MelonLand Forum
Interests Zone => ⚚ ∙ Life on Earth! => Topic started by: SeaSlugUFO on January 25, 2025 @235.80
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Sometimes I get recommended youtube videos where it's about new hobbies to try. I find myself wanting to add another hobby onto my charcuterie board of activities but it just seems like I'm constantly recommended the same stuff over and over again. It's the like the same lists keep getting shared. :dog:
When yall are wanting a new activity or a new hobby, how do you search? Where do you get your ideas from? I'd love to learn about more niche hobbies :mark:
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As my new year's resolution, I've decided to attempt some new hobbies! This year, I want to dip my toes in "Cyanotyping (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotype)" and "Circuit Bending (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_bending)".
Both of these I've discovered over the course of consuming several medias in the last few years, mainly just watching other artists. :dog:
I would say... think about some standard hobbies or things you do enjoy and start fragmenting off of that... Websurfing and Wikipedia-diving really helps a lot. YouTube reccommended is a great place to get some interesting ideas too. I discovered circuit bending a few years ago because I was really into synthesizers for a year and a band I really liked happened to use it in their music!
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I tend to branch off of stuff I'm already interested in. I was already into archival, and fandom, so getting into book-binding to preserve my favorite fanfics offline felt like a natural step. People also tend to get interested in things their friends are passionate about (I've influenced a few friends of mine to get into Neocities this way).
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i try to consume a lot of art from other people to inspire new ideas. i find people who's art i enjoy and then i kind of just get ideas from watching them create stuff. for example, i saw someone decorate the inside of some seashells, which inspired me to get two shells and glue a small rectangle of paper between them, accordion folding it to make a little mini book type thing. for me personally inspired people inspire me lol. and the more you work your creative brain the less you have to work to be creative. it's also good to just branch off from your current interests, i like to collage so i've really wante to get into making my own paper, but i haven't gotten the materials to try it out quite yet :P.
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I've never really searched for hobbies, they just organically happen, so this isn't even a concept I've ever had to consider.
But if you want new hobbies just think of stuff that interests you and go from there.
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yeah, with adhd i'm generally more concerned about *avoiding* developing new hobbies - i'm winning if i lose interest before spending money on them
the "organic" ones are what seem to stick with me most, where i wiki/youtube binge something or it's an offshoot of an existing hobby, or it's something a friend is into and i can do it with them.
book club? love reading already, go for it, bring a friend. photography? watched youtube videos for six months before i even started making bad decisions on ebay. spend $80 on knives and wood to get into whittling, out of nowhere? they sit in my closet.
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Ive gotta ask where you’re going online to be seeing the same few hobbies over and over. Ive come across doll customising, book binding, soap making, wikipedia editing, site coding, all sorts of collections, and probably a few dozen other things just through being nosey online. maybe see what your friends and/or family are into? even if you don’t get into what they show you, you could use it as a starting point or inspiration.
as for finding things that ‘click’ for you, I suppose all you can do is try things regardless of whether you think you’ll like them. it’s kinda boring for a while, but it always gives the most rewarding outcomes, at least for me. :P
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Ive gotta ask where you’re going online to be seeing the same few hobbies over and over. Ive come across doll customising, book binding, soap making, wikipedia editing, site coding, all sorts of collections, and probably a few dozen other things just through being nosey online. maybe see what your friends and/or family are into? even if you don’t get into what they show you, you could use it as a starting point or inspiration.
as for finding things that ‘click’ for you, I suppose all you can do is try things regardless of whether you think you’ll like them. it’s kinda boring for a while, but it always gives the most rewarding outcomes, at least for me. :P
Friends and family: Knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, photography, cross stitch, bookbinding (I do most of these)
Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr: Soap making, slime making, blogging, plants
I have never heard anyone recommend wikipedia editing as a hobby, that's definitely a new one :skull:
I've been learning html lately and slowly building my site so that's taken a lot of time lately. It's just good to have other resources for when I'm up for trying something new and I don't know where to start.
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I think my problem is moreso how do I balance hobbies. Like, which ones do I schedule on what days to do it? I like webcrafting, drawing, gaming, reading etc but I have a limited time only reserving most things to weekends instead of week nights. I wish I could get into more hobbies but I have to balance the ones I have.
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Friends and family: Knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, photography, cross stitch, bookbinding (I do most of these)
Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr: Soap making, slime making, blogging, plants
I have never heard anyone recommend wikipedia editing as a hobby, that's definitely a new one :skull:
I do have a wikipedia account (that i made recently), and will definitely edit stuff if I notice it's off, but I don't see how people do it as a "hobby".. I find it pretty boring and too much like school work.
