Free time is a relatively recent concept. Before the end of the 1880th century, the French practically did not know about rest, it was not until 1906 to see the famous “rest day” emerge, especially devoted to God’s time, then 1917 so that Sunday did not become a public holiday and 1945 so that Saturday afternoon is also for women (mainly to “prepare for their husband’s Sunday”). This old model is destabilized by the arrival of paid holidays which worried workers: at the time, we stayed at home when we were sick or unemployed. Time that does not convey imagination, free time, appears first and foremost as morbid, distressing time. It was from XNUMX that free time was really born. 

Free time is often suspected of leading to idleness, emptiness, laziness. Some authors such as Michel Lallement believe that its increase over the past decades has not resulted in the development of leisure or civic activities, but in a dilation of time outside of work: ” people take longer to do the same. This is certainly not unrelated to the fact that working conditions have, for a variety of reasons, become tougher. However, it is necessary to take into account the consequences of many factors such as the extension of children’s schooling and the equal professional investment of both spouses, de facto increasing the need for time devoted to activities and household maintenance.

Initially seen as a temporal space “without constraints” and “of the free choice of the individual par excellence”, it paradoxically becomes more and more restrictive. Research shows that the importance of free time has increased considerably, both by its increase in the average lifespan of an individual and by the potential for development that it offers, and not to mention the social inequalities that can characterize it. Family life has also become more complex under the effect of the diversification of the spheres of activity of its members, the fragmentation of living spaces and a growing dissociation between the place of residence and the places of professional activity. and school. The increasing individualization of this free time will ultimately lead to a tension with repercussions in terms of quality of life and requiring adjustments in the time devoted to home and family. 

A 1999 INSEE survey showed that the average free time per day for the French was 4 hours and 30 minutes, and that half of this time was devoted to television. The time spent in social activities was only 30 minutes per day, before reading or going for a walk.

Another CREDOC survey dating from 2002 showed that the French mostly felt very busy.

To the question, ” Which of the following best describes you? “, 56% opted for ” You are very busy »Against 43% for« You have a lot of free time “. People who are particularly satisfied with the time they have are mainly retirees, civil servants, people living alone or living in a two-person household.

At the question ” if you were asked to choose between improving your pay conditions and reducing your working time, for example in the form of additional leave, what would you choose? », 57% declared that they preferred an improvement in their remuneration conditions rather than a reduction in their working time in a survey dating from 2006.

Today in France, the average lifespan is around 700 hours. We spend around 000 hours working (compared to nearly 63 in 000), which means that free time is now more than half of our life when we also subtract the time spent on sleep. 

Nowadays, it is very difficult to admit to others thatwe are bored. Some also claim to never get bored. Are we to understand by this that they never leave “time to time”? That they “kill time” as soon as the boredom points the tip of his nose? Why do you want to run away from boredom, let alone brag about it? What is he hiding? What does he reveal that is so important that we want to hunt him down at all costs? What discoveries would we make if we agreed to go through boredom, like a trip?

Many artists and therapists have a proposal for an answer:boredom profound, tested “to the end” would have a value that is sometimes creative, sometimes redemptive and even curative. More than a heavy burden to bear, it would be an invaluable privilege: that of taking your time.

One of Paul Valéry’s poems entitled “Palmes” summarizes the idea according to which boredom, provided it is deepened, holds unsuspected resources in reserve. No doubt the author was bored before writing it …

Those days that seem empty to you

And lost to the universe

Have greedy roots

Who work the deserts

So is it enough to be bored to be creative? Delphine Rémy specifies: “ it is not enough to be bored “like a dead rat”, but rather, perhaps, to learn to be royally bored, like the boredom of a king without entertainment. It is an art. The art of being royally bored also has a name, it is called: philosophy. »

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer people take the time to be bored. Most now run after free time. We are trying to fill the time that we are trying to free … ” Chained by the obligations you give yourself, you become a hostage of yourself, says Pierre Talec. Empty! Sartre already underlined this illusion of imagining wanting to rest while one is constantly agitated. However, this inner agitation, which results in this inability to stay in place of oneself, always wanting to occupy time, would end in losing it. 

« My favorite pastime is letting time pass, having time, taking your time, wasting time, living off the beaten path » Françoise Sagan

« Free time can be for young people the time of freedom, that of curiosity and play, of observing what surrounds them as well as of discovering other horizons. It should not be the time for abandonment […]. » François Mitterrand

« It is not working time, but free time that measures wealth » Marx

« Because free time is not “a right to laziness”, it is moments of action, innovation, meeting, creation, consumption, travel, even production. » Jean Viard