"The poll, conducted among fifth to 11th grade students, found that 80.1 percent preferred to stay at home this summer, while 30.9 percent intended to go shopping at department stores.
On the question of the best form of entertainment during the summer break, 73.7 percent said playing on their cellphones, while 41. 7 percent said going to karaoke clubs."
The common thread? There’s AC at home, department stores - and karaoke places. 
Not surprising in the least. They’re so addicted to those cell phone games. And you won’t catch me outside for long in this heat, either.
Bad news for their vision and eye health, though.
No kidding. At this time of year, if you want to enjoy being outside, you probably need to out at 6am and home by 9am - and very few young people have the body clock for that.
One of the few good things about getting older is waking up earlier - an invaluable “skill” if you want to actually go outside in Taiwan in the summer.
This must be how the amas manage to play Pokemon Go - cellphones and being outside.
I think not everyone - mine is out playing basket ball or sometimes surfing with friends, sometimes they are playing PC games like hermit. But I do encourage him to go out and be human. 
Yeah, in my old age I basically wake at 5.30 which is perfect for these beautiful mornings.
if it wasn’t so hot would the answer be different though? maybe not that much different. taiwanese are fully addicted to playing on phones.
Yoof of today.
My dad’s generation made their own outdoor entertainment.
WW2, for example.
I wish I had people to hang out with when I was a kid
where did you live, the outback?
Well what do they expect?
It’s really HOT, very humid and if you are outside too long you will get heat stroke (which almost always cause permanent damage and most likely kills!)
So they do what anyone would do, stay inside, in the MRT station if you’re too concerned about electricity prices… Even construction workers have to stop work if temperature exceeds certain levels. This may be why some construction work is done at night.
Even inside, in a well ventilated building (many older buildings are), without AC is much better than outside in the sun. But fact is AC is not a luxury. Productive work is very hard without it.
I would guess it would be very similar. Youth in America are very similar. The availability of more summer camps and sports leagues might make the percentages a little lower, but I think, if given their own choices, a lot of American youth would do just the same.
i’m sure its a world wide problem. i was always out on my bike or playing football, skating, anything really. always a bunch of kids hanging out in the street. i noticed by my siblings generation (ten years younger than me) it was already totally different.
i still stand by taiwanese being relentless phone addicts though.
staring at the phone screen has priority over so many things here. walking, eating, using the toilet, talking to other humans. phone is no.1
This is a very persuasive argument.
I thought the same thing until I visited some schools in America as part of a work trip last year. All these middle school students were completely addicted to their phones.
I think there’s a huge shift after people born in the late 1980s. That’s the last group of people that had a memorable portion of their childhood occur without massive internet and cell phone use.
Seems to be worldwide phenomenon, here is an in-depth article by a professional, Jean M. Twenge is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of Generation Me and iGen .
That study is quoted a lot in Cal Newport’s book, Digital Minimalism. It talks a lot about how there’s been a massive increase in the need for therapy among current college students, and that most therapists attribute it to cell phone use. They “have a real anxiety associated with in person interactions.” Crazy stuff.
its still worse here though. just take a look at an mrt carriage. its like 98% of people with their face in their phones. its never as bad as that bad when i go home.
I agree, but, only speaking for Taiwan versus America, I think a lot of that is due to the cost of internet. 4G service is so cheap in Taiwan, but REALLY expensive in the states.
It is surreal when you actually pay attention to it on the MRT, though. I’m usually looking at my phone or reading a book, but on the few occasions when I people watch on the MRT, it is kind of disturbing to see how many people are completely in their own worlds on their phones.
What’s bad about that? No different from reading a book or a magazine or a newspaper. There are issues with smartphone use, absolutely, but nothing wrong with looking at your phone on public transport. And certainly more considerate than those dumb broadsheet newspapers we used to constantly wave in each other’s faces.