Free Time and Human Digital Existence

Time, as a fundamental form of human existence, is not only embodied in the objective rhythm of material motion but also constructs the space for human development. In the digital age, the modes of human production, life, and the structure of time perception are undergoing profound transformations. Digital technology both contains the immense potential to liberate people from necessary labor and expand the space for free development, and is deeply integrated with the logic of capital, impacting the key element for realizing the free and comprehensive development of humanity—free time. It promises efficiency and liberation, but also gives rise to new problems such as the fragmentation, acceleration, and nihilism of meaning in time perception.

时间作为人类存在的基本形式，不仅体现为物质运动的客观节律，而且构建着人的发展的空间。在数字时代，人类的生产生活方式与时间感知结构正经历深刻变革。数字技术既蕴含着将人从必要劳动中解放出来、拓展自由发展空间的巨大潜能，又与资本逻辑深度结合，冲击着实现人的自由全面发展的关键要素——自由时间。它许诺了效率与解放，但也催生出时间感知的碎片化、加速化与意义虚无化等新问题。

Free Time as the Space for Human Development and the Measure of Liberation

自由时间作为人的发展的空间与解放尺度

Marx pointed out: “Time is actually the active existence of man. It is not only the measure of his life but also the space for his development.” [1]1 Karl Marx, *Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie* (1857–1858), in *Marx-Engels-Werke* (MEW), vol. 42, p. 607. This assertion reveals the intrinsic connection between time and the essence of humanity. At the individual level, time is the measure of life activities, recording the process of human growth and the realization of value. As Engels stated, “The basic forms of all existence are space and time, and existence outside time is just as absurd as existence outside space.” [2]2 Friedrich Engels, *Anti-Dühring* (1878), in MEW, vol. 20, p. 48. Through the disposition of time, individuals “make history” in the two-way interaction of the objectification of the subject and the subjectification of the object. When individuals immerse themselves in scientific exploration, artistic creation, philosophical contemplation, or social interaction, time becomes the field where the potential of life blossoms. At the social-subject level, socially necessary labor time plays a core role in the commodity economy, not only determining the value magnitude of commodities but also, through the law of value, influencing resource allocation, market competition, and the development of productive forces. At the human-subject level, time is the carrier of civilizational inheritance and evolution. From the natural time of the agricultural era to the mechanical time of the industrial era, and then to the media time of the digital era, the transformation of time forms has always resonated in step with the progress of human civilization.

马克思指出：“时间实际上是人的积极存在，它不仅是人的生命尺度，而且是人的发展的空间。”这一论断揭示了时间与人的本质之间的内在关联。在个体层面，时间是生命活动的刻度，记录着人的成长与价值实现过程。正如恩格斯所言，“一切存在的基本形式是空间和时间，时间以外的存在和空间以外的存在，同样是非常荒诞的事情”。个体通过对时间的支配，在主体客体化和客体主体化的双向互动中“创造历史”。当个体沉浸在科学探索、艺术创作、哲学沉思或社会交往中时，时间便成为生命潜能绽放的场域。在社会主体层面，社会必要劳动时间在商品经济中扮演着核心角色，不仅决定商品的价值量，还通过价值规律影响资源配置、市场竞争和生产力发展。在人类主体层面，时间是文明传承与演进的载体。从农业时代的自然时间到工业时代的机械时间，再到数字时代的媒介时间，时间形态的变迁始终与人类文明进步同频共振。

Marx defined free time as time that can be freely disposed of, including leisure time and time for engaging in higher activities, and predicted that under the system of automated machinery, “the measure of wealth is then no longer labor time, but disposable time.” [3]3 Karl Marx, *Grundrisse*, in MEW, vol. 42, p. 601. This means that social progress lies in its transformation of the “time surplus” created by technological progress into “free time” that can be freely disposed of by all members of society for comprehensive development. In essence, the acquisition of free time marks the liberation of people from the shackles of necessary labor, enabling them to autonomously choose activities that align with their own interests and potential, and centrally embodies the characteristics of human consciousness, autonomy, and freedom.

