FIFA

  Using Lefebvre’s argument as a lens to analyze my own free time I feel as if most of what he says is true. Being a music student and currently taking nineteen credits, my days are long and often involve a lot of walking between the Music School and the Engineering School so when I get back to my dorm after classes I often chill out in my room and play FIFA on Xbox or watch something on Netflix. Before coming to Miami, the last time that I played soccer was when I was five years old, a prodigy striker at the time. Needless to say my fútbol skills were virtually non-existent yet senior year in high school I started getting into watching soccer. There was no real apparent reason why but I did. According to Lefebvre there has to be some kind of reason or subliminal intention behind it. Since I am generally athletic and enjoy strategy, yet can’t for the life of me use my feet for anything but running or jumping, so soccer has always been on the fringe of my capabilities. Due to my competitive nature yet need for relaxation, FIFA comes to the recue by providing both within the social context. The idea that people want what they can’t have displays Lefebvre’s theory of leisure as a method of escapism or a means to create an illusory reality. Despite my inability to play soccer I can recreate the rules, the strategy and the players behind the game without physically doing the action of soccer.