Daily Time Use Survey

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Srbobran Brankovi1

SERBIA POPULATION DAILY TIME USE: SURVEY

PROJECT AND BASIC DIMENSIONS, MEASURES AND

FINDINGS

ABSTRACT

The project itself, as well as key findings ofSerbia Population Daily Time Use survey shall be presented in the

following text. The author led the project in December, 2008, which was conducted by TNS Medium Gallup and Faculty

for Culture and Media, Belgrade. This self-completion diary based survey comprised the sample of 1600 respondents,

representing population of Serbia aged 12 and over.

An average Serbian citizen spends 32% of his/her daily time sleeping, the survey reveals, 30% performing

his/her everyday activities and duties (at work, housework, studying, personal care and meal), 19% is allocated to the

media, 9% to leisure time (no media included), and 11% for other activities that cannot be grouped under any other

previously mentioned category. Television takes 55% of the total amount of time devoted to the media, radio 24%,

internet 11% and the press 9%. The major part of leisure time is allocated to visits by friends and vice versa (39%), 30%

is time spent in pubs and clubs and 10% reading books.

In addition to this, an average citizen spends 267.8 minutes per day communicating with other persons,

directly, face to face or via any other means of modern technology. Direct active communication is 34.5% of the total

communication, direct passive 43.7%, indirect active 9.6% and indirect passive 12.2%. This person feels particularly

good and happy 178.4 minutes per day, and 44.3 minutes rather bad and unhappy. They fell good mainly thanks to

their descendants (children and grandchildren) and female population, and bad due to job related roles and non-family

relations.

Key words: the media, daily time use, communicating, feeling of happiness, leisure time, watching television, listening to

the radio, reading the press, using Internet, Facebook, mobile telephones.

A. RESEARCH PROJECT

1. PROBLEM FORMULATION1.1 This survey raised the following questions: How does an ordinary day of an average person in Serbia look

like at the end of the f irst decade of the 21st

century? How much time is allocated for routine, daily activities and how

much for the leisure ones, and what do people most often do once they finish with all their commitments? Has

communication scope been expanded in terms of the total amount of day time, under a strong influence of new

technologies and the media (mobile telephony, Internet, etc.)? Has a share of direct communication changed in the

overall communication, i.e. has a share of indirect communication (using technical devices) increased to the detriment

of a face to- face one?

The way an individual manages2

his/her time has become socially and scientifically important issue once

several important prerequisites have been met: 1) leisure time3

has become a mass phenomenon, and not only higher

classes privilege; 2) significant private and social decisions have had to be made related to the manner time is used

due to its growing character, and 3) a huge entertainment industry has been set up to keep our leisure time busy, i.e.

when this has become an important economic field and a fierce market game theatre.On the other hand, the way we use our time reflects not only our life style, but our philosophy of living as well,

remaining at the same time a part of social conscience and self-confidence of our close social community, our nation

and the whole civilisation we belong to.

1.2 A survey conducted in 1912 in the USA was most likely the first of the kind dealing with the way people

organise their time. George Bevans (1913) polled workmen in New York, asking them to fill in usual number of hours

they allocated to certain activities on a typical day in a week. We cannot but also mention an important US 20th

century

survey, under auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, conducted 1927-1934 among housewives in rural households.

Time Budgets of Human Behaviour, by Pitirim Sorokin and Clarence Berger (1933) is the most precious time budgeting

study of the time.

Experience surveys based on measuring time spent on various activities during a day were also carried out in

the Soviet Union at the very beginning of the 20s in the previous century: several different target populations

workmen, rural, urban, members of newly formed organisations, etc. were surveyed in the period between 1920-

1Instructions for citation: The article was published in: Ordinary day - research on the daily economy of the times,special edition of


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1925. Artemova and Novohatskaja (2004) provide a review of such surveys from the 20s and 30s, as well as the later

ones. Similar surveys had been carried out at the Soviet Science Academy institutes since the '50s.

One of the most comprehensive reviews of such research in the world was presented in a table compiled by

Time Use Research Centre at the Human Science Course, St Hughs College Oxford University.4

Amount and popularity of time use surveys last decades led to establishment of powerful institutions and

organisations dealing with the issue, such as International Association for Time Use Research, of the abovementioned

Oxford Universitys Centre, Time Use Research Programme at the Canadian Saint Marys University. American Time

Use Survey (ATUS) is a giant project implemented within the US Time Use Institute, which is one of rare ones

researching on a nationally representative sample.

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The first such research in Yugoslavia was conducted in 1957 within an international project organised by

UNESCO.

A research in 1965 followed conducted by the Belgrade based Sociology Research Institute on a sample of

2,144 respondents, headed by DrPredrag Aleksi (Aleksi, 1973), as a part of huge international project called Urban

Population Time Budgeting, carried out in twelve countries.6

The project was organised by UNESCO's Vienna based

European Research Co-ordination Centre, managed by Prof Alexander Szalai, PhD. This research population sample,

as later will be presented, is smaller than of the project we are about to introduce here. This implies that data may be

compared up to a certain extent, i.e. only in day time use areas 1) comprised by both surveys, and 2) without any

significant differences between rural and urban population in our survey.

1.3 How does this survey we are about to present differ from the ones conducted before in our country and,

from the majority of those carried out in the world?

Firstly, it covers overall population, not only certain demographic or social categories.

Secondly, it aims at measuring communication among people as well, the one based on the latest

technologies and social networks in particular, such as mobile phones and Internet. A communication tree has been

separately created and its flow followed within same gender and age groups, as well as the one taking place among

groups.

