For me right now, it’s books followed shortly of watching things. And I mean watching things that isn’t YouTube. Recently, I’ve been donating totes of books, books I’ve spent a long time having thrifted for and waited to get without having to cave to spending online.
And those books just sat there for months and months without being picked up to be read. Even books I wanted! I used to have a 5-shelf bookcase filled with books, another 3 shelf filled with books, a structure compromising of a shoe shelf and TV-stand filled with books. Now after donating things, I am only down to a single three-shelf bookcase just packed up with what books I have decided to remain with me.
As for watching things, I’ve discarded over 120+ DVDs from my collection, I still have a hefty amount, like I have nearly 5 full disc books filled with discs of a wide variety of movies and shows to watch should I ever not be online or want time off from being online. All just continue to sit there unwatched as I just keep watching YouTube video after YouTube video.
I just think I am coming around to the acceptance that I just will not give myself time to these hobbies and that they’re probably dying out, I predict that if I don’t do anything in the next couple years should they all sit and gather more dust, I’ll just let them all go.
Probably playing video games at the moment. I just dont really have time for them right now, especially given how addictive they can be.
I have ADHD. I’ve forgotten more hobbies than most people have heard of.
Most common reason to give these up seems to be lack of time. Why has our amount of time changed? We still work the same hours, get purchases delivered, have the same families even with fewer kids so we should have more not less right? What is eating into our available time? Is it social media?
How long back do you want to go
Table tennis is the one I miss the most, used to play it all the time with the other kids in the building I used to live, level was quite high since we even asked for pro level stuff to our parents. Was the only sport that I actually loved and practiced every week, but everyone grew up, moved out, and the closest place that has it to me is a 1 hour drive with traffic.
Life, each day I feel it’s less of it.
I’ve recently gotten back into reading as a way to wind down before bed without using the phone, and it has done wonders for my sleep. Pair it with a kobo ereader and downloading, uh, free books means there’s no pressure to read books you don’t enjoy (I find with physical books they tend to loom at you from the shelf and make you feel guilty for not reading, which only makes things worse).
Anyway to get to the point reading can be a very low investment hobby if you want it to be.
+1 for the e-reader. As someone who consistently has three or four books in progress at the same time, an e-reader is how I manage to actually read. I tend to pick my reading based on a whim or mood at the time. If I’m leaving for work, I won’t know how I’ll feel once I have time to read. Instead of lugging all four books with me, I’ll tend to bring none. Which means I don’t end up reading throughout the day.
But with an e-reader, that situation is entirely flipped on its head. Don’t know what I’ll want to read? It doesn’t matter, because my entire library is on the kobo. My only limitation now is comics, because .cbz files tend to take up a lot more space than .epub files do. So I’ll consistently have my entire library, and also a few comics. But even the comics problem is largely solved, because I host my own Komga server, which my kobo can connect to and download new comics.
Music. I played piano since very young, started making tracks on 4-track and the Amiga around 10 years old, kept going deeper with the demoscene and playing in + recording bands. Went on to do a music degree, got a job making music…
Hobby became serious, then it turned into a ball and chain. I turned around, did a second degree and started working in a different field. Thought I’d keep music as a hobby, but now it presents a different face: no point in making tracks if nobody but me ever listens, nor is there point in producing other people for free with all the invested time most likely never being too fruitful.
I did find a new hobby though. Working out is the antithesis to working on art projects. Put an hour in, get an hour’s worth of gains back. Love it :D
Aw me too :( coming to terms with the same feeling I think ♥️ glad you found something cool to do in its place.
Thanks for this 😊 It certainly wasn’t easy to let the muse go, here’s hoping you will manage it smoothly - or better, find a way to keep the flame going ❣️
Gaming.
I used to play every day with my best friend for 30 years until one day he threw me under a bus, so to speak, cut off all contact and I don’t even know why
I have an awesome wife now with whom I spend every second and I don’t really have any time left to play games
I posted on another thread about this a while back. Oddly, I have a weird mental block that stopped me gaming when I was 16 back in the 90s.
Basically, being a nerd in small-town rural Scotland was not something to be proud of after a certain age, and gaming was social kryptonite, so being an insecure teen I focused my energies on bands and drinking.
