What Is Time Poverty And How It’s Beating You
Do you know what your time is worth?
Time poverty may refer to an idea of having little time for matters of importance, despite high levels of income. It may also mean there are fewer options to do anything, depending upon demographics and socioeconomic factors linked to poverty. Wealthier people are able to afford more of the social activities falling outside of the “watching television or reading books” routine. The what always loses the battle to the how much.
For example, opera tickets may cost a person $100 whereas a movie at the cinema costs $5 (before they rob you over popcorn prices) but the amount of time spent at either venue is the same. Those of us who can’t maintain expensive hobbies might find it hard to justify our free time being worth more than a 3-dollar bill.
Having Choices is Becoming a Luxury
The opera and movie may both require two hours of engagement, but the fact remains that such activities are still defined by economic factors that cause differences to take effect. An opera may employ the use of various actors and stage professionals, adding perspective and cultural influence to audience experience. A movie may contain ads, product placements and marketing innuendo to offset large scale production costs. Audience members take responsibility in terms of accounting for time poverty by not only choosing to patronize such venue outlets, but by also adding to their own sense of time poverty. The limited subject matter, context and orchestration in a movie perpetuates our passiveness and prevents us from breaking our cultural ceiling.
Judging the Influencers to Define Ourselves
The story itself is portrayed to create discourse where exists a lack of understanding for specific content. Whether or not such discourse takes place is determined by the audience and its relationship to outward efforts of managing time by entertainment influence. That is to say, watching depictions of a heroic theme does not make the audience heroic in any way but may influence behavior otherwise in the long run. Social worth is defined by lasting impressions that are independent of time value, ensuring that true entertainment is devoid of factors defining time poverty. Outside of entertainment, there are chores, such as work, study and home life factors that take less importance in the greater social picture when looking into social media relevance or popular matters of the news or collective mentality according to trend.
Existing for Others Does Not Create Mutual Respect
Human existence remains focused on sustaining connections between relationships of worth, despite factors of time poverty and regardless of income level or moral values. Without time, nothing may exist and so in theory, no one is subject to time poverty. How we define our time is not always dependent upon a simple definition of happiness or explaining factors shaping decision making processes. If greater time exists to make better decisions, it is because there is greater interactivity or access to information resulting from experience. This holds true, whether it be life experience or that of learned behavioral patterns independent of set requirements and expectations from outward influences. It is unfair to judge whether or not anyone is time poor, despite differences in income or knowledge.
The issue of time poverty is only relevant to those without decision making power to control other life factors in light of devoted time toward consumptive endeavors. If an activity is consuming most of someone’s time and creates a void with areas of life such as home and family, that would be time poverty regardless. By having more time for areas of life such as home and family, this may still be seen as a form of time poverty when confronted with the issue of work or home and life balance during periods of less social interactivity. Again, it is impossible for time poverty to manifest itself unless an individual enables time to control other factors of life. Perspective is important and while time spent may not be upon ideal conditions, it is still a relevant addition to a greater sense of being. If time is spent focusing upon time poverty itself, that may indeed become a toxic way of relating with others whilst trying to embody external perspectives.
We can’t all afford the opera, but active relationships make us time rich. Entrepreneurs that may enable others to avoid succumbing to time poverty may prove successful beyond the economic factors involved in turning quick profits. It is afterall, doing what we enjoy and sharing it with others that enables success to prevail but creating customer relationships based upon need should not facilitate personality control. It’s best to enable others to be themselves.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
