Activity involvement and time spent on computers for leisure: an econometric analysis on the American Time Use Survey dataset

Abstract

Internet is capturing more and more of our time each day, and the increasing levels of engagement are mainly due to the use of social media. Time spent on social media is observed in the American Time Use Survey and recorded as leisure time on Personal Computer (PC). In this paper, we extend the traditional analysis of leisure activity participation by including leisure activities that require the use of a PC. We study the substitution effects with both in-home and out-of-home leisure activities and the time budget allocated to each of them. The modeling framework that includes both discrete alternatives and continuous decision variables allow for full correlation across the utility of the alternatives that are all of leisure type and the regressions that model the time allocated to each activity. Results show that there is little substitution effect between leisure with PC and the relative time spent on it, with in-home and out-of-home leisure episodes. Households with more children and full-time workers are more likely to engage in inhome and PC related leisure activities (especially during weekends). Increments in the travel time of social trips result in significant reductions in leisure time during weekdays.

Synergistic and threshold effects of telework and residential location choice on travel time allocation

“…Time spent for online shopping is one of the most important control variables as it is another crucial component of virtual mobility and has been found to influence an individual’s time allocation significantly ( Asgari & Jin, 2017 ; Asgari et al, 2016 ; Kramers et al, 2014) . A dominant share of previous literature focuses on telework and online shopping among all types of ICT activities while analyzing ICTs’ impacts on travel behavior ( Dong, Cirillo, & Diana, 2018 ). Controlling for online shopping provides us with the opportunity to measure the true effect of telework on activity-travel time use patterns.…”

Social Networking as Leisure: An Attempt to Conceptualize Liquid Leisure

“…It is conducted outside compulsory time [39,60,61] and is relatively self-determined [62][63][64]. According to the literature, social networking satisfies or fulfills people's needs for activities and/or experiences [65][66][67][68], brings pleasure [69,70], and provides opportunities for recreation [71], personal growth [72], and/or service [73]. Within this context, there are specific and widely discussed norms and constraints of behavior [74], and the relevant crucial questions considered in this study are: When social networking meets all these characteristics, why do people not recognize it as leisure time?…”

Desktop lighting for comfortable use of a computer screen

“…For instance, Europeans spent two to three hours in front of a screen per day outside of work [ 1 ]. In the U.S., an individual uses a computer for leisure about 1.5 hours on an average weekday and 2.33 hours per day on weekends [ 2 ]. During the weekdays, the 1.5 hours was spent mostly in the evening.…”