Whether people will have more time in 20 years later is not an easy question to answer becuase there will have been many variables over 20 years in the future. Nonetheless, it is possible for me to predict how much time people will have for their leisure activities based on several evidence: comparison between early 1900s lifestyle and modern lifestyle and little contribution of technological advance to leisure time.
The first evidence supporting the assumption that people will not have more time in 20 years later lies in the fact that technological advance does not guarantee more leisure time at all. In a reseach done by a famous researchers, they compared leisure time spent by normal people in the early 1900s when technological advance was not so significant and the time spent by modern people. They found out that there were no significant differences between the two times. The possible reasons are that although people benefit from the technology and it has been possible for them to spend less time in housing chores such as cleaning the house, watering flowers, and washing clothes, more time started to be spent on workplace because people had to work longer hours in order to buy such technologically advanced product. Another plausible reason for the research results is that people have been exposed to bigger community groups because of the Internet. In the end , people ended up spending more time taking care of extra relations from the Internet such as e-pal, facebooks, and so on. As such reasons are considered, it becomes clear that people are not likely to have more time in 20 years given the past histoy in terms of relationship between technological innovations and leisure time.
In addition to the previous argument, another evidence to corroborate the argument is that people are living in a more hectic society and this trend will continue for a long time. As many people know, with the development of transportations and machines, it became possible for people to travel from one side of the globe to the opposite side just in 24 hours. At first, it appeared to be bliss for humankind. However, it turned out to be a catalyst to impose busy lifestyle on the people . As a result, people spend less and less time on private things such as spending quality time with their families or having time for their hobbies. The typical example is the Internet. With many people using the Internet, many people was forced to spend their leisure time even on vacation and holidays checking their emails and corresponding with their companies. It is not uncommon to see many people bring their notebook even in restaurant or in touritst attractions. I think this trend will be getting worse in 20 years later since it is no doubt that advanced technology will encourage people to carry their communication devices in a more convenient way.
Leisure time is very important for people to recharge and refresh themselves in order for them to strat new challenges. Without leisure time, people would be easily bored and exhausted. However, as the above evidene illustrated, our future does not seem to be so bright since our advanced technology will deprive people of their free time rather than enrich their lives. |