Finally, respondents marked parts of a day when then felt particularly good and happy, as well as the ones

when they felt bad, which enables us present data not only by certain demographic groups, but by types of activities

taking place at a time a person felt particularly good or bad. The last two insights (communication scope and level of

satisfaction) present a novelty, not only in terms of the research conducted in Serbia, but with regard to the world ones

as well.

Offering so far unfulfilled insights into the abovementioned forms of micro-sociability, this project is of an utter

scientific and social importance.

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVESThis research primarily aims at statistical description of time use in Serbia among the population aged 12 and

over.

The second level shall examine correlations between some social and demographic factors (age, gender,

education, residence) and daily time use in question.

Finally, it is likely to find out a model explaining some habits and activities of the surveyed population.

3. RESEARCH SUBJECT3. 1. Main definitions

Daily time use stands for managing ones own lives (interests, needs, wishes) and allocation of time and

resources in a day cycle. This survey deals with daily time use of an individual. It comprises population of Serbia aged

12 and over.A day cycle is a basic analysis unit; not a calendar 00.00-24.00 day, though, but a day in a life of Serbian

citizens aged 12 and over that starts with waking up after the main sleeping period and ends with going to bed in the

evening.

The main sleeping period usually takes place at night and is, as a rule, the longest one, but commences at

different time for different people: elder people in rural areas tend to go to bed around 20.00 and wake up around 5.00

or 6.00 the following day; a number of young people in towns, however, sometimes go to bed at, for example, 03.00

a.m. and sleep until 11.00 a.m. the same day. In this case, our survey focuses on a day that starts at 11.00 and all

activities are entered in appropriate sections of the questionnaire from that time on. Should this very day (a diary is

being completed of) pass midnight and transfer into the following calendar day, then relevant activities from that day

(e.g. time spent in a bar from 24.00 until 02.30) are entered in a table at relevant intervals until the person goes to bed

again, irrespective ofthe fact that they formally appear in the table before activities of the day in question (that

preceded this after midnight period).

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http://www.timeuse.org/information/studies/


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All daily activities shall be divided into 1) ones that are a kind of biological necessity (sleeping, meals,

personal care and hygiene) or social responsibilities (work, school, housework, time spent in traffic and other related

activities) and 2) ones that are neither necessity nor responsibility.

Leisure time is defined as time that remains once time used for the abovementioned necessities and

responsibilities is deducted. An individual himself/herself is the one deciding how to organise and use it. A part of

leisure time used for the media has been operationally singled out since the media are particularly important subject of

this survey.

Communication is defined as an exchange or only sending or only receiving information and messages with

another person or group of persons, whether it is a direct one (live, face to face) or indirect via any means of moderntechnology, such as landline or mobile telephone or a computer Internet, including all its forms of communication (e-

mail, chatting, talking, exchange of information and messages via Facebook and MySpace).

3.2. Elaboration of the research subject

Research subject shall be classified as follows:

a) according to activities a person may perform in a day;

b) according to demographic, social and other characteristics that may have any impact on arrangement of the

abovementioned activities in a day.

Following activities shall be analysed: 1) everyday activities, usually repeated ones, daily routine, 2) following

the media, 3) communication with other persons or groups, and 4) Leisure time.

A) ACTIVITIES

Following activities shall be monitored in a day (day cycle):

1) DAILY ROUTINE AND EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES, including:

1. Sleeping2. Getting up3. Personal care4. Breakfast5. Lunch6. Dinner7. Time at home (all listed activities performed at home, plus being at home, time when nothing

is done)8. Housework9. Time at work10. Time at school/university11. Time spent in traffic commuting, going to school, university or any other place12. Daytime sleeping (every sleeping apart from the main sleeping period)13. Studying

2) COMMUNICATION

1. Live/face to face2. Via a mobile phone3. Via a landline telephone4. Sending SMSs5. Receiving SMSs6. Chatting7. Facebook8. MySpace

Communication is central to this survey. We shall classify it as follows:

1) According o the manner:

direct (live, face to face one);

indirect (technology driven: landline or mobile telephones and Internet).2) According to a relevant activity of the person taking part in the survey:

active a person completing the diary is speaking or addressing in any other way anotherperson or group;

passive a person completing the diary is listening to or in any other way following whatanother person or group has to say (addressing via the media is not taken into consideration, only by using theabovementioned means of communication).3) According to age criterion:

communication within a peer group;

communication among age groups.

4) According to the gender: communication within the same gender group;

communication between genders.


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6) According to the type of interlocutor:

communication among persons that know each other;

communication among persons that do not know (Internet communication included).

Calculation of 1) a share of communication in day time, 2) a share of certain aforementioned types of

communication in the total time spent communicating.

3) THE MEDIA

1. WATCHING TVa. Music showb. Filmsc. Serialsd. Informative showe. Education showf. Entertainmentg. Sports

2. INTERNET / Sites and all the rest, excluding communication with other persons or groups3. RADIO

a. Radio / music programmeb. Radio / informative programmec. Radio / contact programmed. Radio / sports programmee. MP3/4 music

4. READING DAILY PRESS5. READING MAGAZINES, JOURNALS

4) LEISURE TIME

1. Time spent in a bar/club2. Time spent in a pub/restaurant3. Time spend at friends place4. Visit to culture related events (concerts, cinema, theatre, etc.)5. Visit to sport events6. Shopping7. Betting shop8. Strolling9. Sport recreation10. Reading books (non-school related ones)

11. Other

B) DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIAL AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

Age in years

Time of year they were born and a horoscope sign

The highest level of completed education

1. Primary or below2. Secondary school3. College (two years) or faculty

Working statusFull-time or part-time (self-employment included)

Unemployed

Housewife

Student

Pensioner

Marital status

1 Married

2 Single

3 Divorced

4 Widowed

5 Common-law marriage

Personal monthl y income or pocket money

1 U RSD 3000


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4. From RSD 12001 to 180005. From RSD 18001 to 300006. From RSD 30001 to 480007. More than RSD 48000

Who a respondent lives with:

1. Parents2. Partner3. Friends

4. None

Total number of household members

His/her type of residential area

Urban

Suburban

Rural

Region

Belgrade

Vojvodina

Central West Serbia

South East Serbia

A weekday a diary is being completed for (the sample envisages all 7 days equally represented).

