Leisure of British Young People
Young people in Great Britain have plenty of free time in the evenings and at the weekends to fill with hobbies of all kinds. There is no doubt that the most popular leisure activity of all is watching TV. In fact the average Briton watches about 25 hours of television every week. They have a choice of four national networks (BBC1, BBC2,1 TV and channel 4) plus a dozen or so satellite and cable stations. The second most popular leisure activity is visiting or entertaining friends. Listening to music and reading follow in the third and fourth position. Going for a meal or to the cinema is widely spread among the British youth as well. Next comes voluntary work. A surprising 25% of British adults are involved in voluntary work of some kind. There are more than 250,000 voluntary organisations in the UK. Many voluntary groups try to raise money for local charities connected with schools or churches while others concentrate on international problems such as famine in Africa. Perhaps the most traditional leisure activity is sport, which is divided into participation and spectator sport. The most popular spectator sport is football. Then we should mention rugby, cricket and athletics. When it comes to participation sport, nobody will be surprised to find that walking is number one in this way. Swimming is second. Young men are also fond of snooker, darts, cycling and squash. Young women prefer to keep fit. At 15 years old and above young people try to find «Saturday jobs», working as assistants in shops, cafes or restaurants to have pocket money. They save this money for bicycles, motorbikes, and spend it for discos and dances.