The New Challenges of Free Time in the Future Society ^†

Abstract

This article aims to talk about the new challenges of free time in the future society. In the future society, humanity’s physical and mental work will be liberated, and thus humans will have more free time. However, poor utility, management, and creation of free time will result in salient problems to hinder human development, in which the improper allocation of free time, the low quality of free time, and the fragmentation of free time will greatly challenge human development in the future society. The conclusion of this article is that free time is a very critical part of realizing the free and all-round development of all humans, so how we face the three new challenges and learn to use, manage, and create free time is not only an urgent task but also a philosophical question for us to deeply ponder.

1. The Improper Allocation of Free Time

Based on the division of time by Karl Marx, as it is shown in Figure 1, time can be divided into labor time and free time, in which, free time not only includes meaningful free time, but also meaningless free time, which I call idle time. During idle time, we do not labor, so it still belongs to free time, but it’s meaningless free time, because we do nothing meaningful during this time, and time just passes away naturally. For example, when we lie in the couch, we’re awake but we think and do nothing, because we don’t know what to do and during this time, our mind is totally blank. So, I call this period of meaningless free time as idle time. In most cases, free time literally means meaningful free time, and it can be further divided into leisure time, which is used for recreational activities in order to relax ourselves, and development time, which is used for creative activities in order to develop ourselves.

The first new challenge of free time in the future society would be the improper allocation of free time, which is reflected in the two levels of the division of free time. In the first-level division of free time, the possible problem would be that idle time occupies too great a percentage and meaningful time too little. However, when free time is meaningful free time, it is good for human development; idle time just passes away naturally, and it is nothing meaningful for humans. In the second-level division of free time, the possible problem would be that leisure time occupies too great a percentage and development time too little. Both leisure time and development time are good for human development, but only development time used for creative activities can develop human potentials, raise human abilities, and embody unique human values. As Marx has said, development time is the “time for higher activity [1] (pp. 221–226)”, so it is more valuable for human development.

If free time only consists in meaningless free time, free time will not be valuable for realizing free and all-round human development; if free time is only used for recreational activities not creative activities, the value of free time will be under-utilized. We should realize that, in the future society, all mechanical or repetitive work, even all the non-creative work done by humans now, will be easily completed by machines one day, so the proper and wise allocation of time is very important for keeping the uniqueness of humans and guaranteeing the position of the human as a social subject [2].

2. The Low Quality of Free Time

The future society will provide good conditions for creating more free time, which means that it is possible for us to obtain more free time in the future society. However, the second new challenge of free time would be that the length of free time will be prolonged, but the quality of free time lowered. The reason is that working hours in the future society will be shortened, but working tasks in each hour will be greater and the working intensity will be increased accordingly. Due to the great pressure during work time, many people will not be able to completely relax themselves during free time, and their minds will be kept in a state of high tension. In the future society, the machines will be more powerful, and it will be possible for machines to have equal social status with humans. At the stage of ASI (artificial super intelligence) especially, machines will have the capabilities to replace humans to perform most human jobs, and many people will thereby have a strong sense of the crisis of unemployment; they will feel anxiety and horror due to the fear that they may fall into the lowest stratum of society, so they cannot truly relax. Because of that, many people will force themselves to learn new skills related to their work during their free time, and thus the free time will be transformed into labor time as a result. So, we can see that, the length of free time will indeed be prolonged in the future society, but the quality of free time cannot be guaranteed.

Besides, in the future society, many companies will employ a flexible working system or a task-oriented working system, which means that humans can decide how to use their free time according to their free will to a greater extent. At that time, whether they will have more free time will depend on personal awareness of time and their working efficiency. For example, a task could be finished within some certain time, but due to low working efficiency, the time which is needed will be multiplied. As a result, the working hour will be prolonged, and the free time will be shortened. However, the working result is the same, but free time is gradually lost. What’s more, many people mix labor time and free time together. It seems that one is working hard, and he even sacrifices his sleeping time for his work, but because of the low working efficiency, not only is the length of free time shortened, but the quality of free time also lowered.

In a famous book written by Wang, someone asked: “Ordinarily one’s mind is much flustered. It is so whether we are occupied or not. Why?” He answered: “In the dynamic operation of the material force of the universe there is from the beginning not a moment of rest. But there is the master. Consequently, the operation has its regular order and it goes on neither too fast nor too slowly. The master (that is, the wonderful functioning of creation) is always calm despite hundreds of changes and thousands of transformations. This process makes it possible for man to live. If, while the master remains calm, the mind is ceaseless as heavenly movements are ceaseless, it will always be at ease despite countless changes in its dealings with things. As it is said, ‘The original mind remains calm and serene, and all parts of the body obey its command. If there is no master, the vital force will simply run wild. How can the mind not be flustered?” [3] (pp. 66–67). The remarks by Wang can inspire us to think about why we are always so busy and our minds are much flustered that we cannot enjoy our free time that truly belongs to us.

3. The Fragmentation of Time

Time is originally a systematic and continuous existence, but people always divide it into several pieces, and thus time becomes fragmented. For example, many people often habitually check their phone calls or messages every few minutes during their learning or working time, and thus the continuous time is interrupted, and it is fragmented into several pieces; many people don’t have patience to watch a complete movie, but they’d rather spend a lot of time on short videos. That’s the third new challenge of free time that we will face in the future society.

In fact, the fragmentation of time comes from the contradiction between the finite time and the multiple human desires. In other words, people always want to do many things simultaneously, but time is finite and things themselves are inseparable, so it is very difficult for people to do multiple things at the same time, thus resulting in the fragmentation of time. Now, the above examples of the fragmentation of time can be explained. The reason why many people often habitually check their phone calls or messages every a few minutes during their learning or working time is that, on the one hand, they want to read a book or they want to work, while on the other hand, they don’t want to miss the social information from their friends in all kinds of social platforms, and these two things contradicts with each other within finite time; the reason why many people spend a lot of time on short videos is that, they want to watch movies in all kinds of genres, but they don’t have enough time to watch them all, so they tend to short videos which have different styles and different contents with shorter time for each. In the short term, it seems that the fragmentation of time has met the needs of people, but in the long run, it will result in the alienation of human existence and human essence.

The fragmentation of time reflects the separation of human self and the incompleteness of human personality. John Cottingham holds that ethical systems implicitly acknowledge the importance of a unified and integrated life; integrity is indispensable for a good life; the fragmented or compartmentalized life is always subject to instability, in so far as unresolved psychological conflicts and tensions may threaten our ethical plans and projects; however, a stable and integrated life requires self-awareness, and it is suggested that self-awareness is not a simple matter, but requires a complex process of self-discovery [4].

4. Conclusions

Karl Marx said: “Time is in fact the active existence of the human being. It is not only the measure of human life. It is the space for its development” [5]. In time, free time is the most important part for realizing free and all-round human development [6]. So, facing those new challenges of free time, how we use, manage, and create free time in the future society will be a very critical task for us humans. As Russell has said, “The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education”; “Without a considerable amount of leisure, a man is cut off from many of the best things” [7].