PEACE campaigners hit back at the Army Reserve yesterday after its recruitment strategy researchers labelled young Brits “time wasters.”

After finding that most 18 to 35-year-olds spent three and a-half-hours a day on social media and gaming, the outfit formerly known as the Territorial Army urged millennials to join up instead. 

But anti-war campaigns such as Peace Pledge Union (PPU) argued that communication and activism were far better causes than violence. 

PPU co-ordinator Symon Hill told the Star that the declining numbers of reservists was a sign that “young people find warfare and unquestioning obedience less appealling than ministers and generals expect them to.”

He said: “The UK has the fifth-highest military budget in the world but [David] Cameron’s government is trying to get warfare on the cheap by signing up part-time soldiers. 

“Now the army has resorted to insulting young people with patronising comments about how they’re wasting time on social media.

This is a sign of how disconnected the army’s leadership is from most young people’s everyday lives. 

“Social media can be used for all sorts of things — communication, friendship, discussion, education, activism. 

“They are nearly all more worthwhile than joining an organisation that exists solely to carry out, or threaten to carry out, acts of violence.”

The Army Reserves said that rather than violent training, its programme helped youngsters develop new skills and help in the community. 

Reservists can, however, be deployed to serve in areas of conflict like Syria and Iraq.