Are we Moving Our Hobbies Online?

The internet is undoubtedly among the most important human inventions of the last century, and it has completely reshaped just about every aspect of modern life. Just about everything that we do has at least some online component. This means our work, our domestic life, and our hobbies, too.

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Let’s take a look at how we’ve moved many of our hobbies online, and whether this might actually be a good thing.

What is a hobby?

A hobby is an activity performed during your downtime, for the sake of pleasure. To qualify as a hobby, the activity must be performed regularly. So, if you’re just painting once a year, then you probably don’t have a hobby. But if you’re doing it every other day, then you certainly do.

Why are hobbies important?

Hobbies are rewarding in and of themselves. But they also confer a range of extra benefits. These include:

Stress relief. Hobbies, in many cases, are meditative. You can find yourself getting lost in the activity, whether it’s drawing, playing music, or golfing, and the troubles of the day might just tend to work themselves out.

You’ll also learn new skills and gain confidence, much of which can be applied to your life outside of your hobby. There might also be a social component to your hobby – which can often be the case in team sports and online gaming. If you aren’t the kind of person who makes friends easily, you might find that the hobby itself gives you something to break the ice with.

How hobbies are making a transition to online platforms

In some cases, the hobbies we enjoy in real life can’t easily be replicated online. But we can find a simulated alternative that might appeal to fans of the real thing. Football fans, for example, might fire up the latest version of FIFA.

If you’re used to meeting up with friends and going to the bingo hall, then you might stay at home and play bingo online. You might miss out on some of the theatre and the tactile experience, but you can still preserve the social aspect with the help of voice-communication apps like Zoom.

You can also receive instruction and training in your chosen hobby online. You can take a language class, and get one-to-one time with a native speaker. You might also participate in online exercise classes, too.

Striking the right balance

Of course, it’s important that we don’t abandon the real-world altogether. Getting out of the house, walking around and meeting people in the flesh is something for which there is no real substitute. Consequently, it’s important to strike a balance between your online activities and your offline ones. You might get into the habit of going for a walk every day along a particular route, for example.