WELCOME UNIT
Recording 1, page 4
Exercise 2 Read and listen to the text below and find out the answers to these questions.
What do teens do in their spare time?
A Teenagers like to do different things
Teens now enjoy almost six hours of leisure a day. Teenagers need free time to explore their own interests, to be with friends or just to unwind.
All teenagers are different and like to do different things. Many like to spend their free time with friends, shopping, going to parties, using the computer for games or other online activities, social networking, texting, watching movies, reading, going to the beach or park, or having friends over.
There are also many free-time activities that teens do with parents and family: watching a movie they’re all interested in; listening to music together at home or going to a concert;
going to an event, such as a show, a sports match or an exhibition; cooking together; going out for a meal together; having a picnic; going for a hike; going for a bike ride; walking the dog, etc.
Many teenagers also like spending their free time in structured after-school clubs or classes such as arts and sports.
These activities are organized and supervised by adults. If their free time is not structured or planned, teens often get bored and they don’t know what to do.
As one study shows, most teenagers spend the majority of their free time in their bedrooms, either gaming or socialising online.
B Technology and Screen time
Screen time is the time you spend watching TV or DVDs, using the computer, playing video or computer games, and using a mobile phone.
These days, technology has a huge influence on teens’ lives, and they spend a lot of time on screens. Teens simply love their technology which they use for entertainment and education.
Nowadays, young people are well connected and plugged in. Smartphones are a vital connection for them – most have them and are glued to them.
An American survey reports that the average 12th-grader (a 17-year-old) spends about two hours a day texting, two hours a day on social media, and two hours a day generally surfing the Internet.
That amounts to six hours per day online. According to the same poll, 50 percent of teens say they feel addicted to their mobile devices.
78 percent of teens say they check their devices at least once an hour, and they can’t stop because they suffer from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
C Teens’ Leisure Habits: Hanging out with friends on Top
This survey asked 1,000 German teenagers aged 13–16 how they spend their free-time and which 3 leisure activities they like the most.
Results show that hanging out with friends takes first place – almost 7 in 10 teens (68%) like spending their free time with their friends face-to-face.
Surfing the Net comes in as the second-most popular leisure activity, followed by doing sports (37%), which comes third.
Interestingly, listening to music is more preferred than watching TV or using social media. Sadly, reading is not very popular – only 1 in 5 teenagers likes reading in their free time.
As an activity, it ranks below all screen media. The least popular of all leisure activities is after-school clubs or classes – only 12% like spending their free time this way.
