by Katie Miller
In a time of constant connectivity in the digital world, the idea of relaxation has become significantly different. There was an era when relaxation meant really stepping away from work and all other outside noise. Whether it meant going to the gym, taking a walk, or unwinding with a book, relaxation gave people a break from life expectations.

However, with social media becoming more demanding of our attention, it has shifted how individuals experience leisure, often making it more challenging to relax. 

On the surface level, mindlessly scrolling on social media doesn’t seem half bad. However, in a study titled The Effects of Social Media on Leisure, Carolyn Lin and David Atkin argue that digital usage challenges the concept of relaxation by creating the need to be socially connected and available at all hours of the day.

“The persistent nature of online social presence creates a context where users feel a pressure to maintain connectivity, even during periods of downtime,” Lin and Atkin note. Rather than leisure being a self care activity, it has resulted in the inability to socially disconnect, even when there is purposely time blocked out to rest. 

Each generation has a different experience, as the younger generations are inclined to be more active on social media because they have grown up with it. Many say there is a feeling of missing out when they aren’t digitally connected. Hailey Monson, a 20-year-old college student said, “It’s just a natural instinct,” she explained. “I pick up my phone without thinking, and watch what everyone else is doing. It’s almost like it’s a part of my daily routine and just something I have to do.” 

On the opposite end, older adults who grew up without any of the new media and lived most of their lives unreachable, it may feel like a more drastic change. Lindi Bredek, who is now in her fifties, put it this way: “I remember leaving at 8 am and no one had a clue what I was doing until I would come back home at 5 pm,” she said. “But now I even catch myself scrolling on Facebook in the evenings looking at what my family and friends are doing and sometimes posting about my activities.” For the older generations, this marks a large cultural shift as they went from having privacy to always being in the public eye. 

An article from BBC Worklife provides more insight into the broader cultural change of leisure. Bryan Lufkin said, “Free time is no longer free – it’s a curated highlight reel, another thing to perform.” This demonstrates that society’s obsession with being productive has taken control over finding time to decompress. Now, it has become about proving something and continuing that push to show others that you are still productive even in your leisure time … a way to say “look what I am doing!”

The lingering concerns are the emotional toll it is having. According to The Journal of Ethics, overuse of social media has been connected to loneliness. “People may substitute virtual interactions for meaningful real-world connection, without the emotional fulfillment.” With swapping out real connections, there is a heavy weight of emotion that follows closely behind, leading to feeling disconnected, even during a time where we are more connected than ever before.

Additionally, an article in Psychology Today concludes all of the time spent on social media points to a slightly different emotion, which is irritability. “Grumpiness, agitation, and a short fuse – these emotional states are increasingly tied to frequent social media use,” the article noted. How much time people spend online, and what people do and see online affects their mood and everyday relationships. It is necessary for people to be aware of how they engage with social media. It is a tool and like any tool, it needs to be used wisely to protect your mental health.  

Essentially, true leisure means to have time for meaningful self care and rest, something that social media doesn’t offer. Even when individuals are laying on the couch, it is common to get sucked back into the mindless scrolling habits. However, with constant communication it leaves much less time for self reflection. With platforms continuing to evolve it is making it more of a challenge to intentionally disconnect because most apps have a specified algorithm that keeps individuals scrolling for longer than anticipated. 

On an individual level, this can lead to shorter attention spans, fatigue, and burnout. On a broader level, it will shift how each generation views the reason for leisure and why it is important. Meaningful relaxation hasn’t disappeared, it has just become more difficult to actually do. Being able to stay connected throughout the world is a luxury, but being able to have time alone with  nothing except your own thoughts is an even bigger luxury in today’s world.  

by Alexis Spier
You wake up at 5:45 a.m. From 6 a.m. – 8 a.m., you study. Then you go to class. After class, you go to work. After work, you go to practice. After practice, you go to the library and study for two hours. Finally, you get home. You have finished everything for the day, and now you have some free time. However, it’s 9 p.m. and tomorrow you have to get up and do it all over again. 

This might look like an exaggerated example, but this is reality for Ella Wragge. Wragge is a junior political science major at Morningside University. Although her schedule is full, she still makes time for leisure. One might think that because she likes to stay busy during the day that her leisure time would reflect that of her day. 

“My productivity at the end of the day (she laughs), I’m all done,” Wragge said. “Leisure time is very important to me, because if I were to do productive things all day and night, I’d be really burnt out.” 