C) HOW A RESPONDENT FEELS AT DIFFERENT PARTS OF A DAY

4. HYPOTHESESIt is very difficult to make a great number of evidence based assumptions on characteristics of the researched

subject, possible related regularities and precise hypotheses, bearing in mind that there are only few previously

conducted similar surveys and that many existing data cannot be compared with todays ones.

We shall hence start from several general hypotheses:

Daily time use depends on demographic, social and other factors listed in the previous chapter: people of

different social and demographic profile have different habits, carry out their daily activities, communicate, follow themedia and use their leisure time in a different way and at different periods of day.

We may also assume that different social and demographic profiles significantly differ in their preferences, i.e.

they tend to feel significantly different level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction while being engaged in different activities

during a day.

A list of possible correlations and mutual conditionality of different variables in the research (as well as

possible hypotheses) is given in the Annex.

This conditionality is multifunctional and multilayered, hence the following draft hypotheses: young people in

towns (12-20) have completely different habits from elder people in rural areas (aged 55 and over); generally speaking,

young men from towns are more engaged in housework than elder men, particularly in comparison with elder men from

rural areas; Internet users scope of communication is much larger than of non-Internet users.

A more concrete hypothesis relies on the main research question presented in the Problem formulation and it

goes as follows: new technologies (computers, i.e. Internet, mobile telephony) have expanded a scope of

communication (communication time share in a calendar, 24-hour day), but increased share of indirect with respect to

direct communication (face to face) as well.

5. METHODOLOGYThis project is to be categorised as life styles survey. However, classic data collection methods face to face

interviews cannot be used due to a defined subject and research objectives, as well as to set hypotheses. Self-

completion diary is therefore the applied method respondents fill in a questionnaire with all previously mentioned parts

of research subjects and a 15-minute time sections marking time allocated for each of the subjects all activities (the

Questionnaire has been attached in the Annex).

This data completion manner is much more reliable since it only registers what happens and does not rely on

memories. Such data therefore provide an authentic and genuine picture of n real life habits among different categories

of population. At the same time, they are much more precise than the ones obtained from classic research since

duration of an activity is measured in minutes


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5.1. POPULATION AND SAMPLE

Examined population, aged 12 and over, amounts to around 6,500,000 people according to the 2002 census.

48.6% (or 3,160,000) are men, and 51.4% (or 3,340,000) women.

Quota sample has been used by gender, age and days in a week: every surveyor has to find 14 persons to

complete the diary, in line with the following criteria.

GENDER NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS IN EVERY AGE GROUP

12-17 18-23 24-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61 + Total

Female 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7

Male 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7

Total 14

Every weekday is covered by two respondents among 14 of them in the sample. Selection of respondents

within the set quotas is random. The sample comprised 1600 respondents.

The 12 to 30 age group is more represented than its share in the population. This group is the most interesting

one from the research main objectives point of view, as well as because of the main research subject. Once the data

are presented for the whole population, the sample has been harmonised with basic parameters (Serbian inhabitant

older than 12) by special statistic procedures.

The sample is large enough for very precise assessments to be made. By way of illustration, to assess number

of hours spent sleeping, a possible error for the precision level of 99% is 0.109, in hours with decimals (7.505 for entirepopulation). This is negligible.

5.2. It is impossible to test by comparison only the hypothesis stating that new technologies have expanded a

scope of communication, but also increased share of indirect with respect to direct communication since we would need

data on duration of daily communication at the time when these technologies did not exist.

5.3. We would, however, use available data and make a quasi-experiment, or rather after experiment: the

sample will be divided into those who do not use modern technologies or use them significantly less often, and those

who use them or use them much more. We cannot set any division criteria at this stage since we do not have any

previous framework data on the scope of using modern technologies for communication purposes. They will be set later

while working with the current research data. Scope of direct communication within these two groups will then be

compared.

Comparison shall be made by application of several statistic concepts:

1. t-test (paired samples) will examine importance of the difference between arithmetic means of two variables:

p1) indirect communication number of minutes in a group of respondents that either do not use or use less often

modern technologies, and p2) indirect communication number of minutes in a group of respondents that either use or

use modern technologies much more often;

2. Pearson correlation coefficient will examine level and importance of correlation between variables p3)

indirect communication number of minutes, and p4) direct communication number of minutes.

The data themselves will be used for testing which demographic variables correlate with the scope of

communication in order to exclude influence of the so-called confounding factors.7

The variables shall then be kept

under control by comparing relation between respondents that use and do not use these technologies within certain

categories of each of them. For example, should gender prove to be significantly correlated with a scope of

communication, then it will be analysed on sub-samples of persons of the same gender, that use (or use more), and, on

the other hand do not use (or use less) these latest technologies.We would try to develop feeling of happiness and satisfaction explanatory model by application of regression

analysis. The following variable should be taken into consideration: indirect communication number of minutes; direct

communication number of minutes; number of minutes sleeping; number of minutes spent at work, in school, at

university; number of minutes spent in public transport travelling to work/school/university; number of minutes spent

watching television; number of minutes spent listening to the music; number of minutes spent using Internet;

respondents gender (as a binary variable); incomes; age; and, education.

