Time is a network good

• Published in: Current opinion in psychology Vol. 26; pp. 23 - 27
• Main Authors: Young, Cristobal, Melin, Julia L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2019
• ISSN: 2352-250X; 2352-2518; 2352-250X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.03.009

•Time is a network good, and its value depends on one's ability to share it with other people in coordinated social and economic activities.•The problem of ‘time famine’ is not just about a shortage of hours in the day, but also about the difficulties of coordinating time with others.•The standard workweek is a coordinating mechanism that supports work productivity during the week, and maximizes social time and well-being on weekends.•A breakdown in temporal coordination can have broad negative impacts on individuals and society. Time is a network good: the value of time depends on whether others also have it. We can deepen our understanding of time from a comparison with other network goods like personal computers, Facebook, and communications technology that derive their value from widely shared usage. We review recent research on the importance of collective social time with family and friends, and the role that temporal coordination plays in enhancing community ties and subjective well-being. The standard workweek is one of the most taken-for-granted institutions that creates effortless social coordination of time. The weekend provides people with collective time off that facilitates social interaction and leads to remarkable gains in emotional well-being. A breakdown in the temporal coordination of the standard workweek can have a negative impact on individuals, families, and communities. Future directions for research emphasize the importance of recognizing the network properties of time and its implications for society at large.