What is the most common pastime across countries, continents and cultures?

Verbonica

Music http://blog.willamette.edu/stories/archives/2006/12/music_its_more.php (I was going to say "gossip," but couldn't find proof for that :) ) Dec 08 08, 11:28 AM

star_gazer

Sex. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11965 Dec 08 08, 9:01 PM

edmund80

Solving crossword puzzles, according to the author of the book "The Crossword Obsession". http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/042518157X/ref=sib_dp_pt/280-0299289-0496255#reader-link However, I have to agree with the report below claiming that this is the year of videogames which are said to have outsold music and films for the first time this year. Videogames are everywhere and they do seem to be the most popular pastime these days. My first guess was reading. http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/videogames-to-become-uk-s-most-popular-pastime-482039 Dec 08 08, 10:06 PM

queproblema

I want to distinguish between pastime and activity: pastime--something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably : diversion http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastime activity--5 a: a pursuit in which a person is active b: a form of organized, supervised, often extracurricular recreation http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/activity Basic human activities are universal. So is music, but not always as a pastime. So is sex, but excluding children and the unpartnered, incapacitated, or celibate. Perhaps TV is now so ubiquitous more people in the world divert themselves by watching it than by any other single pastime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_usage_of_television "Nielsen Media Research’s widely reported estimate that 4.7 billion people world-wide tuned in to the Olympics at some point,..." http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/counting-olympics-watchers-world-wide-410/ I'm not limiting this to one show, but to anything on TV. And, yes, there are some loose nuts like Baloo and Qp who almost never watch TV, but if we were to include movies and internet, I'm quite sure this would top other pastimes. So what would you call TV, movies, and internet collectively? Dec 10 08, 4:37 AM