Naturally, this model will be upgraded in the course of analysis itself, as long as a collection of determinants is

found that explains best higher or lower level of good mood and satisfaction among respondents.

B. COORDINATE SYSTEM: DAILY TIME USE BASIC DIMENSIONS AND MEASURES

This part of text aims at outlining basic dimensions of what we attempt to examine - i.e. everyday life of

Serbian citizens In other words its purpose is to deduce main analytic divisions set a framework establish measures


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and measure the issue, so that other parts dealing with certain sections of the subjects are put in a spatial context.

Comparison with the survey findings of 1965 will give to a certain extent a time dimension to the current findings.

Firstly, we shall present a cross-section of a whole day, in its biggest sections, followed by explaining integral

parts of a work related part of the day, as well as following the media and leisure time. Communication will be

separately presented since it has been one of central issues in this survey.

Graph: Main classif ication of the total time in a day

Citizens of Serbia spend on average 7.63 hours sleeping, in hours with decimals; 7.12 hours is allocated for

group activities we called daily routine and everyday tasks; 4.65 for the media; they have 2.03 hours of leisure time,

while 2.58 hours goes for category all other activities that cannot be grouped with any of the listed categories.

Table by sections: daily routine everyday tasks

Minutes per day Hours per day Percentage

Housework (cooking, cleaning, etc.) 77,52 1,29 18,2

Work 162,83 2,71 38,1

School lectures 33,19 0,55 7,8

Studying 18,70 0,31 4,4

Personal care 37,43 0,62 8,8

Meals 57,93 0,97 13,6

Traffic 39,34 0,66 9,2

Total 426,92 7,12 100,0

Most time we mark as daily routine is used up at work. Naturally, average in this case has been calculated for

general population, hence including the unemployed ones that consequently do not spend a minute at work. The same

assessment goes for the time spent in school and at universities 0.55 hours refer to all six and a half mil lion

inhabitants over the age of 12, and not only for pupils and students.


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Graph: Using the media - by sections

Television is dominant in the media time. An average over 12 population representative spends 115.4 minutes

or 2.6 hours watching this medium; radio is in the second place, with 1.1 hour, followed by Internet with around half an

hour and reading the press with approximately 25 minutes.

Distribution of remaining leisure time (minus following the media)

Minutes per day Hours per day Percentage

Reading books 10,35 0,17 8,5

Pub, bar, club, betting place 29,62 0,49 24,3

Visiting friends 38,72 0,65 31,7

Visiting culture related events 3,52 0,06 2,9Visiting sport events 1,62 0,03 1,3

Shopping 7,00 0,12 5,7

Strolling 18,03 0,30 14,8

Sport / recreation 5,56 0,09 4,6

Other 7,62 0,13 6,2

Total 122 2,03 100,0

Most remaining leisure time is used for visiting friends and going out to pubs, bars, clubs and betting shops,

whereas least is used for sport and recreation, as well as visiting culture and sport related events.

COMMUNICATION

Serbian citizens communicate the total of 267.8 minutes, or 4.5 hours per day. This time is naturally not

presented in the main division graph since it would overlap with all its parts, but the sleeping bit, since people

communicate in the course of their everyday activities, when they follow the media and during the leisure time.

We have already given operational definition of communication in the research project part. It may be

classified as 1) direct communication, implying live exchange or receiving or sending information, i.e. face to face, and

2) indirect, defined as exchange or receiving or sending information via landline and mobile phones, and various

Internet services.

The second classification to 1) active communication, a person in question is sending a message (speaking,

writing, using gestures, miming, etc.) to another person or a group of persons, and 2) passive, a person receives a

message from another person or group of persons.8

Combination of these two criteria leaves us with four types of communication: 1) Direct active, 2) Indirect

active, 3) Direct passive and 4) Indirect passive.

Communication was measured in such a way that respondents answered how many minutes they spent ondifferent types of communication (talking face to face, via a mobile and landline phone, Internet chatting, etc.).

9At the


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same time, they distinguished a part of communication they did the talking in, which was a basis to identify a scope of

active communication. Such data were later grouped and four main classification factors were disclosed.

Graph: Share of certain types of communication in the total amount of time used fro

communicating

We can see, at first sight, that passive communication is more comprehensive that the active one, since both

direct and indirect passive one together take 56%, and both types of the active one only 44% of the total amount of

time a person spends communicating. One may wonder how this is possible when the sample is representative: since if

someone was passive in communication, someone else had to active at the same time, hence the share of these two

types should always be around 50%. This is only seemingly so since a group communication disturbs this balanced

proportion. We have three individual hours of communication (man-hour) in a three-person group in an hour, since if

each of them spoke for about 20 minutes, each would have to listen to 40 minutes. Active communication is thereforealways inferior to the passive one provided more than two persons were involved in it.

