Editor's note: This article appeared in the January 5, 2009, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

Evidently the stock markets aren't the only indices declining this year. America's leisure time is shrinking, and how we spend that time is changing, too, according to research from Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive. The median number of leisure hours available each week dropped 20 percent in 2008, from 20 hours in 2007 to an all-time low of only 16 hours this year.

The median amount of time spent working, including housekeeping and studying, is now at 46 hours per week, up slightly from 45 hours in 2007. By generation, Generation Xers (ages 32-43) are working the most hours (55 each week), followed by 50 hours each week for Echo Boomers (18-31) and Baby Boomers (44-62).

In 2008, Americans increased their work week one hour yet claim to have lost four hours of leisure time. Where did the rest of the time go? Perhaps, as the American economic situation has worsened, people who were worried about their jobs feel the need to spend more time "just checking in" via computer or wireless device yet consider this time as neither work nor leisure.

Study results from an international survey conducted by New York research company TNS confirm that, on average, people are spending close to one-third of their leisure time online, and it appears people want their 30 percent digital time regardless of how much free time is available. Respondents with up to two hours leisure time each weekday spent the same proportion of their leisure time online as respondents who had 7-8 hours of leisure time on a weekday.Â