Just make a comparison for the moment. Think of all the things you're doing during a day, during a week and during a month. And now, make a new comparison. Think of your parents, your grandparents or some old teacher you might have at school. How does it really feel, realizing the truth, that you and all of your friends are wasting your time doing nothing – nothing in comparison with the older generation?

Your life's hourglass has started to drop it's sand, and it's time for you to do something of your life. From now and forward on you'll read about two different sort of persons, one older and one younger type, two different generations in Sweden; who'll explain the spare time from their own youth. The difference will show itself. The article hopes to solve the "how-you-can-do-so-little-for-such-a-long-time-question". Let's say we'll compare the youth's (teenagers') spare time of today with the peoples (60+) from the time when they were young, and discover what's the big change between them. So come on, let's keep going, we haven't got any time to lose. The spare time of today We'll start with the Swedish leisure pursuits of today. As a teenager of the 21:st century you have opportunities to do whatever you want. In fact, you can choose what you want to do, when you want to do it and where you want to do it. I doesn't matter what it's about. The possibilities of today is huge, even enormous. If teenagers are interested in sports they play football, ice hockey or some other big sport. Many of the teenagers starts to practice a sport when they're young, but quit somewhere in their teen years. The reason is spelled c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. The truth doesn't tell that the youth are lazy, the truth says that the youth are adjusted to today's digital revolution. A young Swede of today may sit by the computer, write on MSN, ICQ or some other community on the Internet. A typical Swede is well-known for welcoming new things, seriously. But lots of the relations with friends are based on the Internet and cell phones. The old dear "visiting by knocking at the door" has almost gone. Instead of walking to a friend for a chat, teenagers send a text from the cell phone or log in on MSN. The homework from school is mostly done by the computer and with the Internet for help.

But it's not only the computer which is the bad guy, the TV has also been a big thief in the question. Instead of just DOING the homework, some young ones may just watch their favorite TV-programme and postpone the things which are more important to a later time. And of course, it is very important to add that you can't judge them all alike too. This may, of course, be the minority of today's youth, but as the reality may tell, that minority is, as a matter of fact, too big.
Computers, TV:s, cell phones, the modernized public transport and the way of using satellites are comfortable things the youth make use of today. But! Don't forget that lots of today youth are practising sports too, many talents are coming forward in high speed. As time goes, interests change. And that's the truth, but not only the truth for the youth in Sweden. It is the truth for (soon) the whole world's youth too.

The older generation's spare time
Anyway, what about the older generation? Is their history just filled with black and white scenes?
A cold war? Outmoded lifestyles? Come on, who do you think built the society you're living in?

Let's focus at the ones who had their teenage period in the 50's. After a lot of asking around a list can be set. Instead of telling which things they had available in their youth, it would be much easier to tell what they didn't have available. So, it wasn't ordinary for a family to have a car at that time, travelling was unusual, very unusual. If you had to go somewhere you had to do it by yourself. If it was summer, you could use the bicycle, the moped, the rarely going public transport or just take a walk. If it was winter, you could ski, use the kick-sled or just stay inside. Therefore, the older generation was more active in their youth. Not only because they had to do so much by themselves, they didn't have a TV, (or it was very unusual to have a TV at that time), but they didn't have a computer either, neither a functioning phone, if they lived in the countryside. The spare time the old Swedes had in their youth was finite. They made a lot of homework, but if it wasn't homework on the schedule, they could spend their time as a member in an association, for example "the scouts". If it was possible, they could go to the cinema. They didn't have much more to do, so practising sport was very usual. Football in summer, ice hockey in winter. Other sports were rare. They had their radio which they could listen to, for example had Elvis Presley, Tommy Steele and Paul Anka their breakthroughs. At the age of 21 they got their age of majority. Today it's 18. So, what was the funniest thing to do as a teen in the 50's? Well, it might have been the dance moments. Make a really huge comparison. If a youth is sitting (for example) 2 hours a day by the computer or by the TV, imagine what your grandparents had done during that same time? So, the conclusions we might draw are these: We, the people of today, are living in the middle of the digital revolution. And as we know it, revolutions only exist for one purpose, to change. Time changes, humans too. Many persons won't adapt themselves, they are afraid of what's new. As the community develops, we humans do too.