RE: Late Night Musings: Whatever Happened to Having Hobbies?
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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!