马克思将自由时间界定为可以自由支配的时间，包括闲暇时间与从事高级活动的发展时间，并预言在自动化机器体系下，“财富的尺度决不再是劳动时间，而是可以自由支配的时间”。这意味着社会的进步在于其将技术进步创造的“时间盈余”，转化为全体成员可自由支配的、用于全面发展的“自由时间”。从本质上看，自由时间的获得，标志着人从必要劳动的束缚中解放出来，得以自主选择符合自身兴趣与潜能的活动，集中体现了人的自觉、自主、自由特性。

The Potential and Predicament of Free Time in the Digital Age

数字时代自由时间的潜能与困境

The development of digital technology has brought about significant changes in the forms of existence and paths of realization of free time. As Negroponte stated in *Being Digital*, “Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.” [4]4 Nicholas Negroponte, *Being Digital* (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 6. In the environment of digital existence, the relationship between humans and time exhibits both progressiveness and latent profound contradictions. The widespread application of automation and intelligent technologies has reduced a large amount of repetitive and mechanical labor, while cloud computing and big data processing have multiplied the efficiency of complex tasks, promoting a leap in social production efficiency. Digital media have broken the limitations of time and space, manifested as “the liberation of bits from atoms”—atoms are constrained by fixed spatiotemporal transmission, while bits can reach the entire globe instantly. This characteristic makes flexible time utilization methods such as remote work and online learning possible, allowing individuals to arrange their time more autonomously and achieve a dynamic balance between labor and life. Thus, digital technology enriches the forms of realization of free time. The rise of new formats such as virtual social interaction, digital cultural creativity, and online education provides diversified choices for time consumption in “post-information society personalized existence,” expanding the space for human development. Digital technology seems to be turning Marx’s prediction of the “shortening of the working day” and the “increase of free time” from possibility into reality.

数字技术的发展，使自由时间的存在形式与实现路径发生了显著变化。正如尼葛洛庞帝在《数字化生存》中所言，“计算不再只和计算机有关，它决定我们的生存”。在数字化生存环境下，人与时间的关系既展现出进步性，也潜藏着深刻的矛盾。自动化、智能化技术的广泛应用减少了大量重复性、机械性的劳动，云计算、大数据处理使得复杂任务效率倍增，推动了社会生产效能的飞跃。数字媒介打破了时间和空间限制，表现为“比特对原子的解放”——原子受限于固定时空传递，而比特却能瞬间通达全球。这种特性使远程办公、在线学习等灵活的时间利用方式成为可能，个体能够更自主地安排时间，实现劳动与生活的动态平衡。由此，数字技术丰富了自由时间的实现形式，虚拟社交、数字文创、在线教育等新业态的兴起，为“后信息社会个性化生存”提供了多样化的时间消费选择，拓展了人的发展空间。数字技术仿佛正在将马克思所预言的“工作日的缩短”和“自由时间增加”从可能变为现实。

However, the time predicament of the digital age cannot be ignored. When digital technology is “hijacked” by capital, the free time of individuals is often severely squeezed. “Digital labor” covertly transforms people’s life time into social production time, often severely imbalanced with its economic returns. In traditional industrial society, factory walls and fixed working hour systems relatively clearly demarcated work and life, labor time and free time, at the physical and institutional levels. In the digital age, communication tools have become the mobile factory entrance. Work group messages can pop up late at night, read receipts create invisible pressure, and working from home means being on duty all day, trapping people in a state of “always-on” standby. Even users’ autonomous leisure activities such as browsing, liking, and sharing on social media are being gratuitously converted by platforms into data raw materials for training algorithms, placing advertisements, and creating profits. Free time is not only fragmented and encroached upon in terms of “quantity,” but in terms of “quality,” it has also degenerated from a space for self-development into a free resource for capital valorization.

