TREND WATCH

Time Is Everything

BY ELLEN O'SULLIVAN, Ph.D., CLP

Some trend watchers say we are becoming a nation of busy bodies, spending more time working and less enjoying leisure pursuits. It may be time to take a more in-depth look at free time, the 21st century's hottest commodity.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

What money was to the '80s, time is to the coming millennium.

Lee Burns, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, L.A., was one of the first to report the BB (busy body) factor, citing the role affluence plays in decreasing leisure time. This BB syndrome reduces time involved in religion, the arts, love, eating, housework, children, pets, thinking, politics, and social relations.

Two recently published books on this timely topic reflect the relationship between time, money, and leisure: The Time Bind:
When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work (Arlie Russell Hochschild) and Time for Life: The Surprising Way Americans Use Their Time (GeoffGodbey).

Hochschild purports that people find work more rewarding than time at home:

• Among middle-class parents in their 30s, one-third of fathers and one-fifth of mothers described themselves as "workaholics"

• In 1993, 56% of women with children between ages 6 and 17 worked full-time outside the home and 43% of women with children 6 and under did the same

Godbey and Robinson both say that while Americans have more leisure time, increased expectations related to what is considered necessary lead to symptoms of a harried lifestyle and perceptions of less free time:

• the most time-crunched Americans are college-educated parents with two or more young children and people who work more than 40 hours per week

• men and women have approximately 40 hours of free time per week, a gain of about 5 hours since 1965; about 15 of those 40 hours are spent watching television

PLAY TIME

About 40% of adults visited an animal attraction in the past year (28% visited zoos, 17% aquariums, 10% wild animal parks) —Bruskin/Golding Research

Approximately one-third of adults attended at least one music concert in the last year and 23% attended more than one (25% rock, 23% country, 9% classical, 8% pop, 7% soul, 7% religious, 4% jazz) —Louis Harris and Associates

Road racing's 21st century replacement is the Hi-Tec Adventure Racing Series with trail running, mountain hiking, kayaking, plus sudden mystery challenges —USA Today

EMERGING TRENDS

Credit cards, police departments and suntan lotion all have one thing in common:
"municipal marketing." Its corporate sponsorship with a decidedly public approach. Beaches in Los Angeles County, Calif, feature the Ford Ranger as the official vehicle and Speedo swimsuits for lifeguard uniforms. Panama Jack is the lifeguard sun lotion of Ocean City, Md., with Coca-Cola vying for official soft drink status. Visa is Atlanta's "official" credit card and San Francisco's "preferred" card. No end's in sight as Candlestick Park becomes 3Com Park and Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium is renamed Cincergy Field.

PATTERNS & PREFERENCES

Americans are walking their talk about quality time and leisure as they shift spending from houses and cars to products and services that help people "have a life," such as mountain bikes, educational toys, museum memberships, computers, and home entertainment centers —The Wall Street Journal

Heroin users have increased from 41,000 in 1990 to 196,000 in 1995, representing a new generation of users: yuppie, suburban addicts —The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

26.7% or six million teens smoked cigars in 1996 —Centers for Disease Control

NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) are showing up all across the country as the nations older population maintains its roots —Modern Maturity

TRY TIME TRIM

Time—potentially the most highly valued asset of the 21st century— is the stuff that recreation and leisure are made of. Conduct a "time trim" at your agency. Look for ways to help people make the most of this precious resource. Be sure to review policies and procedures as well as programs.

ELLEN O'SULLIVAN, Ph.D. CLP
is the president of Leisure lifestyle Consulting or Glastonbury, Conn., specializing in support for the service industry in reaching and retaining customers through leisure experiences and lifestyle connections.

July/August 1997 /41