I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE: A Study on the Filipinos’ Concept and Usage of Time across Age Groups

Abstract

People often say that: “Time is Gold.” With time being related to Gold, it simply means that it is an important part of a person’s life. Time, as defined in this study, is something that is measured by seconds, minutes, and hours. People define and explain the concept of time differently. Various concepts of time also mean difference in time usage. These may be due to sex, age, social groups, culture, and whatnot. In this study, the general objective is to find out the differences of the concept and usage of time was related to age groups – young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood or old age. Specifically, this study aims to satisfy the following objectives: (1) to define the concept of “Filipino time”; and (2) to compare and contrast the various usage of time across age groups in terms of: a.) punctuality versus lateness, b.) idle time, c.) pastime, d.) productive time, and e.) relaxing versus stressful time. Phenomenology was the research methodology used in this research. For the researcher to be able to satisfy the given objectives, a total of 36 respondents were chosen to participate in the focused group discussions (FGDs). These FGDs comprised of six (6) members each and were conducted within the Metro Manila area. There were a total of six (6) FGDs which were divided between the different age groups. There were two (2) sets of FGDs per age group to be able to compare the data collected from each FGD. It was found out that the most emerging difference between the concepts of time between the age groups was their time awareness which influenced their perception on punctuality and lateness. For the participants, as a person grows older, the higher is the person’s value for time. This was because of the more responsibilities that he or she has to take on. Furthermore, they said that the Filipinos do not have strict adherence to time which was greatly influenced by the Filipino traits such as the mañana habit and bahala na attitude. The concept of time management was related as to how they spend idle times, pastime, productive time, relaxing and stressful time and it was found out that it was different across the age groups that were interviewed in terms of the activities that they spend those times with and how they perform the activities. The young adults’ times were centered on studies and start of careers which were where most of their productive and stressful times were spent. For the middle adults, it was a matter of balancing and managing the stress between family and work. Pastime and relaxing times where spent through vacations with family. For those who were in the late adulthood stage, it was shared that they have the most flexible time than the other age groups; thus, they have less stressful times and have more relaxing times, and their productive times were in the context of learning through reading books.