Time is not well spent, students report

Desire and action, dream and reality. The contrast is not new: I mean, philosophers have been trying to understand how the two categories connect since the ancient Greeks.

But the latest University Post survey, ‘Your Typical Day’quantifies exactly what it is students wish they could do, in an ideal world with endless time. And the desire turns out to be a long way from the action.

In an ideal world, students would much prefer to spend their time reading for fun. More than half of all respondents (120) ticked off that they wished they had more time for reading. This contrasts with only five respondents stating that they wish they spent less time reading.

Wish for hobbies, volunteering

One thing is reading for fun. What about reading academic textbooks and compendia? This is apparently also on students’ wishful thinking list.

80 respondents wish they spent more time, while only 30 wished for less.

Just as high on students’ list of priorities, that students wish-they-could-but-don’t-actually-find-the-time-for-it is ‘Hobbies, leisure activities and volunteer work’. 115 wish for more time. Only 13 wish they spent less time on it.

Web time is wasted time, say students

One thing is wishful thinking. Another is the nagging feeling that you spend too much time on things that you don’t really want to do.

Here our survey puts a number on what students consider time wasting. Biggest time waster is ‘surfing on the web, writing blogs and playing games on the net’. 120 students report that they spend too much time doing it, only 19 wish for more time.

Of course, the score on this category may be slightly skewed by the fact that respondents may associate the category with what they were doing then, namely filling out a University Post web survey. But we choose to ignore this, as it is impossible to verify.

Best face to face

Another time waster is ‘chatting with friends via phone, skype or facebook’, according to students. 67 of our respondents reckoned that they spent too much time on it, compared to only 23 who wished they had more time for it.

Meeting face to face is better. Only 10 reckon they waste their time on it. 99 respond that they would prefer using more time on it.

See a gallery with tables and graphs from the ‘Your Typical Day survey here.

miy@adm.ku.dk

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