How do you spend your free time? It’s a question many of us have been asked in a job interview but have we really thought about what we do in the time we’re not at work or school?

In his new book Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal, Penn State Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Gary Cross explores the history of how we have used our free time, how it’s changed with culture, economics, and politics and why often we don’t fully enjoy our free time.

On The Spark Thursday, Cross said he wrote the book because he finds that many Americans find their free time unfulfilling, "It does strike me as there could be a greater balance in regard to how people used to maybe have it a little less fast and maybe a little slower and slower. I mean, much more, involving development of one's skills. One's, personal interest. We call it self-development, perhaps, and also spending more time engaging with the wider world, the real world, not the virtual world of the computer or the cell phone. Maybe, a greater involvement with other people through your church or through your organizations or what have you. And a lot of that has kind of disappeared in the past few years as, as our experiences with the world in free time has increasingly been funneled, say, through cell phones. We get the whole world on our cell phones, but we miss that reality of engagement with others and also the drive that we might have to develop ourselves."

The book provides a history of free time and how it was spent.

Dr. Cross writes that Americans' working beyond the 40-hours a week at their jobs, their desire to buy things, TV and other devices are what drives our free time today.

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