A night out in Tokyo is much the same as a night out in Milan these days, according to a survey about socialising, conducted amongst 16 to 34-year-olds around the world. Wherever you live, a typical night out is spent eating burgers, seeing American films or listening to English-language music in clubs and bars. Individual differences do survive but American culture is everywhere.  Differences in the social behavior of the two sexes are also disappearing. Most people surveyed felt that it was 'perfectly normal' for groups of young women to go out alone, that it was 'equally acceptable' for young women to smoke and drink, and that a couple should split the bill when they go out together. For most young people these were the biggest differences between their own generation and their parents'. Interestingly, however, most young people interviewed said that parents are still stricter with daughters than sons about where they go and who they go with. Overall, only 10 per cent thought that parents treat their sons and daughters equally, and almost no one thought parents were stricter with their sons! Important national differences appear, however, when it comes to time-keeping. In the Far East and Eastern Europe a night out starts --- and finishes --- much earlier: there seven o'clock was the average time for meeting up with friends. For many Southern European and South Americans, on the other hand, an evening out doesn't even start until ten or eleven o'clock, by which time many of their South Korean or Japanese counterparts are safely home in bed!  Parents' rules reflect this. Most Japanese parents expect their teenagers home by ten o'clock or even earlier, whereas in Europe it is more likely to be eleven or twelve o'clock. The most surprising findings came from Argentina, however, where it is apparently quite normal for 15 and 16-year-olds to stay out all night. But then perhaps this is because their parents have less to worry about --- 80 percent of Argentine youngsters claimed that they rarely or never drink alcohol! One of the biggest differences between young people and their parents lies in   _  .
the music style and stars they loved their attitude towards paying money for dinner the decreasing number of young women smoking the time they meet up with people and have evening out