Wragge admits that her schedule gets overwhelming. She studies for 4 hours every day and does even more on the weekends. She works 18 hours a week at Goosmann Law Firm and 16 hours a week at The Wheelhouse Bar & Grill. On top of that she is on the Morningside Women’s Basketball team.

Ella is the kind of person that prefers being busy, because the productivity gives her a positive peace of mind. But even she acknowledges it can be too much for her. I asked her if it’s hard for her to find free time. She recommended a schedule. 

“I found that it’s easy to find leisure time when I schedule and make time for myself to do homework. Me waking up at 6 am to study for LSAT gives me time in the evening. As soon as I get off work or out of class, I go to the library for two hours and do as much homework as I can, so the rest of the night I’m not worrying about it.” Wragge says, “I’m wired as a more go with the flow person, but my goals and my schedule don’t allow me to do that, so I’ve had to change my habits.”

Wragge mentions changing her habits. She knows that leisure time is crucial for her well-being, so she is proactive about allowing time to do some of the things she loves. All majors have different demands, therefore some students may have a lot of free time and others schedules may look more like Wragge’s. It’s impressive that she can consistently keep up with this schedule and avoid burnout. What separates her from others is her passion. 

“My goal is to work for a women’s right organization or an environmental organization or defend women who have been abused,” Wragge said. “If I’m doing something like that, it wouldn’t feel like work to me.”

With a hefty schedule like this, some people might want to collapse on the couch and watch TV or enjoy some videos on their phone. Sometimes that may be all the energy someone has and that is okay. But not all of the time. 

It seems as though our society has moved towards a more solitary lifestyle. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called it the “epidemic of loneliness,” and earlier this year The Atlantic published an article emphasizing exactly how antisocial Americans are nowadays. Adults spent an additional 99 minutes at home compared to 2003. Boys’ and girls’ daily time spent with friends decreased by half since 1990. A 2023 study found husbands and wives are four times more likely to watch TV than talk to each other. From 1965-1995, adults gained 6 hours a week in leisure time. Almost all of this time went to watching television. From 1985-1994, community involvement decreased by half. 

These facts can be explained by what Natalija Popovic calls, “the lowest hanging fruit.” The lowest hanging fruit is what new technology has programmed us to do. We watch television and scroll through social media, because it is easy.

However, Wragge prefers to spend her leisure time in other ways. “I love reading, doing puzzles, listening to podcasts, and going for walks,” she said. “Being in the sun is good for my mental and physical health.” 

I noticed these were all things that she does on her own. Having alone time is prioritized for many people, but social interactions are equally as important, especially now when isolation is taking over. I asked Wragge if she spends time with others during her leisure time. I was surprised when she answered that she isn’t the kind of person who wants to be alone. In fact, she hates being alone. She loves to cook for her friends and see their reaction when they take that first bite.

“I am much happier when I’m with other people,” she said. “We don’t even have to talk; it’s the fact that we’re sitting here together.”

Wragge notes how she isn’t afraid of rejection. I know many students who are afraid that the answer they will get to asking people to hang out is no. I also know people who don’t want to face the initial steps of a friendship. Unfortunately, because our society has become more and more individual, people are socially awkward. They don’t know what to say or they don’t know how to carry the conversation forward. Wragge gave me an example of her taking that step.

“My political science friend… We’ve always had the same classes and now we work together,” Ella explained. “We’ve known each other for two years, so finally I asked, ‘Do you want to hang out outside of class and work?’” She compared making new friends to the first stages in a relationship: “It’s like the ‘what are we?’ in a relationship, but with friends.”

With our connection to everything and everyone all of the time, it can feel impossible to give our full attention to one thing. Leisure time can and most of the time will be interrupted by the ping of our smartphones. One method to try, and Wragge would recommend, is making a schedule. Create time before the week to do homework and enjoy leisure. Allowing time for studies can even provide a better leisure experience, because you were productive. 

There are days where we just want to watch our favorite show to relax, but we can try to decrease the time spent with technology. Don’t grasp at the lowest hanging fruit. Go back to the things you loved to do before technology. A few of Wragge’s leisure time favorites are reading, walking, doing puzzles, and cooking for her friends.

Her passion drives her determination. She is excited by her education and work, because it is leading towards her dream. With that drive to learn, she still takes time to relax and refresh. It’s not impossible, even for Wragge, a political science major who plays college basketball, studies 4 hours a day, and works 34 hours a week. 

by Katie Miller
One of the signs that my day is coming to an end is eating dinner. Whether cooking at home or enjoying a meal out, I like to try new and different food. Having a leisurely dinner with someone I love is one of my top five favorite things to do.

