ABSTRACT
The average American adult has about 5 hours and 15 minutes a day of free time. Free time is typically defined as time that is spent neither working (paid or unpaid) nor sleeping. Men have about half an hour more than this; women about half an hour less (Mattingly & Bianchi, 2003). Other differences exist as well, of course. For example, married women have less free time than married men and less than unmarried women. Those with children have less free time than those without and those who spend more hours in paid employment generally have less. Children, even those of school age, have the most free time of all. The concept of free time is central to this chapter: how it is used, and how television-as a potentially continuous medium-is perceived to interrupt, interfere with, or waste time. Of the 120 nonviewers interviewed, only two adults and five children (6%) did not spontaneously mention time use, either that they had given up television in order to have more time, that watching television took too much time, or that watching television was not the way they wanted to spend their time. In interviews with those who did watch
television, time use was mentioned by 75%. Specifically, they mentioned that television was a waste of either their own time or the time of others who watched it (e.g., a spouse). In this chapter, the defining feature of television is its potentially ongoing and omnipresent nature.
