| |
|
Report on What Are You Doing With Your Free Time This Summer?
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
This survey was first published on June 16. Now, more than 2 months later, you have the opportunity to look over the results and see if the way you answered back then matches what you actually ended up doing over the summer.
929 people ended up taking our summer survey: 891 girls, 21 boys, and 17 others who didn't answer this question. As we've come to expect, the largest age group was 13-year-olds, but people from as young as 6 to those older than 22 took part. 358 respondents are the oldest child in their family, 183 fall in the middle, 245 are the youngest, 120 are only children, and 23 chose not to answer this question. Most (303) report living in towns, but there are also significant numbers living in big cities (190), suburbs (202), villages (64), and rural areas (93). Respondents come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and from all over the world. This time out, we were psyched to see that people from as far away as Afghanistan, Iceland, Bangladesh, and Peru took the time to complete our survey. Welcome and please keep visiting!
|
|
So what's so great about summer? Well, for most people, the chance to hang out with friends is the best part of the season. For others, it's being able to stay up as late as they want and not having to think about school. Check out the graph below for the results.
|
| Best part of summer |
|
|
Ah, summer camp. Sing-alongs around the fire, secret late-night trips to the kitchen for snacks, and short-lived--but intense--romances. I never actually went to camp, so I'm just guessing about all that. Judging from the results of the survey, not many of you are familiar with camping either. In fact, an overwhelming 602 people said they were not going to any type of summer camp. 60 people were planning on going to day camp, 89 were going to an overnight camp, 117 were headed off to a specialty camp, and 38 reported that they were going to a family camp.
Furthermore, 519 people said that they have never been to any kind of overnight camp, 301 answered that the longest they've spent at overnight camp was 1-2 weeks, 35 said 3-4 weeks, 19 said 5-6 weeks, and only 24 have spent an entire summer at camp. I'm surprised because I thought summer camps were pretty popular. You really do learn something new every day!
|
So how were you planning on wasting--oops, I mean spending--your summer? ;)
A few people were scheduled to move into new houses (good luck!), others intended to practice or learn to play an instrument, and lots of people mentioned multiple activities in their answers. One melancholy person said they planned to "Be alone, as I have no friends unfortunately :( " (I hope you were able to make some friends over the summer!). Another wanted to spend their time "Thinking about Orlando Bloom" (an entirely appropriate use of one's free time, in my opinion). The graph below gives an overview of the results.
|
| Summer plans |
|
|
Summer and school are two words that don't seem to belong together. Most of you apparently agree because 707 people report that they've never been to summer school. Only 156 have while 66 others didn't answer this question (no doubt they were too traumatized from the memory of summer school).
The next question was about the number of books you were required to read over the summer. At the risk of being labeled a geek, I have to admit that I always enjoyed going over the list of suggested books. That's how I found a few of my favorites like To Kill a Mockingbird, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Jane Eyre. Anyway, a surprisingly large number (591) of you didn't have to do any assigned reading. 75 had to read 1 book, 76 had to read 2, 38 needed to read 3, 21 had to read 4, and 128 were required to read 5 or more. Be sure to write a review in our Spread the Word section if you want other SmartGirls to hear your opinion on what you read.
|
Getting a summer job has several benefits: it gets you away from nagging parents/siblings, allows you to earn your own money, and provides you with some valuable work experience. On the other hand, it's a lot of work. All kidding aside, we were impressed to see how many of you planned on getting a job over the summer. The table below gives some more details, but here are a few of the notable answers:
~"A writer who made millions and millions of dollars. That would be nice!"
~"Professional sunbather"
~"Nice work doing nothing in my daddy's company"
~"Starting a small business"
~"Freelance web designer"
|
| Summer job |
|
|
count | percent |
jobsumm
|
| caddie |
4 | 0.43 |
| counselor |
103 | 11.09 |
| babsit |
250 | 26.91 |
| cashier |
41 | 4.41 |
| lifeguard |
58 | 6.24 |
| clothstore |
169 | 18.19 |
| construct |
3 | 0.32 |
| waiter |
60 | 6.46 |
| animals |
48 | 5.17 |
| lib-bkstore |
14 | 1.51 |
| office |
4 | 0.43 |
| beauty |
6 | 0.65 |
| other |
63 | 6.78 |
|
|
The beach is a popular destination spot during the summer, but some don't have to go very far to get to one. 52 lucky people reported that they live on the beach. An additional 213 live less than a half hour drive from the nearest beach. 182 live about an hour away, 108 have to drive for 2 hours, 150 have to travel more than 2 hours, and 189 answered that there are no beaches anywhere near them.
