Home entertainment in the USA

•  全文朗读

       

• 分段朗读

  
  

  
  

What is the difference between “entertainment” and “hobbies”? Well, you don’t really do anything with entertainment (you get entertained), while hobbies are more active (you do hobbies).

     

Watching TV is still the most popular form of home entertainment in the USA. According to US government statistics, watching TV is the leisure activity that occupies the most time (2.8 hours per day). This is about half of all leisure time that those aged 15 and over have.

Visiting friends or chatting online is the next most common leisure activity. This takes up nearly 45 minutes every day.

Men are more interested in spectator sports than women – 21 per cent compared with a figure of 16 per cent for women.

It is not surprising that on an average day, adults aged 75 and over spend 7.8 hours on leisure activities. This is more than any other age group. Because they have to go to work and run a household, 35- to 44-year-olds spend only 4.3 hours on leisure activities. This is less than any other age group.

The time that different age groups spend reading, playing video games or using a computer for leisure is different, too. People aged 75 and over read about one hour per weekend day; they play video games or use a computer for leisure for about 26 minutes. People aged 15 to 19 read for an average of only 5 minutes per weekend day, but they spend one hour playing video games or using a computer for leisure.

However, this is beginning to change. Just a few years ago, playing computer games and visiting social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace was something almost only young people did. Now, more and more older people are doing it. They find that it can be a wonderful way of relaxing after a hard day’s work.