In Ian Frazier's Essay In Praise Of Margins

In the article “ The Busy Trap” Kreider tries to convince readers to chose time over money. He makes numerous points including how boasting about busyness takes the form of a complaint. He insults those who voluntarily take on obligations by remarking that they are obsessed with always being occupied. However, the basis for such a conclusion is founded on only a few examples of individuals who were negatively affected by the burden of work. In Kreider’s opinion it is wasteful to be busy all the time because life is too short to work more than 5 hours per day and not spend enough time in one’s happy place. What is your happy place? Picture it and stay there for a while letting your thoughts flow. Notice that your thinking becomes more positive and somewhat out of reach. Next, imagine a life with minimal stress that includes little to no work and much enjoyment; now you 're floating back to reality because that type of life is not in the grasps of most. Similarly, Kreider writes his article as if most people have plenty of time to waste, and to enjoy themselves, as he has. Kreider’s overall point that people keep themselves busy to escape the feelings of emptiness is both ignorant and a reflection of his narrow perspective of the world. His opinion that people feel apprehensive when not working, along with the fact that most people wouldn’t be content living the lifestyle Kreider is promoting, plus his support towards the propositions of full unemployment and a

Every day, people are faced with responsibility. Some thrive under the pressure while others crumble. Responsibility is a sign of independence. Teenagers with greater amounts of responsibility feel freedom from their parents. In the same case, too much responsibility can put more stress on that freedom-seeking teen and can have devastating effects. John Steinbeck shows the theme that in life, responsibility is best taken in moderation in his novel Of Mice and Men.

As the future approaches, automation and technology are quickly evolving and diminishing the amount of jobs available for Americans. American work-life has evolved drastically over the years. Certain jobs are being replaced by drones and robots, leaving many Americans unemployed. It has caused a slight shift in how we work. However, the continuation of work is still alive. In the article “A World Without Work,” (2015) the author Derek Thompson expresses how people are losing their jobs. Nevertheless, they’re using their hobbies and talents to generate money. Someone might sell their poetry and written work when they have lost their job generating income while also fostering creativity. President Nixon’s “Address to The Nation on Labor

Present-day American society is fast-paced and constantly moving forward. With so many things to do in such little time, busyness and stress seem to take over our lives. In “The ‘Busy Trap,’” Tim Kreider’s position as to why the audience should strive to avoid busyness is very well thought out, however, some of the points in the essay have faulty reasoning.

The number of individuals associated with the aspects of modern life is gradually amassing and this correlates to the number of those who continuously perform meaningless tasks.

Marginal places and activities have a great value to Frazier because the place he discovered as a child is now lost because as he entered adulthood he started seeing these places and activities as a waste of time. According to Frazier, “The margin is where you can try out odd ideas that you might be afraid to admit with people looking on.” (305) Marginal activities and locations allow an individual to discover one’s true passion without any other influences. This is an important idea because everyone occasionally needs to liberate from

As they told themselves a frequent activity was exploring and the reader understand this was marginal when he mentions they were all easily distracted from their exploration with the sight of the perfect ice to stomp on. Fraizer explains these distractions to extend the understanding of margins and that they don’t require uninterrupted focus because a person doesn’t have something to accomplish, a marginal activity could result in another marginal activity that could have an outcome. I consider watching movies a marginal activity for many, people go to the theater to simply relax and get their mind off of other things. Movies let a person engulf themselves in the lives of others, fall in love all over again with a romance, laugh away all problems with a comedy, or feel a rush of adrenaline with an action movie. Films similar to these can create inspiration in people to find love, to become a director, even to become a writer to create a script that will affect people as the film affected them. Margins being without any purpose unintentionally result with a person having a purpose “every purpose-filled activity we pursue in the woods began as just fooling around”.

When employed labor is involved, productivity in terms of time becomes important, because the employer generally pays the worker in terms of time. For many jobs, then a shift from task-orientation to timed labor occurs, as the laborer’s time becomes the employer’s money. Thus, a separation between work and leisure occurs, as

In Alain de Botton’s essay, “On Habit” and Adam Gopnik essay, “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli” explain the way that individuals can think creatively and express their feelings and thoughts into newer meaning and in-depth ideas. They also explain the way that the human race are so engaged in technology and busyness that they are overlooking what really is important to them in their life. De Botton is worried that many people do not go beyond limitations and need to explore their surrounding more and appreciate what is going on around them. He urges people to use their ‘traveling mindset’ and try to approach their environments in a positive

The essay “In Praise of Margins” by Ian Frazier is about the value of marginal activities and places. When something is considered marginal, it means that it doesn’t generally work out or have a purpose. However, to Frazier, marginal places or activities are seen as purposeless to others, but are valuable to the person taking part in the marginal behavior. Frazier says “the margin is where you can try out odd ideas that you might be afraid to admit to with people looking on” and that “marginal behavior can be the most important kind” (Frazier 305). This means that they can be considered strange, crazy, or something you may not want to try in public. He thinks they are important because they are considered full of purpose at the time the place is visited or the behavior done. We need these places and activities in our lives. I agree with Frazier that marginal places and activities are valuable, for they can give us the opportunity to bring back fond memories, provide a space or hobby to release frustrations, and bring us happiness.

“I bet most of us have experienced at some point the joys of less: college-- in your dorm, traveling-- in a hotel room, camping-- rig up basically nothing, maybe a boat”. Graham Hill, a TED Talk speaker said “Less Stuff, More Happiness.” Today people disagree with that, they believe the more someone has, the more joyful their life will be. But Hill voices his opinion to say the more items people have, the less happy they could truly become. What people truly need in life, is the simple things. Graham Hill used ethos, formal language, and hasty generalization to persuade the audience of his beliefs.

On a psychosocial perspective, there is not much to say about the observation at the electronic store of the man playing a video game. One aspect that could be related to psychosocial would be that during middle adulthood an individual uses leisure time creatively. The man in this observation appeared to be using his free time in a creative way by doing something that was fun and not working (Kail, 2004).

A variety of evidence and data was collected inn support of this hypothesis. To start off with, the paper defines ‘routine activities’ as activities at home, in jobs away from

This responsibility includes those of the personal and social nature. On a personal level, we have to take care of ourselves and stay healthy and happy individuals. Socially I strongly believe in the saying, do unto others, as you would like them to do unto you. Abiding by this rule helps society to operate as smoothly as possible without too much conflict. Besides, it is not worth any minute of our shirt lifetime to be unhappy or rude. We as humans are able to make conscious, individual choice and take responsibility for our actions, beliefs, feelings and attitudes. And I believe that we need to exercise these abilities.

At the beginning of this course leisure was a topic I did not give much thought to and I felt like I did not have the time to spare to put much thought into. To me, all leisure meant was having free time to do whatever it is that I wanted to do. But after analyzing my life I noticed that I had surrounded my life with solely work and school and my “free time” was anytime I spent watching television and anytime I slept. However, after taking this course I learned that leisure meant more much than that. Now leisure to me means, as Richard Kraus states, leisure is “time which is not devoted to work or work-connected responsibilities or to other forms of discretionary or unobligated time,” (Olson et al., 2003, 12). The “time” in which Kraus