Leisure in our society has become an assumed function in people’s livelihood. Vacation time, television, and sporting events are just a small portion of what people go to during their time off of work. Technology, the emergence of the Disneyland’s of the world, as well as progression in other areas of leisure has led man to spend more time away from work and more time enjoying these luxuries.
To begin with, the steady and rapid advancement of technology of the past few decades has increased the amount of leisure time relative to those prior to the technology jump. Simple things that we take for granted today such as laundry machines and dishwashers have decreased the amount of labor hours needed in a day, and have added more time for leisure hours in people’s everyday lives. Also, technological devices such as the television, personal computers, and mobile devices have caused growth in “playtime” in peoples lives. By “playtime” I am referring to the shift from a religious based society to leisure based one. Today, Sundays are being filled with sporting events and shopping malls rather than spending time in prayer.
With that, since the 1950’s there has been an increase in leisure time due to decreased work hours. In Europe, the workweek consists of a lowly 35 hours along with four to five weeks of holiday. This is not the case in all areas however. In some places, workweeks are so long that couples begin to refrain from sex due to exhaustion from work. The constant struggle between managing work time and leisure time is a battle that many, especially in the United States, deal with on a consistent basis. This leads to having more household leisure available, thus still increasing the leisure activity time. Continuing with working, another factor that adds into increased leisure is the increase of disposable income as a result of more women working.
Personally, I do agree that mankind as a whole has shifted into being a leisure society. Like I stated before, things such as vacationing, sporting events, and television have become a regular, if not