( CNN ) -- The line dividing work and leisure time is blurring right before our eyes , says one expert , and it 's creating a phenomenon called `` weisure time . '' English cricket player Geraint Jones enjoys a `` weisure '' moment during an Australian fishing trip in 2006 . Many who have n't already abandoned the 9-to-5 workday for the 24-7 life of weisure probably will do so soon , according to New York University sociologist Dalton Conley , who coined the word . It 's the next step in the evolving work-life culture . `` Increasingly , it 's not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun , '' be it `` in an office or at home or out in the street , '' Conley said . Activities and social spaces are becoming work-play ambiguous , he says , as `` all of these worlds that were once very distinct are now blurring together . '' Conley used the 1950s as a point of reference . `` Back then , there were certain rules , such as 'do n't do business with friends , and keep those spheres separate . ' It was just one of the hallmarks of capitalist social life . That has completely changed . '' However , the increased mixing of work and play does n't mean bankers will be refinancing houses during their kids ' piñata parties . But what it does mean is more and more Americans are using smartphones and other technology to collaborate with business colleagues while hanging out with their families . See how `` weisured '' your lifestyle is and compare with others » . It does n't mean tax attorneys will be getting makeovers during their tax-law seminars . But they may be chatting with Facebook friends while participating in a conference call . What happened ? Why do Americans want to mix work and play ? Well , first , there 's more work and less play , according to Conley 's book `` Elsewhere , U.S.A. '' `` For the first time in history now , the higher up the economic ladder you go , the more likely you 're going to have an extremely long workweek , '' he says . These busier Americans often want to save time by taking care of business and pleasure simultaneously . Obviously , the Internet offers nothing but opportunity for that . 'The creative class ' People are more willing to let work invade their leisure time because , for a lot of Americans , working has become more fun , Conley says . He refers to this group of professionals who tend to get more enjoyment out of work as `` the creative class , '' borrowing a term coined by author Richard Florida . Their work involves ideas -- perhaps helping create a new software product , ad campaign or creative financial derivative . `` This makes their work a source of meaning and fun to them , and thus the work-all-the-time mentality is partly driven by choice and desire , '' Conley said . It 's no coincidence , Conley says , that weisure has been growing simultaneously with the popularity of the personal computer , which has helped professionals with more tedious parts of their jobs -- and has made many jobs somewhat more interesting . Weisure has been fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace , where `` friends '' may actually be business partners or work colleagues . `` Social networking as an activity is one of those ambiguous activities , '' Conley said . `` It 's part fun and part instrumental in our knowledge economy . '' These networking sites offer participants in the weisure life lots of ways to do business -- and to have fun . Social technology `` triggers a pleasure response in our brain that we want , even if it 's quasi-junk mail , because someone 's reaching out to us for a social connection . So we 're addicted , some of us , me included . '' 'We lose our private sphere ' Perhaps more disturbing is the idea that weisure is changing us . `` We lose our so-called private sphere , '' Conley said . `` There 's less relaxing time to be our so-called backstage selves when we 're always mingling work and leisure . '' If you 're thinking that a backlash may be around the corner for the weisure concept , you 're right . In fact , Conley says , the backlash has begun . `` You can see that in the populist anger against the bankers '' who 've been blamed in part for the current economic downturn , Conley says . The backlash is evident in the rise of alternative social movements involving people `` who live in a more frugal and environmentally conscious way , '' he says . But , short of a nuclear winter or some cataclysm sending us back to the stone age , there 's no turning back the clock on the spread of weisure , he says . The weisure lifestyle will engrain itself permanently in the American culture . Every culture creates its antithesis , Conley says . Eventually the weisure class could merge with a `` getting back to basics movement '' and form something new . `` I do n't know what that will look like , '' he said . `` But this period we live in now will look very quaint and silly to folks 50 years in the future , just as the 1950s look very fake and quaint and earnest to us now . ''
` ` ' '' is the blurring of work and play -- both what we do and where we do it . Weisure is a modern society , says NYU professor Dalton Conley . ` ` We lose our private lives , '' he says . ` ` There 's less time to be our backstage selves '' Why ? Technology , longer workweek and more workers losing their jobs .