The MCT divides hobbies into seven types: active leisure, inactive leisure, rest, social gathering, self-education, private time, and housework. People spend most of their time engaging in inactive leisure, which is an average of five hours and 40 minutes during the weekends, while social gathering takes up three hours and 27 minutes and active leisure three hours and five minutes. Both inactive leisure and active leisure have different influences on people. The former gives relaxation and the latter helps reduce stress. So, it is best to have a balance between active and inactive leisure.
Hobbies can also be divided into positive and negative leisure. Positive leisure gives thrills and fun which enable the person to feel positive emotions. On the other hand, negative leisure is monotonous and routine, so it results in stress after the activity. Watching TV, drinking, sleeping, and playing on the computer is said to cause bad effects. But, even though people know they experience negative feelings after these activities, they tend to do them routinely.
In the same way, people's ideal hobbies and their real hobbies don't often match. Statistics from the MCT show that 20.5 percent of people want to travel, 12.4 percent of the people want to play sports and 4.7 percent self-educate. However, in reality, people tend to engage in passive hobbies like watching TV. These activities don't require much effort, and people often lack will power, so that's what keeps these bad habits alive. However, as spare time is much longer than working hours, planning how to spend your spare time is important. Life is long and hobbies last forever.
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