I read hobbies are in decline.
Do you maintain an interesting hobby?
I like thinking and blogging [1] about electronic circuits despite lack of formal education. It being a hobby, I must concede that my involvement and proficiency remain well below industry standard.
Unless you count netflix or social media doom scrolling as a hobby, our old idea of hobbies are in decline because people are busy making a living.
Cooking is sort of my everyday hobby, climbing & skiing are my weekend/seasonal hobbies.
- making music, making musical tools (soldering together pedals, making VCV rack modules etc.
- Longboarding
- Gaming (Minecraft, MiniGolf Games, and RoR2, mostly - all socially)
- Writing, mostly for my website ( opguides.info ) but the ocassional fiction story too
- Fursuitting and attending furry events
- Projects? Just like, generally making things. I'm always happiest when I have a few things in the works. It's usually one-off. Like, recently I did acrylic pour art. I'll probably never do it again, but it was fun.
Reading books. Browsing Reddit and Hacker news.
Coding.
Twitter. Facebook used to be here but I got suspended unfairly so I no longer use it.
Working out.
Watching movies, TV shows, Ufc. Used to watch Rap Battles, but my interest died.
Reading about drugs.
Listening to podcasts.
Edit: Writing too.
Reading and writing about old books and articles [0]. It's a nice distraction from work while still being mentally stimulating.
I'm increasingly thinking about mowing the yard and managing the garden. That's a hobby, right?
I don't think hobbies are in decline. Anywhere I go, anything I do, it's packed with people, with a backlog of reservations that spans months. So I guess it's the "doom and gloom" of MSM.
As for me: programming, hiking, board games, reading, blogging, sports (martial arts / gym). And I'm trying to pick up some more.
Creative writing! I mainly do scifi & fantasy (I love combining my technical background with artsy stuff). I'm currently working on a silkpunk (Ancient China setting + retro-futuristic technology based on Ancient Chinese science) science fantasy multimedia webnovel. I'm in the middle of inventing my fictional computing system (tentatively named rune engines) that ties into the magic system. I think, for a lot of science fantasy, the creators tend to keep the science and magic quite separate (ex: the science and magic of Star Wars is pretty clearly distinct) and I'm trying to create a system that combines the both of them. It's been super fun to prod at the question "how would I approach this fantastical universe using the scientific method".
Before I married, I played a decent amount of games, but found that I was growing less and less interested. I’ve since stopped entirely.
Nowadays the closest thing to a traditional hobby I have is discovering and reading books off Amazon Kindle Unlimited.
With my wife, we love to travel and spend time looking for new destinations (or rediscovering old ones!) and planning trips. We usually take two international trips a year (Europe and/or Asia) and a few domestic trips (usually to the West coast) as well.
After work I prefer mostly less demanding activities: reading books, playing games, learning from video courses or doing whatever sport is available in the current space-time: riding a bike or a longboard, working out, running, diving, swimming, etc.
Are hobbies in decline ... ? Well, they could be if everyone uses most of their brain cycles "consuming content" online. It is quite absorbing and may result in less interest in hobbies that require higher attention.
Gardening. Just being outside and getting my hands in the soil keeps the happy chemicals flowing.
Lots of opportunity for tech integration as well - between weather/temp/moisture sensing, plant identification, irrigation timing, and season planning, I'm generating loads of data and making better choices over time as a result.
It's so important to have hobbies for personal fulfillment. PSA for past me and future others: not everything needs to be a side hustle!
I haven't seen any signs that hobbies are in decline. Everybody I know well enough to know this about them have at least two hobbies. I have six active ones.
I'm a chorister in a few local choirs, and it's something my wife and I do together. I want to join next year's local amateur opera project.
We recently moved to to a coastal town with a huge river lake, after living all my life 800km from the nearest beach. So I'm thinking of picking up some water sport, such as kite surfing, rowing or something. We'll seem
I am not sure how to separate a hobby from plain interest, the real hobby I do is building scale models, from plastic cars to wooden ships, although I don't have enough time for it. I like to read, and have an interest in watches but don't count those as hobbies though.
I play sports, specifically paintball and hockey. Though, not at the same time, perhaps it's time to introduce paintball to ice.
CrossFit and other exercise; frisbee golf; figuring out ways to reduce time spent and friction encountered in my routine activities.
Ripping through single track forest trails on 2-stroke dirt bikes
I joke that it’s the most opposite activity from programming
Lifting, cycling, reading historical non fiction, gardening. Essentially anything not involving a screen.
Tournament poker. Great excuse to travel & enter a different world.
Building B2B SaaS is one of mine. I'm not joking.
Walking, hiking, audiobooks, reading, amateur radio.
Martial arts, reading, long walks, lifting weights.
Photography, music, books, cooking
I recently got really into watches.
Repairing old electronics and test equipment down to the component level with a friend of mine who's been doing it since the 1950s.
You'd be surprised how many times it turns out to be connections that look ok, actually aren't. I've seen bolted ground lugs that were open circuits. I've learned to despise silver mica capacitors.
Oh, and with vacuum tube based gear, letting some smoke out doesn't necessarily kill things dead. The smoke does help localize the problem though.
fishing, cycling, 3d printing/cnc, and firearms.
cooking food
Golf. I understand the image it has, and it's somewhat well-deserved, but the munis are teeming with fascinating people from all walks of life. I've made more friends in the past 5 years since I picked the game up than I did in the previous 10+ years of my post-college life combined. I love the ego check it gives me while rewarding real practice and patience. I also carry my clubs every round which makes it effectively a 5-7 mile hike each round.