Through A Glass Darkly.

Source: The Public Domain Image Archive

This week two of my friends sent me separate but similar messages they’d copied from social media sites, messages reminding adults to to take time to play, to do what makes us happy, to allow ourselves to be occasionally childlike. I’m not knocking the message but I wondered why they were sharing it with me. Both of my friends make time in their lives for fun creative pursuits. One collects and builds Lego sets. The other plays Dungeons & Dragons, and occasionally does live action roleplaying. Then I realized that all my friends have fun, creative pursuits—things outside of their day jobs that they make time for. I know I’m overanalyzing, which I might say is one of my hobbies if I thought about it too much, and, again, I’m not knocking the message which is a reminder I think we could all use occasionally, but why were they sending these messages directly to me, and why now?

That also got me thinking how much hobbies have changed since I was young—how much the internet has changed the world. When I was young if you had a particular hobby—say, building model train sets, it was likely a solitary pursuit. You might share what you’d made with friends and neighbors. If your set got really big, or it was just a slow week in your community and you lived in a small town, you might be featured in the newspaper or on the local news. If you knew fellow enthusiasts you probably met them at trade shows and corresponded by mail.

Now your hobby, whatever it is, can be shared with anyone with internet access, which definitely has its pros and cons. You can feel connected to a community and you can share what you love without feeling like you’re dragging your friends and neighbors away from something else they’d rather be doing. But it can also create a sense of insecurity. No matter how good you are you’ve likely found someone out there who you think is better than you. Maybe they’re devoting more time to what they do. Maybe they’ve turned it into a career and for you it’s still just a hobby, something you do to relieve the stress of your day job. And let me be clear: not every hobby can or should be turned into a moneymaking pursuit. If the only reason you do something is because it’s fun and it makes you happy, if it’s what you turn to when you get overwhelmed or just need a break, that’s great. I hope it always makes you happy.

But I keep thinking about how the internet has changed hobbies. It’s not just being able to share what you enjoy; it’s also access to resources and even knowledge that most old time hobbyists couldn’t imagine. When Star Wars came out my friends and I built versions of R2-D2 out of cardboard boxes. Now you can build an exact replica of the real thing in your garage if you’re willing and able to invest the time and money.

The internet changed even more than that. I remember when we didn’t even have VCRs. And when we had three channels—four if you were within range of the goofy little UFH station. If we missed that movie we wanted to see on TV it might be a year before it was rebroadcast. We didn’t have streaming services. We felt lucky if we had a creek in the backyard. And don’t get me started on music and how if we wanted that song we liked we either had to buy the album at a store or hold our cassette recorders up to the car radio. Or video games that you could only play at the arcade or the 7-11 for a quarter a game.

I’ve barely touched on how much things have changed and all this, as I’ve said, comes with pros and cons. That’s is why when I’ve talked about it with my friends and they say kids today don’t realize how good they have it I get a little grumpy and remind them that kids today face a lot of challenges we didn’t have to deal with; the world has changed and not entirely for the better. And then I start waving my cane at them and yelling at them to get off my lawn and, oh, okay, now I get why my friends are telling me to occasionally be childlike.

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4 Comments

  1. mydangblog

    I don’t remember being filled with existential dread as a kid but I think most young people today are really struggling. I see it in my own daughter, and younger co-workers. Give me 4 tv channels any day over that (as long as none of them are Fox).

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      I do remember a certain amount of existential dread when I was a kid. There was concern about the environment, and also nuclear war, but I think it’s much harder for kids today. I feel like it was easier to escape when we only had four TV channels and we didn’t carry devices with a constant news feed in our pockets. In some ways I envy young people now but I also feel bad about the world they’re getting.

      Reply
  2. ANN J KOPLOW

    I can relate to all these thoughts, Chris, and I am not going to compare your always excellent blog to my blog, because it might darken my mood. I’m just glad you and I get our chances to play together.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      If I compared my blog to yours, Ann, I don’t think I’d measure up, but I think it’s better to avoid those kinds of comparisons. Let’s instead celebrate the fact that we’re both doing good in our own ways.

      Reply

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