摘要：

Controversial findings about leisure time and the ways Americans perceive and use it. Is it possible that Americans have more free time than they did thirty years ago? While few Americans may believe it, research based on careful records of how Americans actually spend their time says that they have almost five hours more free time than in the 1960s. Here time-use experts John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey explain this surprising trend and how it has come about. They also discuss why so few Americans apparently appreciate how their free time has increased or how that new free time is being used. Robinson and Godbey come to their startling conclusions based on national surveys using the time-diary method. In these diaries, cross-section samples of Americans describe how they spent time on a particular day, rather than giving simple estimates of where their time goes. The diary method functions as something like a "social microscope", in terms of revealing why "a day in the life of America" is so different from how it appears from more superficial observations and estimates. Based on these diaries and other supporting accounts of how daily life is experienced, Robinson and Godbey challenge many commonly held beliefs about how everyday life is changing. For instance, they claim that -- Americans are not working longer hours on their jobs -- Women's total work time is not significantly higher than men's -- Parents are not spending less time with their children -- Americans are not spending less time on sleep, meals, or religion. Such findings provide the first comprehensive picture of how American daily life has been changing over the last three decades. Robinson andGodbey document the notable ways that men's and women's lives have become more similar over that period, while differences across many other demographic factors have become more divergent. They argue that our society's sense of "time famine" stems from the increased emphasis on the "consumption" of experiences and from the phenomenon of "time deepening", doing more and doing things more quickly and simultaneously. Their unique source of time-use information, The Americans' Use of Time Project, is the only such detailed historical data archive in the country. Every ten years the project has been asking thousands of Americans to report their daily activities on an hour-by-hour basis. These more careful and complete accounts of where time goes lead to notably different conclusions from those reached by earlier authors who have written on America's time famine, such as Juliet Schor in The Overworked American and Arlie Hochschild in The Second Shift. Robinson and Godbey go beyond describing their controversial findings to confront the numerous time paradoxes facing Americans, such as feeling more rushed and stressed when we actually have more free time, having free time in periods when it is least useful, and investing time on activities that bring us minimal enjoyment or fulfillment (e.g., television watching). Overall, Robinson and Godbey reassure readers that they indeed have "time for life".

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