My boyfriend, Caden, and I, went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and gave CRAVE American Kitchen & Sushi Bar a try, located at 1100 Larsen Park Rd, Sioux City, IA 51106. It has been in the area for eight years after Kaskaid Hospitality announced its opening for November 2017. We have both heard that the restaurant has exceptional food and thought we would give it a try ourselves.

As you walk in the double set of doors you are met with a stunning chandelier with modern decor and furniture with an outdoor patio and a view of the Missouri River. The restaurant has a warm upscale atmosphere with a beautiful wrap around bar.

Caden observed, “This would be a great place to come back to in the summer, sit outside and have drinks on the patio.”

The menu offers a vast selection of cocktails, appetizers and entrees – making it an almost guarantee there is something for everyone. The most enjoyable part of the whole experience for me is trying the appetizers. In my opinion, the appetizers are not only the most enjoyable to eat, but are also what sets the first impression for the rest of the meal.

We started with the Firecracker Shrimp which was crispy shrimp coated in a spicy sriracha sauce served with house slaw. Caden and I both love spice and seafood so it was the perfect mixture of each with a little added crunch to top it off.

The second appetizer we tried was the Truffle Parmesan Fries served with a side of garlic aioli. Both were exceptional, but if we had to pick, our number one would be the Firecracker Shrimp – the flavors combined with the crunch was nearly impossible to top.

“Both appetizers were very good, but the firecracker shrimp takes the gold! The sriracha sauce with the house slaw and crispy coating on the shrimp makes it hard to top,” Caden raved.

Caden had a taste for sushi and ordered the King Kong roll as his entree. The roll included spicy crab, shrimp tempura, avocado, and cucumber inside, garnished with spicy tuna and crispy fried onions. It was topped with a drizzle of a sweet soy glaze that blended each of the flavors together.

“This roll has everything I love in one bite – it is fresh and crunchy, with the perfect amount of spice. I would recommend this entree,” Caden shared.

I opted for the comfort food route and got the Mac and Cheese, which just melted in my mouth. The pasta was creamy and gooey with just the right amount of sharpness from the cheeses. It was finished with a crunchy panko and smoked bacon that added just the perfect amount of saltiness to the dish.

As for the pricing, CRAVE is definitely one of those meals that is more of a “treat yourself” spot. Their appetizers range between $12-$18, and their entrees are between $18-$35. It varies for each meal, but I would consider it to be an affordable to moderately expensive dinner. 

Additionally, CRAVE also offers delivery through DoorDash which can be accessed through the DoorDash app, or directly through their website craveamerica.com, allowing for an easy alternative for an at-home date night.  

Overall, from service, food, and the setting it is a great place to go for a date night, or even a night out to eat with family. CRAVE is the perfect setting to step away from work, school or a lengthy to-do list and create leisure time while enjoying comfort food. Carve out some time to come to CRAVE with the ones you love.

by Alexis Spier
“I have ten minutes,” Melvin Sudbeck replied when I asked about his work-life balance. He may have been anticipating another call, arriving at his next job site, or just getting home from work. Possibly, his mind is only able to sway from work for a short period of time. Luckily, work is precisely what I wanted to ask him about. After talking with Sudbeck, I was surprised. Not because he showed many characteristics of a workaholic, but because he seems like a healthy workaholic.

What is Workaholism?
Some people wouldn’t hesitate to call Sudbeck a workaholic. He works ten hours a day and many times longer than that. When he gets home, he’s still working. Often, he is on the phone talking to employees, other companies, bidders, and clients. 

“Communication is 60-70 percent of my day,” Sudbeck said. “I have about ten people that directly report to me and roughly eighty employees.”

However, a workaholic isn’t simply defined as someone who works a lot of hours. It is their inability to stop thinking about work. Malissa Clark wrote an article published in Harvard Business Review, saying,  “Work dominates your thoughts and your activities, to the detriment of other aspects of your life, relationships, and health.”

Sudbeck has a wife and four kids. His two oldest boys are twins in their mid twenties. His middle son is in college and his youngest is in middle school. Sudbeck is the owner of Sudbeck Homes. His company has been building homes in the Omaha area for three decades. It is clear that Sudbeck exhibits workaholic tendencies. He is also a very giving person. He donates to the church, and he donates his time to help construct things for the high school his children attended. Sudbeck can be summed up in two words: generous and hard working.

