Hobbies — A Passion or an Addiction?

Summary

The author reflects on the nature of hobbies through personal experiences, detailing a lifelong pattern of intense engagement with various activities followed by a loss of interest, suggesting a tendency toward passionate rather than lifelong pursuit of interests.

Abstract

The article "Hobbies — A Passion or an Addiction?" explores the author's journey with different hobbies from childhood to adulthood. Starting with a curiosity about the etymology of the word "hobby," the author delves into a series of personal anecdotes about collecting stamps and coins, solving jigsaw puzzles, and growing cyclamens, among others. Each hobby is vividly described, along with the circumstances that led to its abandonment. The author ponders whether these intense but fleeting passions reflect an addictive personality or simply a zest for new experiences. Currently, the author enjoys learning languages, playing online scrabble, and writing stories, while also engaging in activities like playing board games and reading. The article, prompted by Ellie Jacobson, serves as a reflective piece on the transient nature of personal interests and invites readers to consider their own relationship with hobbies over time.

Opinions

The author finds the etymology of the word "hobby" interesting and relevant to their own experiences with hobbies.
Stamp and coin collecting, jigsaw puzzles, and crosswords were childhood hobbies that the author carried into adulthood but eventually abandoned for various reasons.
The author expresses pride in successfully growing cyclamens, a hobby that ended when they were unexpectedly left unattended.
Current hobbies include learning new languages, playing online scrabble, and writing stories, which the author suggests may not be permanent interests.
There is a sense of humor and self-awareness in the author's admission of becoming easily absorbed in new hobbies, only to lose interest over time.
The author distinguishes themselves from others who maintain the same hobby throughout their lives, implying that their approach to hobbies is more about the intensity of engagement than long-term commitment.
The author questions whether their pattern of engaging with hobbies indicates an addictive personality, yet they seem to embrace the variety and change in their interests.
Reading is considered more than a hobby; it is presented as an essential part of the author's life, with a preference for memoirs, historical fiction, and true stories.
The author playfully suggests that activities like watching movies and wine tasting could be considered hobbies, reflecting a broad and inclusive view of what constitutes a hobby.

A writing prompt from Flint and Steel

What is a hobby? Where did the word originate? It’s an unusual word and I decided to research it. You could say words are one of my hobbies.

“The modern sense of “a favourite pursuit, object, or topic” is from 1816, a shortening of hobbyhorse: in this sense, which is attested from 1670s. Earlier it meant “a wooden or wickerwork figure of a horse,” as a child’s toy or a costume in the morris-dance, the connecting notion being “activity that doesn’t go anywhere.” Hobby as a shortening of hobbyhorse also was used in the “morris horse” sense (1760) and the “child’s toy horse” sense (1680s).”

Interesting. Well, at least to me.

Stamp and coin collecting

I’ve always had hobbies. As a child, I collected dolls and progressed to stamps and coins. My interest in collecting stamps and coins persevered into adulthood, but suddenly stopped when I had my fifth child. He was overdue, so to keep myself busy I spread out all of my stamps that needed sorting, removal from envelopes, etc. on my office table and never looked at them again. Weird, I know. I was 38.

Jigsaw puzzles

Another hobby I had as a child was jigsaw puzzles. This started when I was 8 and caught pneumonia. I completed jigsaw after jigsaw and then messed them up and did them again. I enjoyed this hobby well into adulthood with increasingly more difficult puzzles. I was working on a large puzzle on my coffee table when my nephew came over and wrecked it. That killed my love of jigsaws. I’ve never touched one since.

Growing cyclamens

In 2004, when I broke my ribs, my girlfriend gave me a white cyclamen. It survived and flourished and I started propagating them from the seed pods the plant threw out. I started collecting different colours until I had a whole plant stand filled with them. I was proud of my cyclamens as they were the only thing I had not only managed to keep alive but grow successfully. This hobby died a sad death when I travelled to Europe for 4 months at the end of 2011. Every single one of my cyclamens died. My daughter overwatered them!

My current hobbies

So I don’t collect stamps or coins or do jigsaws or crosswords any longer. What are my hobbies these days? Learning new languages would have to be top of the list. Playing online scrabble a close second. I also love playing pub trivia. I’m pretty good even if I do say so myself.

Writing stories is my latest hobby. Who knows how long it’ll last? But it keeps me off the streets. Oh, and I did get addicted to Candy Crush for a few years, which was such a time waster, but helped me sleep.

I don’t know if you’d call it a hobby, but I love playing board games and play with my family as often as I can. Word games are my favourite. Women my age typically have hobbies like knitting, crocheting, and embroidery. Not me!

I’ve never been great at handicrafts, even less so now. I don’t like to cook, but I do like to eat. Is that a hobby? What about wine tasting? Or should I say wine drinking? Ever since Patrick Swayze and Ghost, I’ve wanted to try pottery, but I think I have enough going on in my life right now without Patrick. I might watch it now. Oh, that’s another hobby. Watching movies.

Oh, I forgot reading! Is reading a hobby or just an integral part of everyday life? Memoirs, historical fiction, and true stories are some of my favourites. And reading stories on Medium, of course.

I’ve always had some kind of hobby at every stage of my life. You might have noticed they last for a few years — I become obsessed with my new hobby — and then something happens and I lose all interest. I don’t know if this says something about my personality — how I become totally addicted to something — but not for life.

Some people have a hobby and it lasts right through their lives. Are you one of those people? Or are you like me — you have a variety of hobbies that have changed over the years?