Athens Journal of Sports - Volume 7, Issue 2, June 2020 – Pages 141-154 https://doi.org/10.30958/ajspo.7-2-4 doi=10.30958/ajspo.7-2-4 Free Time Activities of High School Students: Sports or Video Games? By Ildikó Balatoni * , Henrietta Szépné Varga ± & László Csernoch ‡ Data from various national and international surveys show that people in developed countries do not perform enough physical activity, even though it is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Young people spend most of their free time watching TV, using IT-tools, including computer games. In recent years, video-game (i.e., e-sports) team competitions have become more and more popular in Hungary, with countless spectators and mass events that further promote this new sport. We were interested in knowing the proportion of free time high school students spend participating in sports and video games, and if the time spent on them is gender specific. The survey was conducted in the Spring of 2018 in Hungary, among high school students. Questions concerned the respective individual’s sporting habits and their computer games-related behaviour. While analysing the data, the proportion of time spent on physical activity and video games was also examined and the scope extended to explore the differences between age groups, place of residence, type of school, and genders as well. The questionnaire was filled in by 882 students. Respondents reported to have approximately 3.6 hours of free time on weekdays and 6.6 hours on weekends. Boys reported having half an hour freer time. 86.8% of the students do sports regularly, with no difference (p>0.2) between the genders. In Hungary, the compulsory system of daily physical education in primary and secondary schools contributes greatly to this purpose, but the passion for and the enjoyment of physical activity is also important. At the same time, we need to be aware of the needs and interests of our children in order to influence their way of life in a positive way Keywords: free time, physical activity, students, sports, video games Introduction The concept of free time has changed recently (Furlong et al. 2000), and in fact it is not related to time itself anymore, but rather to its use. In the past decade, free time at home has also become a proper form of recreation, which has been made especially attractive by television and computer games (Nagy and Fazekas 2016). Researchers consider it justified that in the case of the present-day youth the forms of free time are no longer determined by the diverse, intelligent ways of experiencing recreation, but by the peculiarity of the modern age, the rushing * Executive Director, Clinical Center, University of Debrecen, Hungary. ± Quality Management Assistant, Clinical Center, University of Debrecen, Hungary. ‡ Professor and Head, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary.