Read This (If You Have the Time)

So . . . everyone is busy, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. No one has any time. Stress is rising, people work longer hours, and down time is at its lowest level ever.

So says most people, and so says a study by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing released this week. It’s a well-known fact that time spent together with families has been declining for decades, and as the report puts it, families don’t even have time to eat meals together.

As you may expect, I disagree.

I am somewhat familiar with the trend in time studies over the past little while, and the true story is not as sensational as the newspapers make it out to be. Family time is lower than it used to be, but only because people are choosing to do something else. Let’s take a closer look at the Wellbeing report’s numbers. Here’s how the average Canadian’s time breaks down:

Sleep: 34.6%
Eating and care: 9.6%
Paid work: 16.3%
Unpaid work (housework?): 16.7%

So far we’re up to 77.2%. What do you think the remaining 22.8% comprises? Go on, guess.

Social and sports: 12.4%
TV, etc.: 10.4%

So 22.8% of our time (one-third of our waking hours) is spent socializing, playing sports, and watching TV (and I assume that also includes video games, internet – any screen time). That’s 5 hours a day! It’s hard to claim you’re in a time crunch if you’re watching, on average, 2.5 hours of TV a day. And this is the story of the time-study data that has been going on for decades – people have less time because the time they used to spend relaxing, interacting with family, and enjoying arts and culture has gone to TV.

Obviously this breakdown does not apply to everyone, but as an average it paints a pretty clear picture. We have time, but we choose to spend it in front of a screen. If people aren’t interacting with their families, its because they are prioritizing something else (in some cases work, in some cases socializing, in some cases Mario and Luigi).

I think if most people kept a journal of how they spent their time, they would be surprised by how much time is used up in front of a screen, especially considering that most of us feel very rushed with everything we have to do. And everyone is entitled to watch TV to relax and unwind, but recognize that you are making an implicit choice by doing so, choosing screen time over interpersonal time.

So the next time someone asks you how it’s going, and you say “busy,” think about what you mean. We have all the time in the world, so spend some of it on family instead of Family Guy.