For me right now, it’s books followed shortly of watching things. And I mean watching things that isn’t YouTube. Recently, I’ve been donating totes of books, books I’ve spent a long time having thrifted for and waited to get without having to cave to spending online.
And those books just sat there for months and months without being picked up to be read. Even books I wanted! I used to have a 5-shelf bookcase filled with books, another 3 shelf filled with books, a structure compromising of a shoe shelf and TV-stand filled with books. Now after donating things, I am only down to a single three-shelf bookcase just packed up with what books I have decided to remain with me.
As for watching things, I’ve discarded over 120+ DVDs from my collection, I still have a hefty amount, like I have nearly 5 full disc books filled with discs of a wide variety of movies and shows to watch should I ever not be online or want time off from being online. All just continue to sit there unwatched as I just keep watching YouTube video after YouTube video.
I just think I am coming around to the acceptance that I just will not give myself time to these hobbies and that they’re probably dying out, I predict that if I don’t do anything in the next couple years should they all sit and gather more dust, I’ll just let them all go.
I used to get so much enjoyment out of video games. I could play for entire weekends. Now I sit down and play for an hour or so and start to get bored.
This is only the first stage.
Next you’ll stop gaming completely, but still enjoy watching others play.
Then even watching gets annoying. That’s where I am now. I don’t know what’s next.
Next stage is some amount of time away from video games.
The stage after that is nostalgia: someone will mention one of the games you loved back in the day and you’ll think “That was when I was happiest. I should find out how to play that again.”
Then you’ll find some way to play it, whether by cobbling together some emulation software or buying some As Seen on TV handheld game that includes your game and a hundred others.
You’ll scratch a little bit of the itch, but decide to start checking out the current video game scene.
Once you realize everything now is too flashy and fast and annoying or it has some dreaded multiplayer requirement that you no longer have enough friends to fulfill and the public rooms of the game are filled with a bunch of children.
Eventually, you’ll stumble into the future’s version of Stardew Valley and be content just building quiet little worlds by yourself.
Unfortunately, the types of video games I can play has been severely limited in the past several years by muscle disease. I have tried to adapt with low-APM turn-based games like Slay the Spire, Into the Breach and chess. While I have developed a certain fondness for these games, they were never my first choice.
The recent release of Silksong has been especially hard on me because its predecessor was one of my favorites. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch a play-through of it yet.
Super duper looking forward to Mewgenics, though! Only 4 months to go.
Have you tried Balatro? If you like Slay the Spite there’s a good chance you will enjoy it.
Definitely. Love that game. If it’s turn-based and even remotely popular there’s a very good chance I’ve played it.
Nice. Got any suggestions?
Also a very different kind of game but have you played citizen sleeper?
Never heard of it. Looks pretty interesting.
Lately I’ve really been enjoying Shogun Showdown. I made a post recently outlining a bunch of the games I like. I can vouch for all of those. Make sure to check out the rest of the thread too. I avoided repeating what others said.
Programming. I don’t like where it’s heading and I don’t like the culture
I used to be a software engineer, but moved into infrastructure instead, so I haven’t really been programming much for few years. But all the vibe coding I see around me is making me yearn for coding the old-school way. And I’ve been searching a bit for something to apply that drive to…
Electronics. Components are getting harder to get (internet orders makes hem expensive) and my eyes are no longer that good when soldering (even with glasses)
Gaming.
I used to play every day with my best friend for 30 years until one day he threw me under a bus, so to speak, cut off all contact and I don’t even know why
I have an awesome wife now with whom I spend every second and I don’t really have any time left to play games
I posted on another thread about this a while back. Oddly, I have a weird mental block that stopped me gaming when I was 16 back in the 90s.
Basically, being a nerd in small-town rural Scotland was not something to be proud of after a certain age, and gaming was social kryptonite, so being an insecure teen I focused my energies on bands and drinking.
This was great for a while, but looking back, it would appear that I completely missed out on the Golden Age of gaming, and now it’s me who is the odd one out at work, having never played anything beyond a sneaky stab at Portal.
I’m now 48 and in two minds about it. On one hand, some of the guys at work have failed to launch and live physically isolated lives and spend all their time gaming. On the other, I see my own kids laughing their asses off playing Fortnite with their friends, and they are clearly having the best time.
I did try playing with them briefly, but they’re already leaving me for dust. So yeah, my plan is to maybe low-key get into gaming again when I retire in like 17 years’ time. We shall see.
I have ADHD. I’ve forgotten more hobbies than most people have heard of.
Video games, but not because I want to. I have so much on my plate right now that could make my life better. I need to exercise more. I used to run and lift. I need to spend time with my hands-on craft hobby. I need to bake more. I enjoy video games SOOOOO much but I feel my life would probably be better without them.
