Leisure activities change as people grow. As children, they often have more time for leisure activities due to the fact that they have more time on their hands. Adults and teenagers, are given more responsibilities and are left with less time on their hands. Adults and teens either have jobs or are in school which is why they are so busy. Nonetheless, adults still have leisure time even though it may only be a couple of hours per week. The time that an individual has for leisure is usually influenced by existing social structures in our society. Even though having a job may seem like the main factor that affects one’s leisure time there are many other factors that affect it including religion, biological, environmental, and many other factors. It can be seen that many individuals have different preferences of what to do during their leisure time based on the recreational activities they choose to do. This is determined by one’s specific interests, family interests, and social and environmental interests but sociocultural factors do influence it too. Because I am a student, most of my time is spent commuting, studying, attending lectures and labs, and sleeping. When it comes to my leisure time, it is spent watching tv, being on my phone, or hanging out with friends. My leisure map shows that most of my time is dedicated to school whether it is by studying or commuting. With that being said, school is one of the biggest restrictions on leisure time. I do get to go to work and make some money but most of it goes towards bills which makes me have to be money conscious. I also am a female and am limited in what I am allowed to do based on my parent’s approval. My leisure time is largely affected by education, economic status, and gender which have an influence on the decisions that I choose to make and the free time I encounter.
When looking at my leisure time map there are multiple sequences I noticed. A lot of my free time is spent around lunch and dinner which I am typically on my phone or watching TV. These are my favorite activities to do because it is the time when I am able to relax and not focus on school or anything else. And something I also noticed is that when I am on my phone or just watching TV, I only do it for a couple of hours so I am not spending a lot of time doing something that is not that important. I also spend a great amount of my time taking naps on the days when I do not get enough sleep at night, so on Monday and Wednesday. However, I do find time to hang out with friends on campus and talk to them on the phone which usually does not last long since I have classes or studying to get back to. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have classes that take place around 8:30 am. Luckily, I finish early on these days so when I get home, I can take a nap if need be and then carry on with studying. On Tuesdays, I always have a lab at eleven in the morning and an hour-and-a-half class right after that lab. I typically do not attend that class because it is recorded and posted online so when I get home, I just listen to them then. If my lab finishes early, I would usually hang out with my friends until they have to go to class and this can last for about half an hour. Thursdays are my longest days at school. I have a tutorial at 11:30 am and right after I have another class that lasts for two hours and then once that is finished, I have a big three-hour gap till my next class. During this gap, I normally get something to eat and hang out with friends. If my friends do not end up coming to school that day then I would just go to the library and study. Studying is something that I spend most of my time doing. It is not a fun leisure activity for me but I do see it helping me immensely in the future so it is something that I choose to spend most of my time on. On Fridays I do not have class, this gives me some extra free time to do whatever I want. Typically, I would just go window shopping just to get out of the house so that I do not have to spend any money. I also like to spend Fridays with my mom and my sister, and we might go out for lunch or dinner. I do have a job which I attend every Saturday. The shift is from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, so this is something that takes up the majority of my day. Once I get home from work, I will relax for a little bit and then get back to studying. Since I did work all day, I let myself go to bed early on Saturdays because I am normally very tired once I come home. Sundays are the days that I dedicate to sleeping in and doing my entire family’s laundry, which is why it takes me the whole day. I still am able to study and do laundry since it only takes a couple of minutes to transfer the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer. Since commuting can take up to four hours per day, because I take the bus, this restricts my time from being out. On average per day, I spend around two to four hours doing leisure activities and around sixteen to twenty hours per week doing leisure activities. These leisure activities that I choose to do are the easiest and most convenient for me and do not put too much stress on my body which is why I enjoy doing them.
Education is one of the main sociocultural factors that influence my free time. I personally believe that individuals need an education to aid in their future. This is why I choose to study in my free time. Research studies done by Liem and McInerney (2018, pg. 23) made a new theory called Goal Contents theory which suggests that students spend a substantial amount of time on their education so that they can reach their lifelong goals which can include money, fame, jobs, and power. This theory is what many students live by including myself. This could be because of our parents’ pressure on us or just our mentality. For me, it is because of my mentality. Growing up with my parents, I have seen them go through very hard times and it only pushes me more to want to have a better future. Prof. Parissa Safai spoke about how as humans we live in a system of meritocracy, this means that in order to progress in life we need to put a lot of effort into working to obtain success (Safai, 2018). The term working can be used in many ways because you have to have some sort of start off, like education, to be able to reach success. More research shows that there is a highly correlated relationship between education and occupation (Lyke, 2018). In other words, the higher the education you have the better the job you might obtain. Education is one of the greatest determinants of whether one is accepted for a specific job or not and how much one will end up being paid. Many high-paying jobs require individuals to have certain levels of education, and the only way to qualify for the job is to have that level of education. Obviously, this is not the case for everyone, some jobs only require certain skills. But the profession that I wish to be in the future, which is an athletic therapist, requires many years of school and good grades. Also, with education, I do commute to school. It can take up to four hours, going and coming, so this restricts my time from any leisure activities I could be doing. If I did not live so far away from York, I really think I would be able to go to the gym or hang out with friends more. I would have more leisure time on my hands to do whatever I want. The power that education has over oneself is abundant. Education can control a lot over a person; for example, how much free time one might have as a teenager or what kind of job they end up having as an adult. If you end up spending a mass amount of time focused on school you tend to forget all the other things you can be doing with your life which is why education is so powerful. This is why I like to use my free time in a wise way to further better myself.
