Face time is an English idiom for direct personal interaction or contact between two or more people at the same time and physical location. Face time therefore occurs in "real life" or "meatspace" and contrasts primarily with interaction or contact which occurs over distance (e.g., via telephone) and/or electronically (e.g., via email, instant messaging, e-commerce, or computer simulations).
The term was originally a colloquialism but has entered the vernacular with the increasing number of people throughout the world who commonly and extensively rely on telecommunications and the Internet for personal and business communication.
Face time (or "putting in face time") may also refer to the practice of staying later at one's place of work beyond the time that is required because: 1) other employees are staying late (particularly one's supervisor); and/or 2) because it is perceived that it would be undesirable to leave until most, if not all, of the others (including the supervisor) go home. It is implied that the person who is putting in face time would prefer to go home if it were not for the perceived necessity to stay later at work.
"Face time" was a primary theme in Douglas Coupland's novel Microserfs.
Famous quotes containing the words face and/or time:
“And I envy the intransigence of my own
Countrymen who shoot to kill and never
See the victim’s face become their own
Or find his motive sabotage their motives.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
“The last time we used battleships was in the Spanish-American War. And what did we get out of that? Cuba. And we gave that back.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)