The youth of today, eh? All cooking and praying

The most recent research into the way South Africans think, behave, buy and react to one another is extremely positive and encouraging most of all the statistics on this country’s youth, the 16-24 age group.

So astounding is this new research data in fact, that my immediate thought was that either this country’s youth is the most misunderstood generation in the history of mankind, or they have turned fibbing to market researchers into an art form.

The general perception of our young people is that their favourite activity is probably using their cellphones to either SMS or talk to their friends at the drop of a hat.

Watching DVDs, music videos and playing TV games would rank close behind. And when it comes to voluntarily going to church, well, that probably wouldn’t fall into the top 1000 things most of them enjoy doing.

How wrong we are, because the latest research shows that right at the top of the ten most popular activities among our 16-24 year olds is attending religious services.

Now, if you are over 50 years of age and have had the unenviable task of dragging your kids through adolescence and the terrible teens, you will probably have had to go and have a little lie down after reading this earth-shattering revelation about them attending religious services.

Well, don’t move too far from your sofa their second-most favourite activity is not watching TV or sending frenetic messages on their cellphones. It is reading books.

Not frivolous magazines on the latest escapades of movie stars but real booksthe one’s full of words with absolutely no pictures.

Third on the list still has nothing to do with videos or cellphones, but rather cooking for pleasure.

Definitely time for another little lie down, this time probably accompanied by two fingers of brandy and a cool, damp face cloth draped across the forehead.

As many as 45% of our youth actually cook for pleasure, and if my youngest was not one of these I would have dismissed this research as the product of some disingenuous jiggery pokery and never again in my life believed even the most infinitely audited research statistic.

At last, however, their fourth most favourite activity starts to makes sense to those of us with preconceived ideas of our youth except for the fact that this activity is only fourth on the list and not at least first.

It is watching videos or DVDs, which 45% of them do regularly.

In fifth place is playing cellphone games and only by the sixth place do we get to see the ubiquitous SMS messaging (which I for one was convinced that every youngster in the country did incessantly). Only 43% do and I really would like to meet the remaining 57% of our youth who do not regard the SMS as worthy of their top ten list of favourite things to do. They are either ripe for canonisation or closet cellphone junkies.

In seventh place our youth shop for pleasure.

And on an extremely sombre note, and one indicative of our HIV/Aids-riddled society, the seventh most regular activity of our youth is attending funerals.

Even more sobering is the fact that in nine out of ten activities our youth have higher percentages than the rest of the population. Except for attending funerals, which is something 44% of the population do regularly as against 37% of our youth.

In eighth spot is visiting hair salons, and if you thought that the majority of favourite activities was pretty unbelievable, the tenth will knock your socks off. It is home decorating.

Now this, in my opinion, is where this research risks losing all credibility. I cannot believe that someone, who for 15 years of his or her life is incapable of keeping a bedroom tidy, incapable of picking up a sock and putting it into the wash-basket, and equally incapable of understanding that fresh laundry is much better preserved in a cupboard than on the floor, is in any way capable of making the transition to actual home decorating.

I am a cynic when it comes to most market research data but I hope and pray that this one is spot on.