Household labor-saving devices do not reduce household time

Evidence

And in fact there is now sufficient empirical evidence for the claim that the temporal resources “gained” or set free by technological acceleration, for instance, in the household by means of washing machines, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, etc., are simply tied up once again through corresponding quantitative increases in activity. Thus investigations from the 1960s and ’70s indicate that the time spent at home surprisingly tends to increase rather than fall with the number of household appliances. According to an extensive countrywide American study of time use from 1975 involving 2,406 respondents, owners of dishwashing machines spent on average one minute and owners of laundry machines four minutes more at home each day than adults without these appliances, and the vacuum cleaner saved only one minute. From this, John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey conclude, in agreement with the hypothesis developed here, that “what likely occurred with other technology is happening with the microwave oven: potential time savings are turned into increased output or improved quality.” — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 240

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the classic economic paradox of time-saving technology (also related to Jevons paradox energy/consumption rebound and Parkinson’s Law in organizations). — connects to: Household appliances did not reduce time spent on housework — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 240; Incorporating robots can reduce household labor demands. — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 712
• QUESTION: Why exactly do households reinvest saved time rather than bank it — what mechanism or incentive structure drives the reinvestment?

Broader Connections

• Household appliances did not reduce time spent on housework #corroborates (0.97) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 240
• Incorporating robots can reduce household labor demands. #contradicts (0.85) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 712