Workaholism or Passion?
Over Easter break, Sudbeck vacationed in Winter Park, Colorado. He, his family, and a few of his friends hit the slopes for a couple days. A workaholic would struggle to enjoy this leisure time away from work. He/she might forfeit a family activity to focus on work. For example, Clark described how a workaholic ruined her family’s vacation. She was picking up a cake when she decided she had to make a phone call. The cake melted while her husband and kids waited in the car. Sudbeck’s vacation story is similar, but he didn’t ruin his family’s vacation. 

I mentioned earlier how workaholics cannot separate their work from their personal life. Sudbeck can intertwine them. He could ski and answer phone calls at the same time. I mean this literally. As he was skiing down the mountain, he had an earpiece in, so when he received a call, he didn’t have to stop. Many workaholics would not be able to enjoy such an activity with work flooding their minds. Sudbeck was happy to do both.

A family friend who was with Sudbeck on the slopes recalled his time with him on the mountain. “He would start talking. I thought he was talking to me, but he was on a call.”

How could Sudbeck enjoy skiing when he kept getting phone calls? The answer is simple and another tendency of a workaholic: He’s passionate about what he does. At the core of workaholism is something that’s a positive — a passion for something. It’s the inability to throttle that passion, to turn it off, that becomes the issue. When I asked Sudbeck if he thinks he works too much, his answer was what I expected.

“Never,” he said. “I love what I do and I enjoy what I’m doing.”

I asked his wife the same question: “Yeah, probably,” she said. “Although, he’s very good when he comes home from work.”

Because they need to get things done, workaholics will often settle for mediocrity. They would rather get things done than do their best work. Sudbeck can’t afford to do that. His company builds homes. If he doesn’t demand perfection, things collapse.

Because of this, Sudbeck differs from other workaholics. He isn’t obsessed with checking things off a to-do list, even if the work isn’t sufficient. In fact, a lot of his day is unpredictable. His phone is ringing most of the day, and he’s moving from site to site. He can’t build and fix everything, so he has to delegate.

Clark notes workaholics tend to be poor delegators. Their drive to always have work to do means they’d rather take it on themselves than give it to someone else. However, Sudbeck said he has to delegate.

“A tough thing I have to tell people is they have to talk to their supervisor,” he said. “They call the shots.”

Workaholism is considered detrimental to both people who may experience it and the organizations they work for. While Sudbeck thinks he does a pretty good job delegating, employee Bill Starnes says differently. 

“He has a terrible time delegating,” Starnes said. “He has his thumb on everything. At the end of the day, yes, I believe it’s detrimental. For example, I just hired a guy and he’s doing a great job. He had things lined up for today, and Melvin called him and blew up everything that he had planned. So, this morning it was chaos, because not everyone was informed on the new plan.”

His poor delegation skills pour into his regular life. On vacation, he was the one going out to buy food. When someone lost a glove, he immediately volunteered to look for it. He was happy to clean up. His generosity could have to do with the fact that he cannot take a break. To the workaholic, a break is a signal that something’s wrong.

“I can’t sit at home,” Sudbeck said. “I go crazy.”

Sudbeck is the boss, so he doesn’t have to work every minute. However, he has people to “report” to. Insurance companies are a big part of this. Making sure there is enough work for every one of his employees is a daily responsibility. 

“I have to work on the business not in the business,” Sudbeck said. “People think I carry the big stick, but my job is keeping people happy.”

Work is a Hobby
Many workaholics find it impossible to disengage from work. They go to sleep thinking about work, but many people who aren’t workaholics think about work throughout the day. The difference is non workaholics want to detach from work. Their free time is important to them. I asked Sudbeck what he does when he isn’t working. To sum up his answer: When he’s not working, he’s working.

“Quite a bit of my day is going over projects,” Sudbeck said. “There’s a lot of unforeseen things I have to help my employees get through. Other things I do include bidding projects, talking to clients, and paperwork. I’m often thinking, what are the pieces I need to consider?”

Sudbeck is in his mid-fifties, and has been working on his business since he graduated high school. He loves his business and hates sitting around. I asked him if he plans on retiring soon.

“No, I don’t plan on retiring,” he said. “I’m in good shape, and I enjoy what I do. I may back off a little later in life and hand off some things. But, I have no plan on retiring.”

Sudbeck added, “I know a lot of people that retire and don’t have hobbies and nothing to stimulate themselves. They fall apart. I don’t want to be one of those people. I want to keep my mind active and challenge it. An active mind is part of physical health.”