There is no negative correlation between di rect and indi rect communication. On the contrary, this

correlation is both positive and statistically significant! This implies that persons, who generally use Facebook and

Internet more often, communicate more directly at the same time and this difference cannot be considered a result of a

sample error.10

The total indirect communicaiton in minutes (Internet,

mobile, landline)

Overall face to face

communication in minutes

Pearson Correlation ,208(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) 0,000

N 1.518

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The finding pointing at direction and level of correlation between the total face to face communication and the

one via technical devices - mobile phones, Internet and landline phones is even convincing one. Provided that modern

technologies do alienate people (i.e. that they reduce 'natural face to face communication by offering communication

assisted by technology), then we would have to find a significant negative correlation between the overall time spent

communicating face to face and the one spent on indirect communication. In other words, people communicating more

often via technical devices, would have to communicate proportionally more seldom face to face. However, the

correlation is even strongly reversed in this case (0.208, level of importance 0.000). It underlines the more indirect

communication, the more direct one, and vice versa. In other word, people can be communicative or less

communicative, and the former ones use technical devices more often as well to meet their above-average need for

communication. Thus, there is neither room nor reason for negative and utopian visions on natural communication

among people withering away.However, once certain types of communication are measured, it becomes clear how small a share of indirect

technology based communication is in the total amount of time we spend communicating per day.


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Graph: Share of indirect technology mediated communication in the total amount of

communication per day

Hence, we spend 222 minutes talking face to face, 13 via mobile telephone, 22 via landline and 11 minutes via

Internet out of the total figure of 267.8 minutes spent communicating in a day.

To tell the truth, the young use technical devices for communication more often than the elder. Hence, the

youngest group 12 to 17 years old - use mobile phone for 15 minutes on average, landline for 21 and spends 51

minutes communicating via Internet. However, this generation spends 223 minutes communicating face to face, no less

than an average representative of our examined population.

On the other hand, the oldest generation (61+) uses mobile phones for 5 minutes only, landline for 20, Internetonly 0.1 minute, and communicates face to face for 116 minutes, which amounts to the total of 141 minutes. A share of

live communication in this case is 81.9%, hence, only slightly less than the average for population.

FEELING OF HAPPINESS

This survey has devoted a special attention to measuring time when respondents felt particularly good and

happy and particularly bad and unhappy. The data have been presented in the following graph.

An average representative of the population older than 12 feels particularly good and happy 178.4 minutes or

three hours per day, while he/she feels bad two and half times less often - 44.3 minutes a day. The top graph shows

that feeling of happiness and good mood relates to the daily rhythm, i.e. changes depending on the part of day. Night

time being excluded, period from midnight to 6 a.m. to be more precise, we may notice that the lowest level of good

feelings is marked in the morning when most people get up, get ready and leaves for work, school or do some

household related activities. This is a tensed period and at the same time a part of day when they feel particularly bad good feelings will take place in a time range of seven to eight hours. End of the day and return home, leisure time

obviously create favourable ambience for good mood: it escalates starting from 16.00, and culminates in the period

between 21.00 and 22.00.


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Graph: Percentage of time Serbian citizens feel particularly good and happy and particularly bad

and unhappy in 24 hours (the question was: Mark periods when you felt particularly good and

happy and when you felt particularly bad and unhappy)

Finally, it is important to note that availability of the data is of utter significance for accession to different target

groups since it is all but irrelevant whether someone, for example, listens to out commercial or any political message in

a good or bad mood.

GOOD AND BAD FEELINGS TREE

All respondents, while competing the dairyy on daily time use, marked parts of day (a 15-minute section) when they felt

particularly good and happy and the ones when they felt particularly bad an unhappy, which has formed the tree in the

end. Area inside a dotted line in the graph presents the total amount of time the examined population felt particularly

good in a company of any of the listed persons (roles), or bad inside a full line. Data for certain roles (colleagues,

female friends, neighbors, etc.) were obtained on the basis of respondents' answers to the question who they were with

at the time they felt particularly good or particularly bad.


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Graph. Emotion permeability tree: persons (roles) the company of who makes people feel

particularly good (red line) or particularly bad (Black line)

Descendants (children and grandchildren) and female part of population (top left graph quadrant) are obviously

persons provoking most good feelings. The worst feelings come from work and non-family related roles (bottom

semicircle in the graph). Interestingly enough, these data do not differ much from the ones published in Culture of Polis.

This, on one hand, proves a good quality measuring, and, on the other, a fact that desirability, or undesirability of

persons from the aforementioned social roles in deeply socially rooted and does not depend on a time of year as daily

rhythm does, or any decision making on daily time use.

In addition to this we may conclude that feeling of happiness significantly depends on age and level of

education.

Students age generation is the most carefree and in the best mood - from 18 to 24 years old: the average time

for good feelings is 236.6 minutes, i.e. almost four hours, and bad mood lasts approximately for 47 minutes per day.

The eldest group (+61) is the least happy, 135.8 minutes, but also the least sad around 34 minutes.

Better educated people are much happier than others: people with secondary or faculty education spend 243

minutes per day feeling good and 45 minutes feeling bad; those with the primary education feel good only for 116

minutes and bad for 31 minutes.

We have tried to combine these two criteria and compare distribution of happiness and good mood on a

unified scale. For the sake of transparency, age is shown at a three-level scale: from 12 too 29, 30 to 50 and 51and

over. When this classification is crossed with education, presented in the same way at a three-level scale, we get a

nine-level scale with very interesting finings.

Graph: Percentage of time when members of nine age-education groups feel particularly good and happy and

particularly bad and unhappy

The top graph shows that education is a more important factor for feeling of happiness assessment than age.It presents a number of minutes an average representative from each if nine groups spends in a good or bad mood, and

the remaining difference when a number of feeling happy minutes is deduced from a number measuring a contrary


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Middle aged, lowest education level persons are the least happy: they spend only 30 minutes feeling

particularly good and happy and 21 minutes feeling bad, hence the positive difference is nine minutes only. It might be

assumed that this is a reflection of dissatisfaction caused by the fact that it very hard to reach wanted goals in modern

world, as well as to fight for ones own biological survival and survival of ones own family without any formal

qualifications and knowledge.