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Having a job always brings positives and negatives to one’s life. Positives because people need money in order to survive but negatives because people have to watch what they spend their money on so that they can survive. For me, my economic status is another main sociocultural factor that influences my leisure time. I would be considered to be a part of the working-class group because I do have a job and have to pay bills and other necessities. With that being said, the amount of money I make dictates the amount of free time I have and how much money I will spend during my free time. When I am looking for activities to do during my free time, I have to make sure that I am able to afford them at that very moment. This is why when I hang out with friends, I make sure that I have paid any bills that need to be paid and also bought any other essentials that I need at that time. A recent study done by Statistics Canada (2010), proves that people are spending less time socializing with friends and families, communicating, and going out with others due to the cost of certain activities. With this being said, it is becoming a more popular activity to just stay home rather than go out and spend money. In another survey, it was found that teens partake in default leisure activities like watching tv because it is strongly affected by employment (Greene & Staff, 2012). It is easy for teens and adults to stay home and just be on the web and still be able to connect with their friends and peers. There is nothing wrong with socializing in person but there is no need to spend money every single time people hang out. They can just walk around the city or go over to each other’s houses and have a good time. Also, being that I am paying for my education on my own, I need to make sure that I am saving so that I will be able to pay off my education in the future and hopefully not have to take out any loans or be in debt. The power that having a job has over someone’s leisure time can vary for the actual type of job and the amount of money one makes. Some people only work part-time and have more free time on their hands and some work long shifts and do not have enough time to do much when they get home from work. Also, if one has necessities that need to be paid off first then their leisure time may be restricted from that. But for some, they are lucky and are able to have another source of income, maybe their parents, who can support them financially. My economic status is something that strongly influences the leisure activities I choose to do. I have to save money for more important essentials and not spend money on something that is not a requirement for me.
It is very common for strict parents to have control over what leisure activities they allow their daughter or son to do. In my family, this is very much the case. Being that I am female and living with very strict parents, they end up deciding whom I spend my leisure time with, what I end up doing, and where I end up going. That is why, in my leisure map, I do not really hang out with friends or other people outside of school. They will usually interrogate me about whom I am hanging out with, how I know the person, and if the person has good intentions or not. My parents have total control over my free time because they are looking out for my safety. However, life is not always going to be like this and I will need to experience it one day. Something that Prof. Parissa Safai said in the lecture is that parents think the world outside their house is a dangerous place which is why they like to bubble-wrap their children in order to keep them safe (2018). In other words, parents tell children everything that is wrong and unsafe in the world to intimidate them. Do not get me wrong I am very much grateful for my parents, they just need to loosen up sometimes. An analysis by Smetana (2011, pg. 118) shows how to subordinate roles, which are females, experience greater restrictions from parents and evaluate certain practices as being unfair when not allowed to do them. Even though parents are looking out for their daughters, the daughters end up missing out on leisure activities like hanging out with friends or going out. These restrictions only hold females back while males are permitted to do whatever they want. My brother, for example, is allowed to go out every single day, and stay out as late as he wants, he can do whatever he prefers to do with no questions asked by my parents. A study that took place in 2017 by Statistics Canada, shows that men were slightly more likely to live with their parents rather than women. With this fact, it can be seen that women do not want to live with their parents more than men do because women want to start a new life and experience new events. Living under the roof of your parents can sometimes only hold you back and being a female does not help you most of the time. In a way, parents have power especially ones who are single-minded and think that poor things will only happen to their daughters. When in fact wrong things can happen to anyone whether they be female or male. It is just a chance parents have to take. The power that they are given is evidently granted but parents should allow their children to do what they please to do and let them learn from their mistakes. That is why gender is another significant factor that influences my leisure time.
Ultimately, my leisure time is spent doing very minimalistic things. This includes watching tv, going on my phone, and hanging out with friends while I am at school. Many sociocultural factors do play a big role in how one’s leisure time is spent and through my leisure time map that can be seen. Many others have different interests and recreational preferences so the sociocultural factors that influence them are different from mine. I personally spend a lot of time with school whether it be by commuting or studying or just attending a lecture or lab. I also have a job but the money I get from it goes towards bills and other necessities so I am restricted to what leisure activities I do that require money. In addition, I am female and I do live with very strict parents who have a say in who and where I hang out. My leisure time is greatly affected by these three sociocultural factors; education, economic status, and gender, these aspects have a strong influence on my decisions and on my free time. Regardless, I would rather have less leisure time right now so that in the future I am able to have an amazing job that will let me take time off whenever I want.
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