I think my problem is moreso how do I balance hobbies. Like, which ones do I schedule on what days to do it? I like webcrafting, drawing, gaming, reading etc but I have a limited time only reserving most things to weekends instead of week nights. I wish I could get into more hobbies but I have to balance the ones I have.
This is my main problem with a lot of stuff I'm interested in, like even with stuff like video games I get too attached to one and then feel bad when I realize I haven't played x other game in forever then I try to make a schedule then that falls through because I'm bad at keeping up with it and etc etc
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I stop and pick up my hobbies from time to time or recycle them. If it's been a while since I did let's say hobby A, then I return to it. I think I always have some set hobbies. However if I find something new that looks interesting to me (they usually come to me via exposure on the internet), I try giving it a shot. If I like it, then awesome, new hobby unlocked!
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I'm also in the "not having to search for hobbies" boat. I kind of just "collect" hobby ideas as I go along, and choose from those when I want to do something new. Sometimes I try them immediately, and sometimes I file them away as something to explore another time. Sometimes my first attempts go badly, and I get discouraged and quit. But they'll remain somewhere in the back of my brain and when the time comes to explore them again, sometimes many years later, I'll get back to it.
When I was a kid, I wanted to learn crochet, particularly amigurumi. I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I gave up. In my mid-twenties, some friends inspired me to attempt crochet again, and this time I was actually able to pick it up very quickly. (I think it helped that in the time I spent away from the craft, more learning resources popped up that were better suited for me than the books I had in my childhood.) I haven't done much in the way of amigurumi yet. I guess I'm kind of saving it for when I want to expand my skills. Web development has been similar for me: I wanted to learn it as a kid, but got overwhelmed and discouraged, and am just now trying it in my late twenties. I haven't given pixel art another shot yet (another childhood interest that went hand in hand with web development for me) but, again, I'm sort of leaving that for when I want to dive into something different.
Sometimes I get really into a hobby and just stop for one reason or another, but I take it up again at some point because I know I liked it (and I pretty much never get rid of hobby things, so it's usually still waiting for me somewhere in the house anyway). I find that it's pretty natural for my interest in certain activities to ebb and flow over time, and I no longer feel guilty about temporarily abandoning a hobby.
Since you already have some hobbies, perhaps the best/easiest thing is to keep exploring those and see what comes naturally as an extension of those interests. Just as an example, if you knit, maybe you can try to master (or at least become competent at) a new-to-you technique, maybe even one that intimidates you. Or maybe you can try something related, like felting.
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I do have a wikipedia account (that i made recently), and will definitely edit stuff if I notice it's off, but I don't see how people do it as a "hobby".. I find it pretty boring and too much like school work.
I'm not SUPER active on my wikipedia account either, but my understanding is it's a bit like having a fansite. You get to point at the wiki pages you changed and say hey, I knew that fact, that edit to a character or game that corrected a thing was ME! It feels special, like you get brownie points for knowing a lot. I've also heard (this one I don't have a source for) that the site users often end up being neurodiverse somehow, bc the majority of us tend to enjoy being pedantic and correcting people :p
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I've honestly... never looked for new hobbies? I've always had the same few hobbies, those being writing, reading and gaming, with personal sites and coding as a new one after literal years of the others being there. I used to do sports and was active a lot when I was younger, but nowadays I don't really have the desire for it much beyond walking my dog. I think that when you have established hobbies that you love and enjoy doing, there isn't a need for a new one unless something just clicks with you right away.
I've definitely tried other things, mostly craft-related like sewing and knitting, but they never really stuck with me.
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I don't look at youtube or any videos honestly. I've picked up "pony beads" by myself while wandering in a craft shop. I bought a handful with wire thinking that beads looked cool and I've always wanted to try but never had the courage to. I fiddled a bit with it, did some tests with my limited quantity to see if it stuck or if my interest would vanish over a month.
(I usually get interested for a month more or less so I never buy expensive stuff or big quantities to avoid wasting too much money...)
It stuck over a month and I bought a bit more since it's not that expensive. Finally I went to youtube with a specific request on how to tie knots and the names of complex builds. I saved a handful of videos that explain properly how to put the thread through the beads on my computer and when I need then I just look these videos even if I don't have internet. Nowadays I'm still making bracelets and small pendants to hang around or use as a keyring decoration.
Youtube videos and blogs will make me think I need expensive stuff to start a hobby or that I need advanced knowledge or super-duper important tips that ends up being common sense 99% of the time. If anything it often made me give up before starting because I know Youtube will recommend at some point a video of someone super skilled with years of practice or investment in the hobby and I will feel like I'll never reach that level or that it's not even worth beginning since others are already super good, etc etc.