What are Gen Z and Millennials’s top spare-time activities

作者：南方姑娘在北欧

Today I would like to begin with a question. What age group does youth refer to? Different countries have different standards. The United Nations General Assembly defines "youth" as those between the age of 15 and 24, inclusive. The youth referred to in China’s "Medium and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025)" is 14-35 years old.

Obviously the two definitions from the above vary quite a bit. According to the UN, the youth is those who were born between 1998 and 2007. It is very similar to the popular title they have for this group of people, which is called Gen Z (Generation Z, known as zoomers).

What does Gen Z do on their weekends or in their free time? Gen Z grew up with technology, internet, and social media, which sometimes causes them to be stereotyped as tech-addicted, anti-social, or “social justice warriors.” So there’s no doubt that they spend a lot of free time playing with their smartphones, listening to music, watching and reacting to video clips, video gaming, online shopping and so on.

Around one third of Gen Z choose to relax in their free time, and spend time with family, which is a bit surprising but a pretty good hobby I would say. Also around one third of Gen Z choose to get out to have fresh air on weekends, like running, camping, playing frisbee and so on. There’s an ultimate frisbee growing in popularity among Gen Z. It could be related to a new Stanford-affiliate research which indicates that Gen Z are highly collaborative, self-reliant and pragmatic. Frisbee is a sport that requires and trains these traits a lot.

According to the Youth Development Plan in China, people between 25 to 35 also belong to the youth group. They fall into the group Millennials. So what do they do in their free time? They spend time with family and friends, travel, excercise, learn something new and reflect on personal development. I have friends who are Millennials and they like to do cycling, motor biking, board games, and a lot of indoor sports like innebandy, paddle, squash, and tennis. Going on surfing and ski trips is a big thing among Millennials as well. Millennials do both frisbee and camping.

Except for the above activities Gen Z and Millanials tend to do in their spare time, it’s worth to mention that there’re 4 classic sport matches in Sweden that holds every year and a lot of people from Gen Z and Millennials join. These sports include:

Skiing – Engelbrektsloppet 60 km or Vasaloppet/Öppet Spår 90 km or Nattvasan 90.

Cycling – Vätternrundan 315 km.

Swimming – Vansbrosimningen/ Open River 3000 meters.

Running – TCS Lidingö race, 30 km.

So I would say young people in Sweden love sports, both indoor and outdoor, especially outdoor, no matter summer or winter, we can tell by all these classic outdoor events. However, no matter what sports you are keen on, doing some sports is much better than doing no sports.