Argumentative essay.

Do young people today make good use of the leisure time? Or do they spend too much time
watching television and playing video games instead, of taking part in more productive
activity ?

Leisure time or free time, is a period of time that we spend out on doing works and
essential domestic activity. It is also the period of recreational and discretionary time before or
after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business,
attending school and doing homework, household chores, and day-to-day stress. In other words,
leisure time is the time available for ease and relaxation or the time at one's command, free from
engagement and convenient opportunity.
There are many ways how to spend our free time wisely and how to make the most of it.
As we know, young people today were not use their leisure time efficiently because most of their
activities during free time did not give any benefit for them. So, I disagree that young people
today make good use of their leisure time. This is proven according to a statistic which show
only a few young people know how to spend their free time efficiently and have a good rest.
Most of the young people do activities that only wasting their time. For example, they spend too
much time on watching television, playing video games, loitering at mall and smoking instead of
taking part in more productive activities such as involve in sport activities, join the club, doing
exercise and so on. So, we can say that they simply waste their time and did not try to change
their lifestyle.
I agree that the young people spend too much time on watching television. Watching
television is not a good way of using our leisure time because it will give more negative effect
compared to positive effect. Watching television will give an advantage if we use to watch
information channels such as news, sport activities or discovery channel. But, we know that
young people did not like to watch this kind of channels. They will only spend their time more
on watching entertainment channels such as singing competition like “Akademi Fantasia” and
“Malaysia Idol”, cartoon programmes or the other programmes that give them less benefit.
 Wasting time is one of the other inherent disadvantage of watching television. Let’s
imagine, if in one day, a person spends an hour of watching television without gaining any useful
information, then in one year he will waste 365 hours and in 10 year is 3605 hours. With that
time, you can learn several language as well as finishing your studying course. On the other
hand, watching television will change young people into passive behaviour because television is
only one way communication. They can only watch what is happen in television and disable to
criticize them, in other words, they cannot give comment on what dissatisfied they have. This
will keep it on their heart and later become more passive.
Besides, television programmes are not always suitable for all ages. Sometimes, there are
some movies which have violence and sexual element which are not suitable for the stormy
phase growing children and teenagers. It will be extremely dangerous if parents neglect their
children to discover the TV programmes themselves as they will immediately be influenced on
what things they had seen. Therefore, social problem will be increased if young people try to
follow the actions that have been seen. In the aspect of health, spending hours on watching TV is
harmful to eyesight because the light from the television can effect our eyes.
I also agree that young people spend too much time on playing video games as one of the
activity to fulfill their leisure time. Actually, this is not a good use of the leisure time because
playing video games will also give more disadvantages compare to the advantages. As an
example, playing video games can decrease important social interactions between family and
friends. Therefore, young people cannot improve their soft-skills like talking, leadership or the
others. This anti-social behavior will make children to keep away from others and become
passive. So, it will give the negative effects not only to themselves but also to our country
because we cannot develop future multi-skills leader.
Next, playing video playing video games can decrease development of skills in sports,
music and arts. Performance in academic will be affected if reading and homework are
neglected. They usually use a lot of time to play video games because when we start playing it,
we will try to finish the games successfully. Therefore, their time to do the other activities will
become limited. Sitting all of day in front of computer is can also contribute to an unhealthy
lifestyle because we will not perform active movement of body. Besides, violent video games
will provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions on how to solve problems
in different situations. The active nature of the learning environment of video games suggests
that this medium is potentially more dangerous than TV and movie media. The negative and
violent action that young people played on games can effect their emotion and behavior. They
will immediately take influence of what they see and play. Therefore, they will try to follow the
actions that have been seen. Thus, they will easily become more aggressive to show their bad
emotion and behavior in front others.
Young people should use their leisure time effectively by taking part in more productive
activity. Joining the club ‘Rakan Muda’ is proven to develop their social skills. By joining this
club, they can also be a volunteer to help other people. Social skills gained are important for
them to make sure that they can build a good relationship with other people. Therefore, it will
make them to become a better person. Beside that, young people can also do a part time job to
fulfill their leisure time. They will not only get extra money, but they also get a new experience
that the other people never have. Young people can also involve in sport activities such as
playing basketball, football and swimming. Its can give positive effect because they can exercise
and make them more healthy. They also can forget their problem and can release their stress. So,
this is a good activities that can give them more benefits.
In conclusion, parents should play their role in controlling their children activities.
Parents can also play a part in guiding their children's use of video games by choosing benefits
and useful video games which contain no violence or sexual element. Next, parents must play
video games together with children, especially when they have a new game. Placing the
computer or television in a public area, for instance, at living room, will help parents to monitor
on what their children are playing or watching. Beside that, ministry also must participate in the
action to make sure that that young people can use their leisure time efficiently. For example,
they can attract young people to involve in any activity such ‘Program Latihan Khidmat Negara’,
campaign and ‘Rakan Muda’ which really contribute lots of new experiences towards young
people. Media should be a good medium to attract young people to use their leisure time
efficiently by taking part in more productive activity. To attract their attention, they can organize
a football competition between celebrities. Beside that, media must come out with more positive
programmes that can give benefits to the young people. Lastly, we known that young people
today use of the leisure time too much time in watching television and playing video games
instead, of taking part in more productive activity. So, we must take part to help them use the
leisure time efficiently.