Cruising through the millennium - 2003-13 changes in American Daily life

The aim of this research is to examine recent US national time-diary data for evidence of an accelerating pace of everyday life in society, based on diary self-reports of how Americans spend their time since 1965. Earlier such diary studies had documented declines in women’s housework, increases in parental child care and overall gains in free time. These trends stood in marked contrast to the increased time pressure cited by societal critics of the style of life in the US and other Western countries. Since 2003, the US government’s American Time-Use Survey (ATUS), now conducted continuously by the US Bureau of the Census, has asked more than 145,000 Americans how they spent their time. Analysis of these 2003-2013 ATUS diaries reveals rather minimal change over this first millennial decade, with about an hour’s decline in both paid work and domestic work/shopping, as in previous decades mainly among women. Unlike previous studies, that decline included about a 30% decline in help to neighbors and members of other households, a key indicator of the country’s social safety net. These declines in productive and other more pressured activity were offset by small gains in less pressured activities, like sleep and TV viewing. There was also a notable decline in reported travel activities, particularly by automobile. The 2010 ATUS also began asking how these respondents felt during their diary activities, with results generally consistent with less-pressured lifestyles and earlier measures.