Still, not everyone likes going to the beach. In fact, 31 people strongly disagreed with the statement "I like to go to the beach during the summer." 81 others disagreed, 396 agreed, and 386 strongly agreed.
Ok, so what do you like to do when you're at the beach? Not surprisingly, the majority (556) spend their time swimming. The next popular option was jumping waves (396), followed by getting a tan (337), collecting shells (298), building sandcastles (285), burying a friend in the sand/hanging out (264), playing volleyball (235), meeting new people (214), boogie boarding (171), playing frisbee (148), tossing around a football (113), snorkeling/scuba diving (104), watching/meeting boys (15), reading (12), surfing (11), walking (10), and eating (10). In addition, 42 people reported that they don't like going to the beach at all, 15 didn't answer, and 38 mentioned other, unlisted activities they enjoy doing at the beach.
|
Despite the health risks, tanning remains a fairly popular activity. Lying out in the sun can be boring, however, so people often like to multitask. Here's a summary of what you prefer to do while you're getting a tan:
~Listening to music: 427
~Talking to friends: 383
~Reading magazines: 307
~Don't tan: 274
~Reading books: 263
~Just sitting: 231
~Floating on a raft: 215
~Sleeping: 192
~Having a cool drink: 147
~Other activities: 26
~No answer: 18
~Playing around in the water: 10
No matter what type of outdoor activity you're involved in, though, it's important to protect your skin from sun damage. Check out the line graph below to find out how smart SmartGirls are about wearing sunscreen. We were happy to see that in response to the statement "I always remember to put on sunscreen during the summer," the majority of respondents generally remember to apply sunscreen.
|
| Using sunscreen |
|
|
Here's a quick glimpse of your answers to our questions about summer sports and activities:
During the summer I like to go hiking.
~Strongly agree: 87
~Agree: 276
~Disagree: 308
~Strongly disagree: 207
During the summer I like to go camping.
~Strongly agree: 162
~Agree: 355
~Disagree: 214
~Strongly disagree: 150
During the summer I like to do water sports (canoeing, kayaking, sailing, boating, etc).
~Strongly agree: 151
~Agree: 347
~Disagree: 283
~Strongly disagree: 94
If you had the opportunity to do/try any water sport what would it be?
~Surfing: 416
~Waterskiing: 358
~Tubing: 236
~Whitewater rafting: 224
~Windsurfing: 194
~Boating: 187
~Parasailing: 159
~Sailing: 152
~Kayaking: 131
~Canoeing: 130
~Wakeboarding: 115
~Swimming: 18
~Other: 13
|
Some of my strongest memories from childhood are about family vacations: being forced to listen to my parent's choice of music during long road trips, constantly fighting with my obnoxious older brother, and staying in uncomfortable, overpriced hotels. Based on your answers to our questions about traveling with your family, it sounds like many of you have spent the summer creating fun family vacation memories of your own.
My family has a summer home that we visit.
~Yes: 150
~No: 705
During the summer I visit relatives or have a family reunion.
~Yes: 600
~No: 238
Do you and your family take a vacation together during the summer?
~Yes: 638
~No: 188
|
Just as the glorious freedom of summer has to come to an end, so does our survey report. We'll close with a look at a few of the more general questions about your summer experience:
What is the weather like in the summer where you live?
~Hot: 490
~Mild: 193
~Unbearable: 185
Who are you most likely to hang out with during summer vacation?
~School friends: 318
~Family: 197
~Neighbor: 101
~Class/camp: 73
~Cousins/other relatives: 68
~Siblings: 53
~Parents: 44
|
| How long is your vacation? |
|
|
What are you mostly likely to do when you get bored during the summer?
~Call/hang out with a friend: 543
~Play on the computer: 505
~Shop: 402
~Watch TV: 384
~Read: 346
~Go to the movies: 307
~Watch movies at home: 249
~Play games: 262
~Make/eat a snack: 190
~Take a nap: 144
~Other: 102
|
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
|
|
