Finding new interests without social media

[KiwiMeowo]

Recently, I have reduced my use of social media due to the amount of negativity and stress it gives me. Now I usually spend time on indie web, listen to music, play computer games and stuff in my free time.

However, I noticed an issue, which is I haven't found a major interest in a long time.

In my life, I had fixations on media such as anime and games, and I relied on social media such as Twitter and Youtube to check out some new fanart and news on my fav medias. And now, the fact I stopped using Twitter as frequently makes me harder to see cool fanart, discussions or even find new media to obsess over.

While I like OC stuff and some hobbies that doesn't involve social media (such as drawing and coding HTML), I feel kinda uninspired recently and really wish I have something to geek over.

Considering how many people here may be trying to reduce social media from their life as well, how do you find new interests, and how do you find other people who share the same interests?

[fairyrune]

the library. really! 

libraries typically have many clubs advertised, even if they don't host them themselves. there's clubs for reading, of course, but also for craft, gaming, music, coding, etc. etc.

also, would you consider a forum to be "social media"? if you're already interested in something, there's a forum for it. if not, go browsing hobby forums! check threads out in here, and if something sounds cool to you, go see if there are forums or pages about it!

[hikatamika]

Maybe those tracker sites for media could help, as well.

Goodreads, Letterboxd, AniList, whatever a video game equivalent of those would be.
I tend to avoid the social features on those sites, and just use them to stay aware of new releases in genres I like.

The library is good for discovering what may be your next hidden gem, even if it isn't a new release, or currently within the hype cycle.

[fablefound]

hard vouch for media tracking/archiving websites: i love them a lot! the ones i have in my rotation are...
- storygraph: like goodreads but not owned by amazon and lots of QoL improvements. it doesn't pressure you to use the app socially too much, and often has giveaways and nice recommendatoins.
- rateyourmusic: i use this thing so much it's unreal. goodreads/storygraph but for music. the community's a little pretentious and kinda sticklers about rules/formatting, but if you're just using it to rate and archive music you enjoy, it's great. also, it'll make you a feed of all the musicians you follow so you never miss their new releases again.
- letterboxd: we all know letterboxd. goodreads/storygraph for movies. love her.
- backloggd: letterboxd for videogames. i haven't used this much but it's neat.
- serializd: someone's trying to make letterboxd for tv again, and i think they might actually stick the landing this time because i really quite like how it's set up. also i like that anime isn't pointlessly segregated to its own websites anymore.
also going to third the recommendation of the local library. see what events they put on, and also see what fun sites and apps you can get access to through a library card--mine gives me access to free ebook renting through libby, free movies and tv through kanopy, and also access to craft classes and workshops through creativebug. :]

[littlelum]

I don't have too many suggestions, but I might as well throw some into the mix:

HowLongToBeat: Like Backloggd, but it focuses on providing estimates on how long a game takes. Also has a forum that still gets activity.

... I guess that's it.

I should use my local library more...

[Nael]

May I suggest....

- Tumblr. Is it a social media? is it not? I personally don't consider it one but I know the definition is all over the place but....! Tumblr doesn't have an algorithm pipelining tragedy and bad vibes to your screen, initially you will have to do a bit of digging on the tags to find stuff you like but I swear it's super easy and once you are done you will have a never ending influx of nice stuff. I have abolished all social media from my life but I still use tumblr because it gives me only pretty stuff. There are blog that post random anime/manga pictures or figures, etc, those always work for me to find new stuff. I can post blog recommendations if anyone is interested~

-Pluto.tv. Free online television, you can tune into a channel that streams random anime, or cartoon, or movies so you can idle watch as background noise until something catches your interest.

Apologizes if my suggestions are a bit stupid but I wholeheartedly use them for finding new stuff on a low-effort way

[arcus]

Blogs and their blogrolls, forums, lurking random personal sites and skimming the about section, and Steam's activity page to see what my friends buy and wishlist.

