IN 24 hours, Singapore youth cram in 42 hours' worth of activities by multi-tasking.

This is four hours above the regional average of 38 hours, and three hours more than the previous year's figure, revealed a survey by market research company Synovate. The places with even busier youth were South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The survey involved 940 Singaporeans and residents aged between eight and 24 at the end of last year. This was part of a larger survey of about 13,000 youth in 12 countries, including China, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

On average, Singapore youth spend 13 hours of each day engaged by the media - watching television, going online and reading newspapers, among other things.

Among the top Internet activities here are listening to music, e-mailing and playing online games alone. Leisure activities include sports, listening to music and shopping.

But despite their busy schedules, not all Singapore youth rate themselves highly on the happiness meter. Only 73 per cent said they were 'quite happy' or 'very happy', while Hong Kong managed only 65 per cent and Japan, 55 per cent.

It was youth from developing countries such as Indonesia (84 per cent) and the Philippines (89 per cent) who came out happiest in the survey. Indian youth, who fit only 29 hours of activity into a day, seemed happiest, with 97 per cent recording a high level of happiness.

Said Synovate's managing director Miranda Cheung: 'It seems the more affluent the market, the less happy they are.'

Psychologist Daniel Koh added that packing too many activities into a day may not be a good thing as youth need time to recharge: 'Superficially, they may be multi-tasking, but they may perform better if they can concentrate on one or two activities.'

The youth were also quizzed on what influence they had on products and services they use. Singapore youth have more say than most in which fast-food joints they frequent, what video games they play and their family trips abroad.

Only China's youth beat Singapore's in having a say on holiday destinations, with 42 per cent indicating they were able to influence their family's decision, compared with 39 per cent here.

The survey was sponsored by Microsoft Advertising, MTV and Yahoo Southeast Asia to find out about media consumption, purchasing habits and attitudes of youth.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.