This was great for a while, but looking back, it would appear that I completely missed out on the Golden Age of gaming, and now it’s me who is the odd one out at work, having never played anything beyond a sneaky stab at Portal.
I’m now 48 and in two minds about it. On one hand, some of the guys at work have failed to launch and live physically isolated lives and spend all their time gaming. On the other, I see my own kids laughing their asses off playing Fortnite with their friends, and they are clearly having the best time.
I did try playing with them briefly, but they’re already leaving me for dust. So yeah, my plan is to maybe low-key get into gaming again when I retire in like 17 years’ time. We shall see.
Nothing, really. I’ve spent most of my life focusing on what matters to me, and so as time goes on I just get more dedicated to the things I already like.
I don’t play competitive online games any more. They are a waste of time and exist to reward whoever puts the most amount of time into them. It’s a race to the bottom to see who’s the biggest loser.
I still play games though, just ones where I’m not the product.
I fail to see how you are the product by playing a competitive game, do you think game companies make money by data harvesting?
I used to be involved in my local Warhammer/Wargaming scene. Like full bore painting, modeling, 3d printing, doing tournaments, having a bi-weekly club. Unfortunately I fell on hard times and then my baby brother had a baby. So had to sell most of my stuff. We live together that’s why. Can’t have resin printers around a newborn. That’s a super hard no. I kept the paint because I used oils instead of acrylics, but that never turned into canvas painting. I sold all my armies across like 7 different game systems. The only games I have left are Infinity and trading card games. It’s all just sitting in boxes in the attic right now.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to doing any of it any time soon. I got to get a job and a car. I wanna move to a new city, but unfortunately that city is turning into a fucking ICE stomping ground. One of my friends in the scene recently died and at his funeral almost our whole social group showed up. Sounds like we all scattered and haven’t been participating in hobby as much. Most people found other things to do.
It was a great run. About 10 years of a social life and something to do. At one point you think it’s never gonna end because it’s so good, but life will find a way. I hope to get back to it some day.
I lost books sometime in the aughts. I miss them but its just to easy to do other things. MMO’s are another. That is sorta the reverse in that they suck up to much time and there are personal reasons I needed to drop them. Going to cons also fell out about the same time as reading and its fun to hang with fen folk. Ill say along with cons just any in person nerd thing. free thought groups, makerspaces. they are all sorta part of the same thing I think which is essentially just hanging with nerds and geeks.
Ironically, MMOs that do cater to the busy adult life end up being the worst to actually sit down and play since they have auto battle, auto pathing, auto questing.
It just becomes an idle game with extra steps.
actually thats the type I like. I don’t want to play a game as much as play with dolls and hang out.
Art. I used to do all kinds of art. Now mostly I do music instead.
For me it has also been gaming. Some part of my brain is always reminding me about all the chores I have to do and all the crafting projects I could be working on instead. Also the cats keep on demanding attention every 5-10 minutes so that takes me right out of the flow if I ever manage to get into it.
Video games, but not because I want to. I have so much on my plate right now that could make my life better. I need to exercise more. I used to run and lift. I need to spend time with my hands-on craft hobby. I need to bake more. I enjoy video games SOOOOO much but I feel my life would probably be better without them.
If you enjoy them that much, then wouldn’t they be enriching your life not making it worse?
Seems like maybe you need to be easier on yourself.
I get told I am too harsh on myself a lot. Sigh.
It’s complicated. It’s the difference between fun and happiness. Video games are fun and a little bit of fun can contribute to happiness. However, I am also unhappy because the time I’ve spent on video games isn’t really long term.
It’s like eating healthy food which will make you feel better overall VS having a little treat. That ice cream I had isn’t really helping me except get fat. That apple I ate is gonna make me live better and longer.
However, a life without treats… Is that a life worth living?
Programming. I don’t like where it’s heading and I don’t like the culture
I used to be a software engineer, but moved into infrastructure instead, so I haven’t really been programming much for few years. But all the vibe coding I see around me is making me yearn for coding the old-school way. And I’ve been searching a bit for something to apply that drive to…
