Experts once predicted that Americans would face excess leisure time (2015)

I went to a "progressive" school where we had one strange class called "Design For Living". Today we'd probably call it "lifehacking". Among the fascinating and odd topics was a lesson on managing free time.

The premise was a (socialist?) vision that everything would be done by robots by 2000, and we would have to find good hobbies and interests, keep fit and volunteer doing good things for our communities.

I think digital technology did the opposite in many ways. It turned us into robots.

Another thing I noted while reading the article is it mentions trades as the best sort of work. If you're a plumber, bricklayer, or electrician then every job has an end. A wall is finished when you lay the last brick.

By contrast, digital work is almost never finished. Everything keeps changing, everything breaks and needs fixing, there's always one more revision or update... we have truly created a diabolical machine to enslave ourselves to.

Like that page that said "You have reached the end of the Internet", I sometimes wonder if Microsoft might one day release "Windows Final Edition" , the operating system that is finished.

Go home developers. Your work is complete. Well done!

"Just why this has happened is both a mystery and a paradox."

Jevons' Paradox I suspect.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

I am amazed at the disdain for leisure and "free" time and "slacking" in the comments here.

If a person has enough to survive, why would they toil and labour? Just do whatever you like!

I suspect a big problem is that many people actually don't know what they like to do. Most people with full-time jobs I know don't have much energy left after their workday, and thus the only "leisure" they are still capable of and thus know is low-effort "comfortable" things like watching TV/YT/netflix. (If you like TV, great for you, but it being the 'default' might be a problem)

Many people do that at work, because for most white collar professions it's simply impossible to stay productive the full length of the day one is expected to "work" (traditionally spend at an office).

The feudal lords got refreshed by the regular uprising or invading army.