By Moon Gwang-lip
Staff Reporter

Elementary, middle and high school students are spending more of their leisure time alone in front of computers than with friends or family, according to a report by the Korea Social Research Center (KSRC).

The KSRC said in a report that 39.3 percent of students play computer games or surf the Internet alone in their free time while 33.2 percent spend time with friends.

The finding was based on a survey of 27,650 primary, middle and high school students across the country between September and December 2004.

Only 15.2 percent of students said they spend time with family members.

The survey also revealed that 43.7 percent of male students preferred playing alone on computers while 34.5 percent of female students did.

Education groups said the lack of cultural centers for teenage students and excessive studying leave them no options other than sitting in front of computers or the television.

``They don’t have many choices when going out with friends _ movie theaters or shopping centers at best. So they prefer staying at home and watching TV or going to PC rooms and playing games,’’ said Yoon Sook-ja, director of the National Association of Parents for Cham-Education.

``Too much pressure to study also keeps them from being with their friends. Students spend most of their extracurricular time at hagwons (cram schools) and they don’t have time to enjoy hanging out with their friends. They are left with taking breaks in front of the TV or computer,’’ Yoon said.

``As the study focused on what students do in their free time, it’s early to talk about the problem of their leisure culture,’’ said a KSRC official.

``But we know there are concerns regarding this issue and we are considering conducting an in-depth study on it,’’ she added.

As for places to gather, PC rooms were cited as the favorite place of respondents.

According to the report, 85.6 percent of the students said they have been to PC rooms, while 82.7 percent, 74.2 percent and 46 percent of students have visited karaoke bars, video game rooms and comic book rooms, respectively.

PC rooms were also the most frequented places as students responded that they go there 4.18 times a month on average. The comic book room and video game room followed with 3.95 times and 3.57 times a month, respectively.

The report said that students were also spending too much time watching television.

During the week, elementary school students spent 164 minutes on average watching TV, middle school students 171 minutes and high school students 96 minutes. On weekends, the time rose to 252 minutes, 320 minutes and 253 minutes, respectively.

Asked about their favorite TV programs, 80.3 percent of students picked entertainment shows, followed by soap operas with 69.2 percent, cartoons with 60.1 percent, movies with 55.9 percent, news with 35 percent and sports with 30 percent.

The report said 30.2 percent of students do not read the newspaper.

joseph@koreatimes.co.kr