Workaholics don’t have hobbies. They have things they enjoy doing but make little time for them. When they do make time for a hobby, they are distracted by work and would prefer doing a work project over that activity. Sudbeck does not have many hobbies. He sometimes enjoys fishing and skiing. As his kids grow up, they’ve done more travelling. However, none of these things excite him like his work does. I asked him if he considers work a hobby.

“Heck, yes,” Sudbeck said. “You might think that’s sick, but I love it.”

Workaholism is known to be a negative tendency. These people prioritize work over everything else. They struggle to delegate. They can’t sit still, and they are constantly working or thinking about work. Sudbeck has some of these tendencies, but he is also the very best of a workaholic. He is extremely passionate about what he does. He builds reliable homes for people. He has a friend group who understands him, and they travel together every year. When you are this passionate about work and health, it’s hard to call his workaholism a detrimental thing. 

by Katie Miller
In a time of constant connectivity to the digital world, the idea of relaxation has become significantly different. There was an era when relaxation meant stepping away from work and all other outside noise. Whether it meant going to the gym, taking a walk, or unwinding with a book, relaxation gave people a break from life expectations.

However, with social media demanding more of our attention, it has shifted how individuals experience leisure, often making it more challenging to relax.

On the surface level, mindlessly scrolling on social media doesn’t seem half bad. However, in a study titled, The Effects of Social Media on Leisure, Carolyn Lin and David Atkin argue that digital usage challenges the concept of relaxation by creating the need to be socially connected and available at all hours of the day: “The persistent nature of online social presence creates a context where users feel a pressure to maintain connectivity, even during periods of downtime.”

Rather than leisure being a self care activity, it has resulted in the inability to socially disconnect, even when there is purposely time blocked out to rest.

Each generation has a different experience, as the younger generations are inclined to be more active on social media because they have grown up with it. Many say there is a feeling of missing out when they aren’t digitally connected. Hailey Monson, a 20-year-old college student, said, “It’s just a natural instinct,” she explained. “I pick up my phone without thinking, and watch what everyone else is doing. It’s almost like it’s a part of my daily routine and just something I have to do.”

On the opposite end of things, older adults who grew up without any of the new media and lived most of their lives unreachable, it may feel like a more drastic change. Lindi Bredek, who is now in her fifties, put it this way, “I remember leaving at 8 am and no one had a clue what I was doing until I would come back home at 5 pm,” she said. “But now I even catch myself scrolling on Facebook in the evenings looking at what my family and friends are doing and sometimes posting about my activities.”

For older generations, this marks a large cultural shift as they went from having privacy to always being in the public eye.

In an article from BBC Worklife, “The Way We View Free Time Is Making Us Less Happy,” provides more insight into the broader cultural change of leisure. Bryan Lufkin writes, “Free time is no longer free – it’s a curated highlight reel, another thing to perform.” This demonstrates that society’s obsession with being productive has taken control over finding time to decompress.

Now, it has become about proving something and continuing that push to show others that you are still productive even in your leisure time … a way to say “look what I am doing!”

The lingering concerns are the emotional toll it is having. According to The Journal of Ethics, overuse of social media has been connected to loneliness. “People may substitute virtual interactions for meaningful real-world connection, without the emotional fulfillment.”

With swapping out real connections, there is a heavy weight of emotion that follows closely behind, leading to feeling disconnected, even during a time where we are more connected than ever before.

Additionally, in an article from Psychology Today, all of the time spent on social media points to a slightly different emotion, which is irritability. “Grumpiness, agitation, and a short fuse – these emotional states are increasingly tied to frequent social media use,” the article noted.

How much time people spend online, and what people do and see online affects their mood and everyday relationships. It is necessary for people to be aware of how they engage with social media. It is a tool and like any tool, it needs to be used wisely to protect your mental health.

Essentially, true leisure means to have time for meaningful self care and rest, something that social media doesn’t offer. Even when individuals are laying on the couch, it is common to get sucked back into the mindless scrolling habits. However, with constant communication it leaves much less time for self reflection. With platforms continuing to evolve it is making it more of a challenge to intentionally disconnect because most apps have a specified algorithm that keeps individuals scrolling for longer than anticipated.

On an individual level, this can lead to shorter attention spans, fatigue, and burnout. On a broader level, it will shift how each generation views the reason for leisure and why it is important. Meaningful relaxation hasn’t disappeared, it has just become more difficult to actually do.

Being able to stay connected throughout the world is a luxury, but being able to have time alone with nothing except your own thoughts is an even bigger luxury in today’s world.