Late Night Musings: Whatever Happened to Having Hobbies?
The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory, but it's a question I often find myself pondering.
In this digital age of 2023 it almost feels like the whole idea of having a hobby has become somewhat old-fashioned. I've even overheard conversations among younger individuals (that would be late teens and early twenties) commenting that "hobbies are for old people."
Seriously?
That makes me wonder whether the problem here is just that one of semantics and that it's the word "Hobbies" that's the problem, not what the word actually means... which is basically to have a pastime of sorts that keeps you enjoyably occupied during your ostensible free time.
Phrased a little differently, I would come back to those 19-year-olds who said hobbies for old people and ask "So what do you call your gaming?"
Well, it's gaming. Not a hobby.
But is it really?
Granted I'm old older, but I'm not ashamed to say that I have a number of hobbies, and I pursue them with a fair degree of enthusiasm!
For example, I'm a stamp collector which I have been since I was about six or seven years old, and I never stopped. Once upon a time stamp collecting was actually very popular, but here in the digital age its popularity has waned a fair bit. However it has actually been making a bit of a comeback in recent years in part helped by Covid lockdowns and people being shut in, but also because of a growing fascination with things nostalgic and retro.
I would also consider gardening to be a hobby. I mean sure, the objective is that we like to grow our own food, and that's both healthy and it saves money at the grocery but it's also a peaceful pastime and I'm sure that's a hobby.
And if it weren't for the fact that I have subsequently turned it into a business, my painting mandalas on beach stones would definitely be considered a hobby. As it has turned out people quite like them, and we discovered that when we go and set up as vendors at arts and crafts shows, festivals and other events we can sell a fair number of them. Even so, for the most part, it's still a hobby.
Of course, I also submit that my writing blog posts on Hive is a hobby! I mean, let's face it — I don't get paid enough to do this to consider it a job — not even a part-time job — so therefore it must be a hobby.
Granted, it's a hobby that allows me to gradually build a nice "savings account," but writing has pretty much always been a hobby for me. I say that in the sense that I haven't done it professionally, except for a brief stint as a technical writer in the IT industry.
Sometimes, it just seems like hobbies are getting a bad rap... perhaps because they sound old-fashioned. And I don't think they deserve that. I don't even think they're necessarily old fashioned, but maybe that's just a matter of semantics and use of language. Regardless, I sure hope that hobbies as "a thing" stay around for a long long time!
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Created at 2023-11-08 00:42 PDT
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I think tabletop gaming counts as a hobby, especially if it includes deck building for collectible card games or painting miniatures for war games and role-playing games. There has been a resurgence in games over the past couple decades, and I would even argue we are in a new golden age of game design for mechanics and material components. Classics like chess continue to draw new players, too. Reading can also be a hobby, and as a librarian, I am pleased to report there are still readers of all ages.
I'm definitely inclined to agree with you with respect to tabletop gaming. Back when we had our store here in town and we sold art by people who had contributed to original Magic the Gathering decks, I was amazed at how many people would come in and talk about MTG. And it seems to be as popular now as it was before.
When it first came out, it was my sincere hope that Splinterlands would become a blockchain based online version of something like MTG and would get some serious traction outside the community. So far it seems like they've done pretty well.
I'm still fairly active patron of our local library. I have always preferred the paper version of books to digital paper. No matter how you turn it, there's nothing quite like reading a book.
Writing here is also a hobby and I cannot remember the last time I missed writing a day
I would not even feel good if that happens
Nice write up!
Thank you! I certainly don't miss very many days here, and I have definitely come to think of this community as a very enjoyable pastime.
I am in my 60s, and I have hobbies: reading, knitting, writing, doing jigsaw puzzles, gardening, and scrapbooking (photo albums). Some of them are seasonal; gardening takes up too much time in the summer to indulge in jigsaw puzzles or scrapbooking. I think of a hobby as something that should be enjoyable, so I'm not sure gardening counts for me. It's a lot of work, at least on the scale I've been doing it.
My husband used to do reloading for a hobby, but he hasn't done that for years. And he used to do gardening, too, but his health doesn't permit it any more. He is retired, and all he does with his vast quantities of spare time is read stuff on his computer. I guess he is content with that, but it seems a bit unbalanced to me.
I know a few young people who read and knit and and do crafts, but I don't know if they use the word "hobby" to describe those activities.
I'm in my sixties as well, and perhaps the whole "hobby" thing is a generational question.
When we grew up, there was no internet and you largely had to entertain yourself or hang out with your friends. I think that spills over into our adult life, where we just reach for things that seem interesting and appealing and fun.
I like to have hobbies that don't have a lot to do with being online, simply because I earn the majority of my living from being online (eBay, Etsy, Etc) so it makes me happy to be able to step away from the computer. However, I watch our kids and they start to get antsy if they have to sit down their phone for more than 5 minutes. I guess all generations look at the younger generations and wonder how the species is going to survive. But it always does!