Proceedings of the IISES Annual Conference, Sevilla, Spain

TIME CHRUNCH OR THE FRONTIER OF THE NIGHT

JOHANNA GICZI

Abstract:

The average member of a contemporary society lives nearly for hundred years already. Science fiction? No. Genetics? Again, no. Time, be it spent on leisure or work, is the latest commodity we all are short on – for this reason the man of the twenty-first century seeks to make the most out of a given unit of time, with the result of a pressure to cram more and more activities into a short span of time. Combining physical measures of time spent on main and second activities as recorded in time use surveys we are able to define the true length of our days in logical measures of time – to arrive to longevity I will term extended life; at the same time, analyzing variance of said survey data, it is possible to obtain answers to the crunch of time as experienced by all of us. Analyzing numbers and characteristics of activities of those complaining of time stress, we shall use the novel way mentioned above to discuss if their life is rushed indeed. Working with time use patterns and –strategies my aim is to point out the quandary of the individual of our times – one of the greatest motivational and self-justifying problem in itself defining his very integration into society: the lack, or perceived lack of time and its characteristics. We shall be paying particular attention to what socio-demographic characteristics might increase or decrease stress of time in our lives and proof that the patriarchal time regime does exist indeed.

Keywords: time use research, patriarchal time regime, time stress

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2018.035.019

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