Every major civilization in history has had a leisure class.
The leisure class has the means to do as they choose, that isn't likely to be possible for everyone. Not all can ravel even though they may want to, not all can live on a beach, even though they might want to. The leisure class has wealth, being provided for doesn't necessarily mean access to wealth, just time.
in 20 16, the average for TV per day in the US was just over 5 hours a day. The average for social media was 2 with 45 mins on youtube. consume what others create is what most do with the free time they have it seems. not everyone, but many. When all they have is free time, do they change their behaviour?
That's a good point, although wealth is a relative thing. An unemployed person in a rich country today has a pretty material high standard of living compared to a member of the upper class many hundreds of years ago.
That's an unanswered question. I don't any society has ever seen anything like 80-99% structural unemployment. By the way, I have a little difficulty believing that the average American watches television five hours a day on average on top of using social media for almost three hours. When are Americans supposed to sleep, cook, clean their home, run errands, shop for groceries, look after their children, be present at PTA meetings, take their kids to hobbies and commute to work? Something's off with those numbers. The TV may be on five hours a day in a home with nobody actively watching it most of the time but there simply aren't enough hours in a day to do all that. Kids have school. Americans have very short holidays. And I don't think pensioners watch TV non-stop to bridge the gap.