What is a "hobby?" By definition, a hobby is an activity that we do for pleasure during our leisure time. Over the years, America's hobbies have evolved -- where we once collected stamps and model planes, we're now surfing the Internet and playing "Angry Birds." To get a better idea of how Americans spend their leisure time in the 21st century, we looked into the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, or ATUS。

　　说到消遣玩乐，顾名思义，就是人在闲暇时间为找乐子而参加的娱乐活动。随着时代的变迁，美国人的消遣玩法儿也越来越潮：从早年的集邮、收集模型飞机，到现今的网上冲浪、玩“愤怒的小鸟”。为了更好地了解21世纪的美国人究竟是如何打发时间的，我们专程调阅了美国劳工统计局“美国人时间安排调查”的报告。

　　Watching TV

　　看电视

　　Americans spend half their leisure time in front of the television, making it the most popular 21st-century "hobby." According to a report by The Nielsen Co., 56.4 percent of that time in front of the TV is spent watching reality TV, while only 20 percent is spent watching sports。

　　美国人有近一半的闲暇时间是在电视机前度过的，也使得看电视成为了21世纪最潮的休闲娱乐。Nielsen公司有报道称，56.4%的收视率集中在现实型题材的电视节目，而体育节目仅为20%。

　　Sports and Exercise

　　做运动

　　Men are 6 percent more likely to exercise or play sports than are their "better halves." According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the activities that both sexes engaged in the most in 2010 were "exercise walking," exercising with equipment, swimming, bike riding and bowling。

　　相对于女性而言，男性对运动的热衷程度要高出六个百分点。据美国运动器材协会称，2010年，有一些运动项目同时受到了男女两性的青睐，包括徒步行走、器械训练、游泳、单车运动、保龄球。

　　Reading

　　阅读

　　Leisurely reading varied drastically by age group. "Individuals age 75 and over averaged 1.1 hours of reading per weekend day," the ATUS says. "Conversely, individuals ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 6 minutes per weekend day."

　　不同年龄层的人群对阅读偏好大相径庭。75岁及以上的老年人每周用于阅读的时间平均在1.1小时左右，而15至19岁的青年人每周用于阅读的时间平均仅为6分钟。

　　Computer Games

　　打电玩

　　"Currently there are more than half a billion people worldwide playing online games at least an hour a day -- and 183 million in the US alone," writes Jane McGonigal, author of "Reality is Broken. "The average young person racks up 10,000 hours of gaming by the age of 21. That's almost exactly as much time as they spend in a classroom during all of middle school and high school if they have perfect attendance. Most astonishingly, 5 million gamers in the U.S. are spending more than 40 hours a week playing games -- the same as a full-time job!"

　　《打破现状》一书的作者Jane McGonigal在书中这样写到：“目前全球每天有超过5亿的人平均每天至少玩网游一小时，仅在美国这一数字就已达到了1.83亿人。21岁以下的青年人每天消耗在游戏上的时间累积起来竟有1万小时，这一时间几乎相当于全勤参加初、高中所有课程的时间总和。更令人震惊的是，在美国，有500万的铁杆游戏迷每周玩游戏的时间总计超过40小时，而这一时间也几乎等同于干一份全职工作付出的时间。

　　Social Networking

　　网络社交

　　"Social networks and blogs reach nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users and represent the majority of Americans' time online," the Nielsen Social Media Report says. Where does America spend its time online? In May 2011, Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook, making it the most popular U.S. website。

　　在美国，有近80%的网民会频繁关注社交网络及个人博客，这占据了他们大部分的网络时间。美国人究竟热衷于上什么网站呢？据统计，在2011年5月一个月内，美国人在Facebook上花费的时间总计为530亿分钟，这也使得Facebook成为了美国最具人气的热门网站。

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