• Knockout: Has two sections for video games, good for what's currently popular and some hidden gems.
• AUTOMATON: A Japanese news site that also focuses on English language games and net culture, has an English version but it's less active. Focuses too much on AAA games and Twitter at times.
• Mogura Games: Mostly focused on Japanese indie games, they're also on Steam as a curator.
• The Virtual Moose: A very good blog for finding out about new adventure games. Check out their list of links for more blogs.
• Neocities' search: Neocities has a search feature in addition to tags, that for some reason is hidden near the end of this page.
• Art sites: Sheezyart and various boorus. Pixiv still exists but it's flooded with spam.
• COMPASS LINK: An index of Japanese personal sites. 二次創作 is the tag for fanworks.
• The General Interests section: There's threads here that are handy for finding new interests.

 

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

May I suggest....

- Tumblr. Is it a social media? is it not? I personally don't consider it one but I know the definition is all over the place but....! Tumblr doesn't have an algorithm pipelining tragedy and bad vibes to your screen, initially you will have to do a bit of digging on the tags to find stuff you like but I swear it's super easy and once you are done you will have a never ending influx of nice stuff. I have abolished all social media from my life but I still use tumblr because it gives me only pretty stuff. There are blog that post random anime/manga pictures or figures, etc, those always work for me to find new stuff. I can post blog recommendations if anyone is interested~

Im prettyyy suuuure that the guy who owns that site was doing some shifty stuff around ai and transphobia. someone mentioned this in the forum a couple months ago
Also, https://www.kanopy.com/en is a similar idea. It uses your library card as registration. Pretty cool.
If you wanna find a hobby or something to take up your time, you gotta looks through magazines. Theres always someone making something cool that they show off on them.
But really, finding something cool to like isnt something that can be forced. You usually find this stuff out because someone else mentions it in one place, so you check it out, get interested, and you either love it or hate it. Like I wouldnt have found Psykosonik if it wasn't for X-Kaliber 2097, and I wouldnt have found X-Kaliber 2097 if it wasn't for Biometal, and I wouldnt have found Biometal if it wasnt for Tempest 2000, and I wouldnt have found Tempest 2000 if it wasn't for AVGN

[Corrupted Unicorn]

  Thank you for bringing this up, and for your patronage in the mission of keeping people off the mainstream for as long as possible 

I can't stress libraries enough. Even if you find your local one kind of lame, I'm sure it'll have books no longer available in stores. For free.

Meeting different people. Hobby clubs. People outside your age range (older folks tend to like me for some reason). They prolly aren't into anime and videogames, but they'll be into things outside your comfort zone for sure. If you find someone who is as passionate as you about something you don't understand, keep them close. I've met two people like this: my Light&Texture teacher with a passion for brutalist architecture (may he rest in peace) and my Theatre teacher with a love for Spanish dramaturgy. This week we read together a local satirical play that's no longer printed in stores and rarely available on the Internet. A treasure.

Yes, more undercover "go outside" advice, but sometimes just going for a walk will bring you new perspectives. Meet new people. Find something that's out there, just not overmarketized to hell and back just yet.

Outside the physical world and in the virtual one? Archive.org. Write any keyword you're interested in (economics, surrealism, Pokemon, whatever) and let it surprise you. Download everything you want to keep.

[Nael]

Im prettyyy suuuure that the guy who owns that site was doing some shifty stuff around ai and transphobia.

That's fair, it's always good to keep an open eye for what companies are doing while on the other hand all companies are fated to have at least one terrible person on it's upper rank. I don't think tumblr is perfect but I personally find it very easy to curate the content you want and don't want to see, in my opinion its the lesser evil but definitively not for everybody. I also appreciate how extremely low-effort it is to participate, libraries are amazing, clubs are amazing, but they can be very energy demanding for some people.

[rolypolyphonic]

I don't really get 'new' interests wholesale, I just iterate on existing ones. Of course, nothing wrong with diversifying, but I think messing around with things you already know or like to do just feels more interesting to me, and besides, usually in the process I do end up learning new things that lead to new interests.

Since one of my main hobbies is writing, researching about things relevant to my story tends to lead me to rabbit holes of information where I can pick up new things that sometimes lead to new interests. Some of newest interests like Polish culture, Filipino history, vintage technology, musicall composition etc. are all direct results of me just writing like I normally would.

In my particular situation I was already interested in something that was niche from the start (research into particular conditions/identities that are not very well-known) and I met people from that, and sometimes find new things to look into based on what they are into. So besides looking for 'new' people you could also see what the people already in your life are into? 