On the other hand, the youngest highly educated respondents spend 301 minutes, i.e. five hours feeling good,

with a positive difference of 258 minutes, which proves our previous assumption is evidence based.

DIFFERENCES IN TIME USE IN 1965 AND 2008We have already mentioned that some data will be compared with findings from a similar survey Urban

Population Time Budgeting, conducted by the Belgrade based Sociology Research Institute in 1965, on a sample of

2,144 respondents, headed by DrPredrag Aleksi (Aleksi, 1973). The data might be compared up to a certain extent,

as we have noted in the introductory part, i.e. only referring day time areas 1) comprised by both surveys, and 2) in

which there are no significant differences between rural and urban population in our research.

Table: Comparative data from 1965 and 2008 surveys, presented in a number of hours during an average day11

2008. 1965. Difference (08-65)

Sleeping 7,53 7,6 -0,07

Watching TV 2,62 0,8 1,82

Listening to the radio 1,05 1,4 -0,35Reading the press and books 0.42 0,6 -0,18

Media total 4,78 2,8 1,98

Meals 0,96 1,1 -0,14

Sport, recreation, walking 0,33 0,2 0,13

Shopping 0,14 0,5 -0,36

Visiting culture related events 0,06 0,1 -0,04

Time at work 2,92 4,1 -1,18

Housework 1,18 3,2 -2,02

Time spent in traffic 0,7 1,3 -0,6

Personal care 0,68 1 -0,32

On one hand, the Table indicates that the time used for commitments has undergone the greatest changes:

its time share has decreased, time used for housework has been cut by more than two hours, and t ime spent at work by

1.18.12

On the other hand, the time used for following the media has increasingly gone up by two hours, hence we

may assume that the media have absorbed the largest amount of this newly liberated time.

It is relatively easy to comprehend why share of housework in daily time use has decreased. We may offer

several key reasons for this: firstly, birth rate has significantly gone down and childrens nurseries, round-the-clock

classes system and similar institutional network has developed, which have certainly had an influence on less time used

for childcare, as one of the biggest sections within housework. On the other hand, technology progress in the area of

housing facilities maintenance and cleaning (such as remote heating system making humans redundant for this

purpose in a household), followed by development of fast food industry, appliance of advanced materials facilitating

cleaning and maintenance, as well as a whole line of devices and gadgets reducing the time used for cooking and other

household maintenance related chores.

How has the time an average individual spent at work reduced? A workweek has been cut, which is definitely

one of main reasons; it used to be 48 hours in 1965 (including Saturday), and nowadays it is 40 hours. In a nutshell,

an employee used to work six days a week for 6.85 hours a day on average, while today he/she works five days a week

for 5.71 hours a day, leaving 1.14 hours on average free per day per employee.

One should hold off here when it comes to comparison of the 1965 and 2008 data. When 1.14 hours is divided

by employees share in the total urban population over the age of 1213

, the result is only around half an hour of

liberated time per average representative of this population on the basis of a reduced workweek.

Serbian population is aging, which explains the rest of the difference, i.e. share of work capable residents is

decreasing; finally, one should not undermine influence of transition, i.e. a great number of people has been made

redundant and lost their jobs.

Vehicles are quicker nowadays, and roads and streets network is of a much better quality than it used to be in

1965, which 'liberates' another half an hour from the time contingent for people who spend time in traffic.

11Data for urban population only have been singled out for the sake of comparison, since Kragujevac was chosen to represent this

very population.12


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The other side of the story is a constant increase of the time devoted to the media. This change does not only

reflect in increase in the media time, but in differences in its structure. While in the mid 1960s, a half of the media time

was allocated to the radio, this central role today is played by television: it now takes more than half of that time, while a

share of the radio is only lightly higher than one fifth.

Interestingly enough, the 1973 research came to almost the same datum on length of sleeping, average

sleeping time was 7.6 at that time as well. This may in a way prove the quality of two surveys: two surveys make the

same assessments when it comes to biologic parameters, hence not very likely changeable ones.

Well, let us go back to the main findings in the table comparing results of 1965 and 2008.When we add up time liberated due to less housework and time spent at work, we get the total of 3.2 hours per

day. Should we now take active daily time out (24 hours minus 7.6 hours of sleeping), we may see that newly liberated

time is one fifth of active daily time! In other words, leisure time area at the disposal of an individual and society has

been expanded by one fifth of active time, and consequently mandatory time decreased. If we apply this to the whole

sample, we then have 13 and half million man-hours of liberated leisure time per day.

On the other hand, this growing media and communicating sphere has become a crossing point for interests

and powers of strong social factors: politics, capital, stable social networks, such as trade unions and NGOs, as well as

of grey economy, semi criminal and criminal structures in societies like ours. Nonetheless, a speedy development of

Internet, as a meta-medium, will potentially lead to an incredible turn, since it comprises all existing media, but saves its

specific characteristics at the same time.

These findings are central and the most important part of the project. They describe true-to-life what

happened with both society and an individual in the last half of the century.

These data, as well as the less general ones, illustrating main contours of the daily time use by the Serbian

citizens will be analysed in the following text from different viewpoints and various approaches as well, some of which

tend to be rather critical towards social movements the data describe.


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APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TODAY?

This questionnaire is a part of an experimental survey of daily time use, which has been conducted for the first time inour country. You have been chosen to be respondents that will represent population of Serbia over the age of 15.

Please, read this questionnaire carefully and answer all questions. The questionnaire is filled in by circling one of theanswers offered or by writing in answers and numbers. If you have not done any of the activities during the day, pleasewrite 0 (ZERO). Thank you!

