Free time feels like work, U of T course explains

A University of Toronto course by Brent Berry examines how long work hours, digital life, managed play and social inequalities shape leisure so that free time can feel more like work.

The University of Toronto course "The Sociology of Free Time," taught by Brent Berry, looks at why leisure hours can feel less restorative in contemporary life. The course combines historical examples and current social research to examine how work patterns, consumer wants and digital life affect how people spend spare time. Students explore differences across class, race and gender and trace how some shared forms of leisure have declined. The course includes student research and discussion of technological and economic shifts that reshape time use. Course findings: - The course traces historical change in free time and reports that some kinds of shared leisure have declined. - It highlights how class, race and gender shape access to leisure and how "skill-building leisure" in wealthier families can create early advantages. - The curriculum discusses the "insatiability of wants" and how consumer demands can lead people to trade leisure for more work. - It examines how leisure increasingly involves screens, personal algorithms and altered socialization patterns. - The course references John Maynard Keynes' 1930 prediction about abundant leisure and recent commentary that artificial intelligence may change employment and time use. Summary: The course presents leisure as shaped by structural forces—work hours, market pressures, technology and social inequality—and reports that these forces can make free time feel constrained or instrumental. Undetermined at this time.