然而，数字时代的时间困境同样不容忽视。当数字技术被资本“捆绑”，个体的自由时间往往遭受严重挤压，“数字劳动”使得人们的生命时间隐匿地转化为社会生产时间，且常与其经济回报严重失衡。在传统工业社会，工厂围墙和固定工时制度在物理空间和制度层面相对清晰地划分了工作与生活、劳动时间与自由时间。而在数字时代，通信工具成了移动的工厂入口。工作群的消息可以在深夜弹出，已读回执制造着无形的压力，居家办公意味着全天在岗，使人陷入一种“永远在线”的待命状态。甚至用户在社交媒体上的浏览、点赞、分享等自主休闲活动，也在被平台无偿转化为数据原料并用于训练算法、投放广告、创造利润。自由时间不仅在“量”上被碎片化切割和侵占，在“质”上也从发展自我的空间沦为资本增殖的免费资源。

When algorithms hold the power of time control and domination in the digital age, what people possess is often “filled time” rather than “autonomous time.” On the one hand, on the production side, systems like food delivery platform delivery times and ride-hailing order-matching algorithms construct a fully quantified performance monitoring system, creating continuous competitive pressure and an “acceleration culture,” forcing laborers to constantly engage in “self-exploitation,” actively compressing rest and extending working hours to adapt to system requirements. On the other hand, on the consumption side, algorithms analyze user preferences through big data, using personalized recommendations, infinite information streams, and instant feedback mechanisms to precisely capture user attention, inducing individuals into “information cocoons” and addictive consumption, unconsciously squandering large amounts of time on shallow, fragmented information consumption and entertainment, weakening the ability and willingness for deep reading, systematic thinking, and creative practice. This runs counter to Negroponte’s ultimate pursuit of a “humanized interface”—when technology is divorced from humanistic care, bits can become new shackles.

当算法掌握数字时代的时间支配权与控制权，人们拥有的往往是“被填满的时间”，而非“自主的时间”。一方面，外卖平台的送餐时间、网约车的接单算法等生产端通过构建全面量化的绩效监控体系，制造出持续的竞争压力与“加速文化”，迫使劳动者不断进行“自我剥削”，主动压缩休息、延长工时以适配系统要求。另一方面，消费端算法通过大数据分析用户偏好，利用个性化推荐、无限信息流和即时反馈机制精准捕获用户注意力，诱导个体陷入“信息茧房”与成瘾性消费，无意识中挥霍大量时间于浅层、碎片化的信息消费与娱乐，削弱了进行深度阅读、系统思考和创造性实践的能力与意愿。这与尼葛洛庞帝对“人性化界面”的终极追求背道而驰——当技术脱离人文关怀，比特便可能成为新的枷锁。

Reconstructing Free Time to Promote the Free and Comprehensive Development of Humanity

重构自由时间以促进人的自由全面发展

Marx pointed out: “Free time—which is both leisure time and time for higher activity—naturally transforms its possessor into a different subject, and as this different subject he then enters into the direct production process.” [5]5 Karl Marx, *Grundrisse*, in MEW, vol. 42, p. 607. When “labor becomes the first need of life,” [6]6 Karl Marx, *Critique of the Gotha Programme* (1875), in MEW, vol. 19, p. 21. people labor freely in their free time, thus becoming free people. He revealed the intrinsic unity of time liberation and human liberation, that is, free time is not only a transformation of the form of time but also a leap in the mode of human existence. Under the capitalist system, the free time of the proletariat is gratuitously appropriated by the bourgeoisie; “the free time of the non-laboring part of society is based on the surplus labor or overwork of the laboring part,” and “the free time of one side corresponds to the enslaved time of the other.” [7]7 Karl Marx, *Capital*, vol. 1 (1867), in MEW, vol. 23, p. 552. Marx emphasized that only by abolishing private property and realizing public ownership of the means of production can “the abolition of the antithesis between free time and labor time” become possible, allowing all members of society to equally enjoy free time. The time alienation in the digital age is essentially an extension of the logic of capital in the digital domain. Facing the predicament of free time in the digital age, we must shift the focus of reflection from technology itself to the social relations and power structures in which it is embedded—digital technology must ultimately ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, rather than being drowned out by standardization.

