Recreational activity is a broad term that can mean any structured activity for fun or recreation. It is not necessary that the activity must necessarily involve contact with another human being. It may take the form of physical activity, sporting activity, or other interactive constructive activity. Recreational activity is often defined by those who claim to practice it as a separate category of activity from leisure activity. This view is widely held by many people, but it is rarely accepted by the majority of psychologists and sociologists.

Recreation is an unstructured activity of relaxation, recreation, and socialization. The “joy of being out” is a necessary component of human psychology and biology. It is used to describe a variety of activities that involve people in supervised activity with some kind of goal in mind. The “joy of recreation” is a necessary component of physical fitness and is associated with a wide range of self-directed physical activities that have significant meaning and are pursued for pleasure, exercise, socialization, etc. Most people would readily agree that there is a strong psychological component to most forms of recreational activities and that they are generally used as a means of relaxation, of stretching out and of having fun.

In our society it has become common for people to divide up their time between work and leisure activities. Work is usually defined as tasks that are performed for pay while leisure time is generally understood to be free time that is devoted to hobbies, personal reflection, socializing, etc. Although there are many who believe that leisure time should be completely left up to the individual, most people realize that many common activities such as watching television, exercising, socializing, eating, etc. are crucial to a productive and successful life.