this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Simple Living
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Live better, with less
Ideas and inspiration for living more simply. A place to share tips on living with less stuff, work, speed, or stress in return for gaining more freedom, time, self-reliance, and joy.
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It is less important that our hobbies are something that we are "not obliged to do" than that we are actively engaged in them.
Many people spend their free time in activities of passive consumption - watching TV, shopping and doing packaged, purchased "activities". The only active component is searching for the next thing to consume.
An actively engaging hobby is very different, it involves growth and learning. Many hobbies can be engaged in either passively or actively - think of the difference between a photographer who goes out every weekend to take photos and improve their technique, compared to one who spends hours researching and purchasing equipment but rarely "finds" the time to actually take photos.
The real difference between them is the mindset, and that can be applied to things you are obliged to do as well. My hobbies tend to be extensions of things that are necessary - cooking, gardening, sewing. All can be approached as necessary chores, but an approach of active engagement turns them into hobbies. Even scrolling the internet can be turned into a hobby - although I'm not sure if moderating a group and trying to learn enough javascript to automate things will make me a better person or lead to madness at this point!
I guess my argument is that it is not doing things outside of what we are obliged to that is important, it is doing more than we are obliged to do. It does not matter whether that "more" is different things, or things we need to do done in a different way.
I agree with you in the benefits of being "actively engaged", but at least for me I would add two points.
They don't need to be productive activities, like cooking. Some people feel like they have to be productive even in their free time. It's fine but there's no need. And if you like learning an instrument without the intention of joining a band, that's perfectly ok.
Also, you're allowed to be bad at it. It's just a hobby.
I agree completely with both those points.
Absolutely! I also made a post a while back that expands upon this. I feel that who we are is best defined not by what we do for work, neither by what we consume for recovery from work, but by what we do in our free time that we have a deep interest in. I also have noticed how much this is lacking in the people around me as of late (try having a conversation with someone new that isn't about either work or TV!) and I really chalk it up to how draining work is. Most people have to work very hard or long hours to make ends meet because housing is so expensive now, and that leaves little time or energy for anything beside basics of life or rest.
And trust me, moderation can absolutely lead to madness if you let it get away from you. I'm hoping this group stays small and authentic.
I've been thinking a lot about what makes for a good group since I moved to Lemmy. Small and engaged is what I came up with, and authentic is definitely part of that. A lot of people's normal response is to look for the biggest group for everything, but I believe once a group passes a certain size it loses the ability to have good constructive discussions - at best you get a core group participating and a lot of people who just watch, but more often you lose the space for anything exept superficial conversations as everything that is not new gets lost in the volume.
It's a pity Lemmy does not allow for subgroups, as that would be a good option for larger groups. The best options I have come up with so far are including weekly themed posts, and ongoing posts for specific topics linked from the sidebar so they can be kept visible. I think moderating a group well involves being part librarian, not just the rules enforcement most people focus on.