马克思指出，“自由时间——不论是闲暇时间还是从事较高级活动的时间——自然要把占有它的人变为另一主体，于是他作为这另一主体又加入直接生产过程”。当“劳动成为人的第一需要”，人们在自由时间中自由地劳动，从而成为自由的人。他揭示了时间解放与人的解放的内在统一性，即自由时间不仅是时间形态的变革，而且是人的存在方式的跃迁。在资本主义制度下，无产阶级的自由时间被资产阶级无偿占有，“不劳动的社会部分的自由时间是以剩余劳动或过度劳动为基础的”，“同一方的自由时间相应的是另一方的被奴役的时间”。马克思强调，只有消灭私有制，实现生产资料公有制，才能使“自由时间和劳动时间之间对立的扬弃”成为可能，让全体社会成员平等享有自由时间。数字时代的时间异化本质上是资本逻辑在数字领域的延伸。面对数字时代的自由时间困境，我们要将反思的焦点从技术本身投射到其被嵌入的社会关系与权力结构——数字技术最终要让每个人的声音被听见，而非被标准化淹没。

The realization of the value of free time is inseparable from practical creative activity. Marx pointed out that "the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations." [8]8 Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach," Thesis VI. In the digital age, one must guard against the substitution of virtual time for reality, and avoid individuals falling into "digital addiction" and losing their capacity for practical activity. In Negroponte's view, "digital technology is a bridge connecting people, not a barrier isolating them from reality," and "digital existence is not the triumph of technology, but the triumph of humanity." [9]9 Nicholas Negroponte, *Being Digital* (1995). Technology is merely a means; human practical activity is the core of realizing the value of time. People should make full use of technological advantages, carry out "nomadic learning" according to their own rhythms, and invest more of their leisure time in activities that bring lasting growth, creative achievement, and the well-being of the community, thereby promoting their all-round development. Since different groups' mastery of digital technology affects the quality of their free time, the digital age should safeguard workers' time rights through institutional design, build a fair time-allocation mechanism, and strive to narrow the "digital divide." This process is not only a reconstruction of the mode of digital existence, but also an encouragement and maintenance of the realization of humanity's free essence.

自由时间的价值实现离不开现实的创造性实践。马克思指出，“人的本质并不是单个人所固有的抽象物，在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”。在数字时代，应警惕虚拟时间对现实的替代，避免个体陷入“数字沉迷”而丧失实践能力。在尼葛洛庞帝看来，“数字技术是连接彼此的桥梁而非隔绝现实的壁垒”，“数字化生存不是技术的胜利，而是人的胜利”，技术只是手段，人的实践活动才是时间价值实现的核心。人们应充分利用技术优势，按照自身节奏开展“游牧式学习”，将闲暇时间更多地投入能带来持久成长、创造性成就与共同体福祉的活动中，促进自身的全面发展。由于不同群体对数字技术的掌握程度影响其自由时间的质量，数字时代应通过制度设计保障劳动者的时间权益，构建公平的时间分配机制并着力缩小“数字鸿沟”。这一过程不仅是对数字化生存方式的重构，更是对人实现自由本质的激励与维护。

As Marx predicted, when "the development of the productive forces of society will be so rapid that, although production will aim at the enrichment of all, the free time available to all will still increase." [10]10 Karl Marx, *Grundrisse* (1857–1858). With technological progress, the improvement of institutional safeguards, and the awakening of the subject's time consciousness, free time will ultimately be liberated from the shackles of digital capital and truly become a human, abundant "space for development." At that time, people will also realize the ideal state of existence in the digital age—dancing with bits, rather than being devoured by bits.

正如马克思所预言的，当“社会生产力的发展将如此迅速，以致尽管生产将以所有的人富裕为目的，所有的人的可以自由支配的时间还是会增加”。随着技术进步和制度保障的完善，以及主体时间意识的觉醒，自由时间终将从数字资本的束缚中解放出来，真正成为属人的、充盈的“发展空间”。届时，人们也将实现数字时代的理想生存状态——与比特共舞，而非被比特吞噬。

(The author is an associate professor at the School of Marxism, North China University of Technology)

（作者系北方工业大学马克思主义学院副教授）