Two figures compare popular past-time activities of European adults in 1985 and 1995.
Overall, it is evident that over this period watching television remained the main leisure activity. Furthermore, despite a significant drop in the proportions of “talking with family” and “eating out”, playing computer games became one of the most famous break-time activities in 1995.
To begin with, most actions faced a downward trend in this decade. The highest drop was related to eating out; while it accounted for 23% at the beginning it experienced 15% decrease. Similarly, the second highest fall happened for talking with family; 18% was the starting point, however with a considerable drop it ended with 7% in 1995. Although watching television had a minimal decrease, from 32% to 30%, it was the most popular activity throughout this period.
On the other hand, some of these recreational activities had an upward trend. Firstly, playing computer games emerged and with a notable surge it became the second most intresting activity in 1995, with 27%. Talking with friends had climbed from 21% to 26%; it remained the third in popularity-ranking in these years.