Nowadays, and despite the enormous volume of exams and schoolwork young teenagers have,

they still have some free time to spend with their friends, do new activities, and relax before
classes start again. They have different possibilities depending on where they live, their
economic situation and their age. But all students and young people have many options to spend
their valuable free time, although sometimes they don’t know what to do and they stay at home
having a nap or totally bored.

Sport activities are the first option for most teenagers . Joining to a football, basketball, hockey,
handball or volleyball team are interesting ways of doing exercise and having a good time.
Teenagers can also play tennis, go to the swimming pool, or work out at a gym. During the past
years there is a great increase in keeping fit and staying healthy. A lot of teens started running,
jogging and going to different fitness clubs in their spare time. Aerobics classes and fitness
clubs opened in every town, and the number of recreation centres greatly increased. Indoor
pools, with their wave-making machines, water slides and tropical vegetation, have became
very popular. The good side of sport activities is that they help you to stay healthy and as fit as
a fiddle . Most sports are also funny, like team sports. You can practice sport alone or with
your friends, and you can also meet new interesting people. The bad side of this kind of
activities is the possibility of having an injury. If you aren’t careful, you can easily fall down
and break an arm or a leg. And if this happens, you won’t be able to practice any sport or do
any physical effort for a long time. Many young teenagers do sport because they want to be
like their idols. They want to play tennis as well as Nadal, or be as good at football as Messi,
so they train a lot of hours. This is a good reason for practicing sport, too.

Teenagers that don’t want to be outdoors can stay at home. They can spend their free time
watching a good film or any TV programme. There are many types of films to see, like
comedies, action films, horror films and thrillers, romantic and musical films, documentaries,
Science fiction and fantastic films… And there are also hundreds of different TV programmes,
like soap operas, talk shows, sport programs, documentaries, and more. Despite the increase in
the number of teens participating in sport, the majority of young people still prefer to be
spectators. They prefer to be couch potatoes. Watching sports on TV is a popular leisure
activity, as is going to football matches on Saturday. Cinemas have been redesigned with four
or more screens, each showing a different film at the same time, and a lot of teens like going
to the cinemas too. When you are bored of TV programs and don’t want to rent a film, you can
switch on your computer.

The young generation is fond of communication. There are many available methods of
communication nowadays, and the most popular one is computers. A lot of teenagers spend
plenty of time working on computers. The Internet seems really good fun. You may send e-
mails to friends from different countries and get their answers instantly. You even may talk to
them. It is easy and quick. A lot of teenagers have mobile telephones, so they can always be
contacted, if they keep their telephone switched on, at any time of the day or night, or tend text
messages. And when there isn’t any interesting thing in the Internet, they can use the computer
or a game console to play videogames. And it’s proved that videogames help to train your brain
and your intellectual abilities. But, like all things, abusing of TV and computers can be really
harmful. If you usually spend a lot of hours in front of TV, you’ll probably have to do some
extra physical exercise if you want to keep fit and with good health. Despite these problems,
TV and computers are two of the best friends of bored students at their free time.

Another activity for teenagers staying at home is reading books. There are many types of books
that they can read, like fictions, novels, romance, mystery, horror, anthology, trilogy or even
encyclopedia,.. Reading as a teenager leads to success. When teenagers read more than just
their classroom assignments, research clearly shows that they generally do well in school. First
of all, the extra reading expands their vocabularies. It also shows them how different writers
put down their thoughts leading to better writing skills. And teenagers who read more serious
literary works gain skills in handling complex ideas. The more teenagers read, the more
information they pick up. This leads to a solid core of knowledge that is useful in a wide variety
of classes. For example, the teenager who reads biographies has a better understanding of
prominent people studied in history classes. Another big dividend of reading as a teen is a
good score on the verbal section of a college admissions test. No other activity builds the
vocabulary and comprehension skills needed to do well on these tests as well as reading.
Besides helping teens do well in school, reading also helps them expand their horizons as
they learn more about people and the world. Plus, reading can show teens that everyone has
problems in his or her life and may even help teens see solutions to their own problems.
Finally, reading is enjoyable. It can bring a great deal of pleasure to teens.
A lot of teenagers in both countries are crazy about animals. They race them, train them and
breed them. They like to hear stories about them on television programmes and they like
reading books about them. Many teens have a pet animal. It could be a dog, a cat, a goldfish, a
bird or a small furry animal like a hamster. Looking after and being kind to their pets is very
important for teens. Why are teens so interested in animals? Perhaps it's because they are rather
shy in their heart of hearts.