If you enjoy them that much, then wouldn’t they be enriching your life not making it worse?
Seems like maybe you need to be easier on yourself.
I get told I am too harsh on myself a lot. Sigh.
It’s complicated. It’s the difference between fun and happiness. Video games are fun and a little bit of fun can contribute to happiness. However, I am also unhappy because the time I’ve spent on video games isn’t really long term.
It’s like eating healthy food which will make you feel better overall VS having a little treat. That ice cream I had isn’t really helping me except get fat. That apple I ate is gonna make me live better and longer.
However, a life without treats… Is that a life worth living?
Table tennis is the one I miss the most, used to play it all the time with the other kids in the building I used to live, level was quite high since we even asked for pro level stuff to our parents. Was the only sport that I actually loved and practiced every week, but everyone grew up, moved out, and the closest place that has it to me is a 1 hour drive with traffic.
Motorcycling. I live in a dense urban area and the traffic here is nightmarish. It takes me like 2+ hours to reach good riding roads, and that’s more time than I’m willing to invest these days. I’ll still use it for short city errands but I’ve noticed a drastic drop off compared to say five years ago.
Maybe consider a bicycle? Similar enjoyment but better suited to dense cities because you’re allowed to go on multi-use paths and other places motorcycles aren’t.
I do bike, but it’s not one of my passions. Very different experience than a motorbike :)
As a kid I had a friend who modified his bike to make motorbike sounds, could this provide the experience you are looking for?
🤣
Appreciate the thought but I don’t think so. The cornering and getting s knee down are the things I miss most.
Satellite and space tracking. Satnogs with some custom hardware.
I’ve done it for a number of years, helping citizen scientists all over the world. But because of the cuts and less and less people getting into the hobby, its been hard to keep being motivated.
Took down the setup a bit ago for some repairs and haven’t put it back. Probably won’t.
Yeah, same when it comes to reading. All of my other hobbies involve making things, and I don’t ever dedicate time for reading anymore. I don’t have time for any other hobbies anyways right now.
Gaming has left me with this always connected, forced multiplayer so there’s some fucking reason to justify the need bullshit. Diablo 4 is fucking garbage because of the need for engagement, ladders, endgame content, and I fucking hate it.
Just give me games I can obsess over for a month and beat and be done. And I probably still will replay it fifty times over the next decade because there’s nothing as good anyway (Hi, Baldur’s Gate and Skyrim).
I find myself flooded with new releases I don’t care about, but then go and spend 2 months playing through all of mass effect instead
All hobbies that don’t involve a screen. I’ve been having serious mobility issues, where standing for more than a few minutes is painful and I leave the house only in my wheelchair. It makes going to restaurants, concerts and events difficult. Makes going on hikes impossible or even existing in parks more painful than pleasurable.
Appreciate your legs y’all. :(
I used to be involved in my local Warhammer/Wargaming scene. Like full bore painting, modeling, 3d printing, doing tournaments, having a bi-weekly club. Unfortunately I fell on hard times and then my baby brother had a baby. So had to sell most of my stuff. We live together that’s why. Can’t have resin printers around a newborn. That’s a super hard no. I kept the paint because I used oils instead of acrylics, but that never turned into canvas painting. I sold all my armies across like 7 different game systems. The only games I have left are Infinity and trading card games. It’s all just sitting in boxes in the attic right now.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to doing any of it any time soon. I got to get a job and a car. I wanna move to a new city, but unfortunately that city is turning into a fucking ICE stomping ground. One of my friends in the scene recently died and at his funeral almost our whole social group showed up. Sounds like we all scattered and haven’t been participating in hobby as much. Most people found other things to do.
It was a great run. About 10 years of a social life and something to do. At one point you think it’s never gonna end because it’s so good, but life will find a way. I hope to get back to it some day.
Honestly, ALL of them. I used to make beer. Used to have one batch fermenting while another was carbonating, but it’s been years since I even thought about getting all that stuff out. I really don’t drink much anymore, so that may be part of it. I also have a closet full of board games, but just getting the pieces out and setting up the board just feels like it isn’t worth all that effort.
I’ve slowed down brewing beer too. I travel for work more and get to try more small breweries all over the place. But I’m still glad I have the home brewing behind me, I know way more about styles, ingredients, processes than I would otherwise.
I’ve been thinking about how to make the tasting more of a hobby. Like keeping a notebook with descriptions of beers I’ve tried and what made me pick up a particular brew. There are apps for logging beers but I’m not looking for that, it’s too gamified. I don’t want digital badges for drinking beer!
