What Do You Do in Your Free Time?

I’m writing this mainly because I think people now are living in the era of the death of the hobby. I remember when I was growing up, people did things just because they were fun. My dad for example used to taking plastic models which he painstakingly painted and assembled. He also used to love model trains – I remember having a big table in our basement with a set of little train tracks running all over it. I know other people have done things like making kites and flying them, or whittling and assembling wooden boats. Do kids, teenagers, or young adults do any of that stuff now?

I know for me the closest thing to a hobby I can claim is this blog and my language learning. Both I do mainly for enjoyment, and only in my free time. But as a full- time student, there is precious little free time that can be spent on idle pursuits for sheer happiness. And other kids my age, what do they do with their time? It seems most people in the 10-30 range either watch TV or play video games in their free time. I’m not so sure that I’d consider either of these to be hobbies – sure they occupy free time, but they are extremely passive actions. For the most part you are spoon fed information.

So what could be the cause of this? Is it that free time itself has been drying up, and everyone needs to work longer, harder, and more often to make it in this difficult economy? Or has our society moved, and is it moving, to a state where enjoyment is spoon fed to us. I remember when my little brother was a kid; he used to make the most intricate drawings – maps and diagrams, with incredible detail. But my parents thought that he should study more, and acted to stop him from drawing – he doesn’t do any kind of art any more. Maybe it’s parents’ desire to make their kids succeed, which pushes them into stress at ever lowering ages.

So I have two things I want to ask of you – first, if you have a hobby, post here and let me know what it is. Let me know that people like that are still out there. If you don’t, I challenge you – look back to when you were a kid, at what you enjoyed the most. I don’t care how silly, childish or stupid it was. I want you to go out this weekend and do just that. I think that you might find a source of stress relief and enjoyment that you’ve forgotten over the years.