. Put differently, if people decide to pursue certain activities during that part of the day they consider to be āfree,ā could their choices reflect cultural ideals of self or notions of worthy time use?
We are all caught in the flow of everyday life, putting little thought into why we spend our time as we do, whether it is a daily ritual that seems mundane or other activities that feel more meaningful. What motivates us to perform certain free time practices? Why are some activities more highly valued than others? To what extent is free time culturally constructed? Time Freedom and the Self seeks to illuminate questions concerning individual agency in the face of cultural and discursive constructs, which are likely to shape, not only the way we use our time, but also how we perceive and experience it. In other words, while I use the term āfree time ,ā I do not mean that the individual is entirely free to make choices. Rather, I recognize the role of sociocultural influences that may direct oneās actions and shape subjective meanings despite the common association of free time with freedom.
In order to explore the above, I interviewed 43 men and women living in an upper-middle class town located in central Israel. Since I, myself, am a resident of a satellite town of Tel Aviv , the sample of the study may seem somewhat too close for comfort. Indeed, as I embarked on the current journey into free time, I wondered about the extent of my ability to examine the field from the point of view of a researcher looking in on the subject of interest from the outside. However, much like a participant-observer in ethnographic studies, I believe that my intimate familiarity with the field helped me better understand the social reality of my participants. Moreover, the fact that I have raised children and been involved in the communal and cultural life of a suburban community in Israel is likely to have given me extra insight into widely accepted practices in everyday middle class life. Nevertheless, hoping to shed light on meanings behind taken-for-granted free time routines, I, as researcher made a conscious effort to take on an outsiderās perspective.
My challenge was to give voice to peopleās thoughts and feelings, and address the question of freedom without assuming preconceived ideas of the individual as utter cultural dope, nor presupposing a fully autonomous agent. As a sociologist, my intent was to listen with a critical ear, aiming at digging deeper, beyond taken-for-granted conceptions and practices of free time. This book presents the insights resulting from this search. It is shaped by the voices of 43 individuals who willingly shared their thoughts and feelings about their experience and perceptions of free time so as to allow a deeper understanding of questions related to time, freedom and selfhood in the context of culture.
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When we think and talk about time, we relate to it as though it is tangible, something that we can spend, save or put away for another day. We treat it as a rare commodity as we do money . There never seems to be enough of it and what we have, is expected to be used wisely. Yet we are constantly afraid of wasting time so we attempt to regulate it in order to utilize it efficiently. Time-management is thus considered commendable, a means of control over this ever-elusive element in our lives. However, time does not behave as a concrete substance and the more we try to contain it, the less we are able to do so, resulting in a heightened sense of frustration and time pressure.
In order to control and manage our time, modernity has provided us with a wide array of inventions and technology. Domestic time-saving machines and devices, from pressure-cookers and washing machines to vacuum cleaners and microwaves, were all intended to give us greater control over our time and allow us more free more time for pleasure or activities of our choice. Indeed, much of modern technology promises to make our lives easier precisely by saving time , speed being a central selling point. We are coaxed into upgrading our mobile phones and computers to the latest models so as to save ourselves only fractions of seconds. However, all these inventions have not necessarily contributed to a more relaxed lifestyle. On the contrary, multitasking, time-management, busyness and productivity have become the catchwords of contemporary life . We seem to be constantly rushing around trying to squeeze as much as possible into our heavy schedules.
Perhaps then, time cannot really be managed at all. Neither can it be saved. It seems to me that the concept of time calls for metaphoric descriptions that are amorphous, not countable or concrete. Time may be more like gas that dissipates in the air, or, possibly, like a vacuum that constantly needs to be filled. It is like the seeds of a dandelion, ironically called clocks, that scatter in the wind, some of which may prove to be productive but some of which, may not. Although we want to think about time as containable, it is difficult to find a satisfactory metaphor, precisely because it is obscure and full of contradictions.
We have become obsessed with time management , but rather than calming us by satisfying our need to control, it seems to have exacerbated the inner tensions brought about by the expectations of productivity and busyness, of constant activity and movement. It is no longer legitimate to just sit at a bus stop and observe passersby, or stand in line at the supermarket looking around. The fear of idleness and, perhaps, being perceived as being idle, makes us busy ourselves on our smartphones, constantly checking and rechecking our messages or simply browsing through our phones so that we feel as though we are doing something with our time. Every minute must be utilized and managed. It is no wonder then, that a Google search of the words time management, gives us millions of results. These include articles, study guides, lectures, training workshops, videos and self-help books that promise to provide tips on how to āmanage your time better,ā 1 āachieve more and be more effectiveā 2 or āwork less and play more.ā 3 Books with intriguing names like āEat That Frog,ā offer āways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time,ā 4 while other books promise to teach us āHow to Be a Productivity Ninja,ā 5 or āThe Art of Stress-Free Productivity.ā 6
Is this need for efficiency and productivity a new phenomenon or is it simply becoming more pronounced because of modern technology that places so much emphasis on speed and results? I remember when I was a teenager, my grandmother, a widow in her late 70s, used to spend time in our home. She would say repeatedly, āplease give me something to do.ā It was not a hobby or pleasure that she sought. She simply wanted to do something she considered useful, like sewing, folding washing or chopping vegetables. She would say, āIām not going to just sit here with my arms crossed.ā Only when my mother succumbed to her request and gave her something productive to do, did she finally feel better. So, perhaps a need for productivity and busyness is not anything new. My grandmother had always been a busy person, running a household and caring for her large family. However, unlike today, she did not have all the modern conveniences, which supposedly allow us more time. This brings us to the widely discussed question of time pressure, which we read and hear about in the media, as well as in time use research. Why do we seem to be so rushed despite modern technology designed to save us time? What makes us feel time-pressured even though studies indicate that we work less than in the past? And why do people say that they have very little free time despite evidence from time use reports that suggest otherwise? Indeed, after beginning the study, when friends asked what I was researching and I told them that the subject of my work was āfree time,ā the most common reaction, said facetiously, was āWhatās that?ā Another response, expressed by many in a wistful tone was, āI wish I had fr...