1. Your name and family name _____________ ______________________

2. Date of birth (day/month/year) _____, ____, _____

3. Sex (CIRCLE) 1.Female 2. Male

BEGINNING OF THE DAY

P1. Day and date of filling-in the questionnaire: P1.1. Date (day/month/year) ____.____.______.

P1.2. It is ...... (CIRCLE) 1. Monday, 2. Tuesday, 3. Wednesday, 4. Thursday, 5. Friday, 6. Saturday, 7.Sunday

P2. Today I woke up at ______ (hour), ______ (minutes)

P2a. I slept for _______ hours.

P3. If you travelled to work/school/faculty, how did you do that?1. On foot2. By your own car3. By motorcycle/scooter4. By bicycle5. By public transport

6. In some other way7. I did not travel

LIVE/DIRECT COMMUNICATION FACE TO FACE(Read questions carefull y and answer them by writ ing NUMBERS. Be as precise as possible!)

At home/in a f lat How much t ime did you spend AT HOME/IN A FLAT talk ing d irectly (face to face) wi th your....

K1. Home mates total of ______ minutes, K1.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____ minutesK2. Friends total of ______ minutes, K2.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____ minutesK3. Boyfriend / girlfriend total of ______ minutes, K3.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately ______minutes

K4. Colleagues and associates total of ______ minutes , K4.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____minutes.

Out of home How much time did you spend OUT OF HOME talking di rectly (face to face) with your ....:

V1. Home mates total of ______ minutes, V1.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____ minutesV2. Friends total of ______ minutes, V2.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____ minutesV3. Boyfriend / girlfriend total of ______ minutes, V3.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately ______minutesV4. Colleagues and associates total of ______ minutes , V4.1. Out of which I was speaking for approximately _____minutes.

(PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ANSWERED ALL QUESTIONS AND PRESENTED THE WHOLE DAY WELL)

For each of the activities listed below (if there were any during the whole day) mark on the time scale how long they


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ACTIVITIES/TIME

Getting dressed

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Time spent at homeHousework (cooking, cleaning, etc)

Time spent at work

Time spent at faculty/schoolTime spent in traffic/on the road

WATCHING TV

Music

Movies

Serials

Informative show

Education showEntertainment (quizzes, talk / reality show)

Sports

Using Internet

LISTENING TO THE RADIO/MP4Radio / music

Radio / informative programme

Radio / phone-in programme

Radio / sports

MP3/4 music

READING

Books (non-school/business related)

Dailies

Magazines, journals

Studying

GOING OUT/LEISURE TIME

Time spent in a barTime spent in a pub/restaurant

Time spent at friends place

Visit to any culture related event (theatre, cinema, concert)Visiting sport events

Shopping

Betting shop

Time spent in some other way (state the way)_______

Sports and recreational activities (running, swimming, aerobics, football, etc.)Strolling

Please mark the periods when you felt extraordinary good and happy and those when you felt extraordinarybad and unhappy.

MOBILE PHONETALKSM1. During the whole day I had in total _________ talks on a mobile phone, and they lasted for approximately _______

(M1.1.) minutes

M2. Out of the total number of mobile phone talks, you received calls ______ times, which is approximately ______(M2.1.) minutesM3. You called ______ times, which last approximately ______ (M3.1.) minutes.

M4. In all mobile phone talks...1. I talked with my male friend about ______ times,2. With my female friend ______ times,

3. With my boyfriend/girlfriend/partner ________ times,4. With my mother _________ times,5. With your father _______ times,6 With b th ti


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9. Cousins ________ times,10. Someone else ________ times,11. Colleagues and other job related people ________ times.

SMS MESSAGESSENDING SMSS1. Today I have sent the total of ________ SMS messages,S2. Out of that, I have sent to my female friend _____ messages,S3. To my male friend I have sent _____ messages,S4. To my boyfriend/girlfriend/partner ______ messages,S5. To my mother ______ messages,S6. To my father ______ messages,S7. To my brother ______ messages,S8. To my sister ______ messages,S9. To my child (son/daughter) _______ messages,S10. To my cousins______ messages,S11. To colleagues at work ______ messages,S12. To others ______ messages.

RECEIVING SMSP1. Today I have received the total of ________ SMSmessages.P2. Out of that, my female friend sent me ____ messP3. My male friend sent me _____ messagesP4. Boyfriend/girlfriend/partner sent me _____ messP5. My mother sent me ______ messages,P6. My father sent me ______ messages,P7. My brother sent me ______ messages,P8. My sister sent me ______ messages,P9. My child (son/daughter)______ messages,P10. My cousins _____ messages,P11. Colleagues/associates at work_____ messagesP12. Others______ messages.

LANDLINE PHONEF1. During the whole day I had in total _________ talks on a landline phone, and they lasted for approximately _______

(F1.1.) minutes

F2. Out of the total number of landline phone talks, you received calls ______ times, which is approximately ______(F2.1.) minutesF3. You called ______ times, which last approximately ______ (F3.1.) minutes.

F4. In all my landline phone talks...1. I talked with my male friend about ______ times,2. With my female friend ______ times,3. With my boyfriend/girlfriend/partner ________ times,4. With my mother _________ times,5. With your father _______ times,6. With my brother __________ times,7. With my sister ________ times,8. With my child (son/daughter) ______ times,

9. Cousins ________ times,10. Someone else ________ times,11. Colleagues and other job related people ________ times.

INTERNETI1. In the course of the whole day today, I have spent _________ minutes on the Internet.I2. Out of which, Ive sent e-mails for _______ times.I3. 1. Chatting - the total of ________ minutes.I3.2. Out of which, Ive chatted with friends I know personally for _________ minutes.I3.3. Chatted with friends I met via Internet for _________ minutes.I3.4. Chatted with my girlfriend/boyfriend for _________ minutes.I3.5. Chatted with someone else for _________ minutes.

