# Free Time By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-09-26 Whether in school or work, people often daydream about what they will be doing in their free time. The notion of free time is complex. It is certainly a social construction that emerges from a work focus. But what is free time? For those who have taken an introductory economics course the concept of opportunity cost is a useful place to start. Opportunity cost expresses the notion that for any action there is a “cost” associated with what one is not doing. If one is working, one is unable to play; if one is playing, one is unable to nap. And so it goes… From an economic perspective, free time isn’t free because that time could always be put to a different use. Perhaps a more accurate way of conceptualizing free time would be autonomous time. This places focus on its essence. During “free” time one is responsible for deciding what to do. It is a time that is not directed by authority figures. It is the time to do what one wants. Again, how people tend to use autonomous time is socially constructed. From childhood, we are instructed to play. Maybe in adulthood, we develop the vice of drinking. In many of these socially sanctioned activities people simply blow off steam and get ready for the next day. In short, the subtle direction is to consume autonomous time such that it replicates the input for the next day. What if people used autonomous time to improve and they did this perpetually? There is no “making it.” Instead, one takes autonomous time to create ways that maximize one’s ability to be authentic and self-actualize, and then also creates ways to socialize this paradigm. There is a great deal of social programming to overcome. The indoctrination of free time starts early and is reinforced throughout one’s career. Making strategic use of autonomous time to liberate oneself and others from a system designed for replication of inputs won’t be easy. Our current “free time,” is more like the time one gets to walk around a prison yard. One is outside, but one certainly isn’t free. What is truly needed for humans to experience [[life]] at its fullest is autonomy. The trick is to use the socially-sanctioned free time to gain autonomy. #### Related Items [[Time]] [[Self-Actualization]] [[Economics]] [[Autonomy]] [[Work]] [[Authenticity]]