• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, January 7, 2016

According to a recent a recent Nielsen global survey, our spare time is precious; how we unwind says a lot about what we value. With a wide array of pastimes available, respondents were asked to select their top three spare-time activities. While certain activities skew younger than older and vice versa, technology-driven younger people still read!

Depending on our age, says the report, our approach to something as simple as getting up-to-date news or eating out can be drastically different, but today’s consumers are bucking yesterday’s preconceived generational notions. Many older people are embracing a more technology-driven world, and sizeable numbers of younger people are turning to more traditional values, says the report.

TV may have universal appeal as a favorite spare-time activity among all generations, but the study found that, in Generation Z, more respondents selected reading as a favorite activity than watching TV. In fact, a higher percentage enjoys reading than playing video and online games or reviewing social media.

While TV has universal appeal as a favorite spare-time activity among all generations, it turns out that more respondents in Generation Z (ages 15-20) selected reading (27%) as a favorite activity than tuning into their favorite TV programs (23%). In fact, more Gen Z respondents picked reading than reviewing social media (17%) or playing video and online games (17% and 16%, respectively).

Other activities, however, have younger or older age skews. When ranked by percentage that picked the activity, listening to music landed as a top three pick for Generation Z (37%) and Millennials (27%), while it fell further down the list for older respondents, says the report.

Conversely, our desire to explore steadily increases as we age, as traveling was selected by 12% of Generation Z, 18% of Millennials, 22% of Generation X, 22% of Baby Boomers and 25% of Silent Generation respondents. Gardening (22%) was a unique favorite among Silent Generation respondents, putting it in their top-five list of spare-time activities.

Other findings from the Nielsen Global Generational Lifestyles Report include:

• The majority of older respondents turn to TV to get the news, but the medium still holds sway for nearly half of Millennial (48%) and Generation Z (45%) respondents
• Older respondents show higher levels of being distracted by technology at mealtime than younger generations
• Millennials are roughly two times more likely than Generation X to leave their current job after two years
• More than half of Generation Z and Millennial respondents (52% and 54%, respectively) want to live in a big city or urban neighborhood
• Approximately half of younger respondents say they save money each month, but they aren’t confident in their financial futures

The Nielsen Global Generational Lifestyles Survey polled 30,000 online respondents in 60 countries to better understand how global consumer sentiment differs across life stage. A probability sample of equivalent size would have a margin of error of ±0.6% at the global level.

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