The line graph compares the percentage of American elderly spending time on five various activities over a 30-year period (1980-2010).
The proportion of the old, overall, spent their time on watching TV in the first half of the period before it was surpassed by hiking at the end. Of particular note is that the popularity of all activities in question increased during the time frame with the exception of theatre.
The figure for watching TV was constantly popular compared to others. It started at 60% sharp in 1980, increased gradually to 70% in 2000, then declined to roughly 65% in the final year. Going to the theater was the second favorite spare time activity at 50%. However, a decade later, it dropped to less than a third, 30% to be precise, although it recovered by 15% in 2010. The share of reading, generally, fluctuated, starting at 30%, doubling after 3 decades.
20% of total elderly in 1980 were going hiking, then it had reached its peak of exactly 80%. By contrast, surfing the internet was 3 times lower than hiking, initially, making it by far the least popular hobby. By the end of the time, it went up by 45%, exceeding theatre.