Our era is suffering from too much free time. Since the beginning of civilization, human beings have never had so much time to do what they pleased.

What do we do with this time made available through achievements? Who decides or influences our choices? In what way are those choices powerful generators of lasting inequalities?

Free time can be used in three ways: to nurture our relationships with others, to nurture ourselves, or to be entertained. Although we should aim to balance the three carefully, entertainment has colonized our leisure time through new digital technologies. Paradoxically, time for ourselves has become a time without a self, dilapidated and controlled by others. The near-total domination of screens over our waking lives is the manifestation of that.

The tragedy is that free time prepares the ground for future inequalities. How each social group uses it is the decisive element in their differences. A divide has appeared between those who have a balanced strategy for using their free time and those who lack one. The first group puts it to good use, increasing their social and economic capital, whether directly or indirectly. The others are hostages to a system for which they are the product, rather than the clients.

This book shows that, without realizing it, we are going through a crisis of leisure that is sowing the seeds of profound social and political disorder. He offers practical ways to take control of our selves back and to stop letting our time go to waste.