I4. On-line games ... 1) Around ______ minutes with friends I personally know, 2)_________ minutes with friends Ihave met via Internet, 3)_________ minutes with my girlfriend/boyfriend, 4) _________minutes with someone else, 5)_________ minutes without a counterpart/partner

I5. Facebook total of______ minutes.I5a. MySpace total of ______ minutes.I6. Visiting sites total of _______minutes.I6a. Which sites have you browsed today WRITE DOWN NEATLY_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IK1. Do you use Internet? 1. Yes 2. NoIK2. Do you have a mobile phone? 1. Yes 2. No

O1. Which level of education have you COMPLETED?4. Elementary or lower 2. Secondary school completed 3. College (two years) or faculty


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3. Housewife4. Student/pupil5. Pensioner

O3. What is your marital s tatus?1 Married2 Unmarried3 Divorced4 Widowed5 In a common-law marriage

O3.a. Do you have any children? 1. YES (Write down the number)______ 2 . No, I have no children.

O3.b. Do you have any sib lings? WRITE DOWN THE NUMBER (0 IF THERE ARE NO SIBLINGS)1) Brothers (WRITE DOWN THE NUMBER) ______ 2) Sisters (WRITE DOWN THE NUMBER) ______

O3.c. Are your parents alive?1) Mother? 1. Yes 2.No2) Father? 1. Yes 2.No

O4. Total number of people in your household including you is ... (WRITE DOWN THE NUMBER) __________.

O4A. You live with...1. Your parents

2. Your brother3. Your sister4. Your partner5. Friends6. Alone

7. Other


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O5. How much do you earn per month/what is your pocket money?1. Up to RSD 30002. From RSD 3001 to 60003. From RSD 6001 to 120004. From RSD 12001 to 180005. From RSD 18001 to 30000

6. From RSD 30001 to 480007. More than RSD 48000

O6. You live in a ....? 1.city 2. suburb 3. village

O7. Region1. Belgrade2. Vojvodina3. Central West Serbia4. South East Serbia

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU ANSWERED ALL YOUR QUESTIONS!THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

STUDENTS CONFIRMATION: "Hereby I confirm I have carried out the survey in accordance with the giveninstructions."

Name and Family Name of the Student:____________________ ___________________

Signature: _______________ Date: _______________

QUESTIONNAIRE 2

This questionnaire is a part of an experimental survey of daily time use, which has been done for the first time in ourcountry. You have been chosen to be respondents that will represent population of Serbia over the age of 15.

Please, read the questionnaire carefully and answer all questions. The questionnaire is filled in by circling one of theanswers offered or by writing in answers and numbers. If you have not done any of the activities during the day, write0 (ZERO). Thank you!

1. Your name and family name _____________ ______________________

2. Date of birth (day/month/year) _____, ____, _____

3. Sex (CIRCLE) 1.Female 2. Male

BEGINNING OF THE DAY

P1. Day and date of filling-in the questionnaire: P1.1. Date (day/month/year) ____.____.______.

P1.2. It is ...... (CIRCLE) 1. Monday, 2. Tuesday, 3. Wednesday, 4. Thursday, 5. Friday, 6. Saturday, 7.Sunday

P2. Today I woke up at ______ (hour), ______ (minutes)

P2a. I slept for _______ hours.

IK1. Do you use Internet? 1. Yes 2. NoIK2. Do you have a mobile phone? 1. Yes 2. No


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Would you say that you feel less happy and less content today in comparison w ith the period beforeoutbreak of the global economic cr isis, or you feel more happy and content, or nothing has changed?

1. I feel less happy and less content2. Almost the same nothing has changed

3. I feel more happy and more content

For each period in which you felt happy and content, please state WHAT you did at that time or what was going on:1. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that:

__________________________2. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________3. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________4. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________5. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________6. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________7. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that:

__________________________

Who did you spend you time with at times you marked as those you felt happy and content?

1. Alone2. With my sister3. With my brother4. With my wife5. With my husband6. With my mother7. With my father8. With my grandmother9. With my grandfather10. With my friend11. With my male friend12. With my female colleague(s)13. With my male colleague(s)14. With my girlfriend/partner15. With my boyfriend/partner

16. With my female neighbour17. With my male neighbour18. With someone else ____________ (state who)

For each period in which you felt particularly bad and unhappy, please state WHAT you did at that time or what wasgoing on:

1. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that:__________________________

2. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________3. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________4. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________5. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________6. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that: __________________________7. Period ____ (filled in by the surveyor) I did / it happened that:

__________________________

Who did you spend your time with at times you marked as those you felt particularly bad and unhappy?1. Alone2. With my sister3. With my brother4. With my wife5. With my husband6. With my mother


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7. With my father8. With my grandmother9. With my grandfather10. With my friend11. With my male friend12. With my female colleague(s)13. With my male colleague(s)

14. With my girlfriend/partner15. With my boyfriend/partner16. With my female neighbour17. With my male neighbour18. With someone else ____________ (state who)

Would you say that you feel less happy and less content today in comparison with the period before outbreak of theglobal economic crisis, or you feel more happy and content, or nothing has changed?

1. I feel less happy and less content2. Almost the same nothing has changed3. I feel more happy and more content

Documents

Daily Time Use Survey