Fifteen years ago when you asked a child or an adult, what do you like to do in your free time? You would often be met with a response like knitting, drawing, basketball, sewing, and an endless amount of other activities. Now, people say they enjoy scrolling on their phone or playing video games in their free time. What happened to hobbies?

Well the short answer is that hobbies are quite well and alive, but we are seeing a decline in younger generations' interest in activities outside of school and parent-organized sports. With the introduction to screens most people spend their time scrolling or interacting with social media platforms instead of enjoying offline activities.

Think about your schedule based on school, work, and free time. How many hours do you spend engaging in obligatory activities like sports or homework? How much time is left to do as you please? Not much, right? After a long day away from your bed and the world of your phone, all you want to do is get into your pajamas and melt into the mindless matter of scrolling endlessly. 

The reason behind the switch includes many parts, but a main moving piece of the equation is decreased attention spans. Once the phone was invented, we didn't automatically discard our dexterous hobbies—but over time the use of screens and introduction to short-form content has decreased people's attention spans. In a 2023 study from the National Institutes of Health, psychologists found that college students' tendency to procrastinate increased when exposed to a prolonged amount of time interacting with short-form content. 

In similar fashion, the creation of short form content and social media content in general has created something we call instant gratification. This phenomenon can be defined as the need to satiate one's needs without turmoil or waiting included. Engaging hobbies, such as crochet, include a long time to learn and master the art. Throughout the process, you are rewarded with small amounts of dopamine for finishing or accomplishing a task. But, online you can find videos of someone else crocheting the same thing—but it's better than yours and it didn't take you any time or frustration. Watching a video like this gives a viewer a rush of dopamine. Most people opt to watch someone else succeed in their hobbies rather than going through the turmoil of learning a new skill because it is more comfortable; this leads to us seeking instant gratification and dopamine rushes. 

As if we couldn’t be more chronically online as a society, the over exposure to social media has deemed that being interested in anything gets you coined as ‘cringe’.Time after time, the internet has proven to have its downsides. A large example of this is the anonymous bullying and judgement that social media has created. In relation to hobbies, sharing your passions in a wide online platform has the potential to go viral and reach many people. But social media and its increased anonymity warrants hate comments and bullying. Especially when you—engaging in activity you love—are displaying individuality that is different from the norm. 

The answer to the question is that hobbies are not dead—yet. What happened to hobbies is screens and the evolution of our society. The decline of interests outside of academics and screens has become detrimental to our society and culture. All of these factors have slowly eaten away at our once strong hobby culture and precedent. So try and dedicate some time to yourself today. Something relaxing or something you love, set that time aside and partake in a hobby.