[Cele]

While Tumblr of right now isn't as bad as some others, I've seen enough stuff on there in the past 13 years I've been on the site that I can never quite turst it. Horrible callout stuff, acephobia etc have happened and I guess still happen (even if less). Has brought a lot of stress for me. (Not that the indieweb hasn't.)

Anyways, I'd say the library too because I've found a lot of new excitement from things I've read from books recently. Not that I have many people to share that stuff with, but social media wouldn't help since they're not active topics of discussion there either. In addition, there are some really nice books about learning new skills like handicrafts.

I haven't been able to leave social media though (I still use Tumblr too lol), for example I regularly check the tag of my favourite ship on Twitter and passively follow some small Discord servers. I don't consider Youtube social media.

[Dequake]

My favourite suggestion? Subscribe to some magazines!

Ok well, you of course need to already 1: have an interest in something tangible that people would make a magazine about and 2: actually find the magazine. But as people said: Check the library! Not just for books, but their magazine corner as well! There's lots of semi-niche magazines about anything really. History, science, motors, video games, music of all kinds, etc etc. And the best part? Once you have one of those magz in your hand, you'll find tons of other subgenres of interesting things inside it! It's like a blooming onion of interesting topics! And once you find a magz that you really like? They're pretty cheap, and it's so wonderful to read them once a month. I personally subscribe to Downbeat, since I'm a big fan of jazz, and it keeps me up to date on upcoming albums, new and interesting artists, and things of that nature. It's wonderful! I don't have to wade through the algorithm to find new stuff. I mean, there's experts already compiling that stuff for you to look at, cause they love it just as much as you!

I'm sure there's many more good alternatives, but that's one that I don't think has been said in this thread at least.

[arcus]

Any updates KiwiMeowo?

Im prettyyy suuuure that the guy who owns that site was doing some shifty stuff around ai and transphobia. someone mentioned this in the forum a couple months ago

You're thinking of the car hammer explosion incident and the deal to sell posts for AI training data. There's also two serious lawsuits against him among things.

The site has serious moderation issues that are even worse now thanks to layoffs and him moving 136 employees away from Tumblr due to money issues with the site.

[KiwiMeowo]

Any updates KiwiMeowo?

Yes, I've seen some suggestions in this topic. Sadly, there are many suggestions I didn't do. However, I have also done other things that help with my boredom.

Many of you suggested the library. While I am lucky to live near one, I don't see much current events hosted there. And as for borrowing books, I feel somewhat stuck on what books to borrow. I have a somewhat negative experience with reading books (due to school and my bad luck of picking books I dislike), so perhaps you guys can share what types of books you enjoy?

My favourite suggestion? Subscribe to some magazines!

While I have learnt the concept of magazines since primary school, I never really explored them. Maybe I should check out the library for magazines next time!

You guys also mentioned finding people who are also passionate about something. From where I live, at least from the people I often interact with, I either couldn't really bond with them beyond just acquaintances who say hi sometimes, or they don't share their personal hobbies a lot, I'm really bad at socialising am I?

• Neocities' search: Neocities has a search feature in addition to tags, that for some reason is hidden near the end of this page.
• Art sites: Sheezyart and various boorus. Pixiv still exists but it's flooded with spam.
• COMPASS LINK: An index of Japanese personal sites. 二次創作 is the tag for fanworks.

 

I have been looking at other people's personal sites lately, there are webrings which are themed after my interests (Cookie Run, Umamusume) so that is very nice. I find it quite fun looking at their blogs especially, I like listening to people rambling. Also I didn't know there is an website indexing art sites, that's very cool!

Speaking of Pixiv, I remember I used to look for fan art there, but stopped because Cookie Run tags isn't as active. I should try looking for more art sites!

May I suggest....

- Tumblr. Is it a social media? is it not?

I occassionally use Tumblr to look at cute fan art. I would never use it as my main social media site, due to the amount of spam bots, I do see the appeal of the algorithm though.

Speaking of social media, I have altered my relationship with it a bit. For a while, I avoided going to Twitter. But recently, I have used it to look at fan art of my favorite media, but this time more mindfully. Because of Twitter's awful algorithm, it often shows upsetting posts. For some reason, after I returned after not using it for a month, it has improved a bit, majority of the posts are related to my interests!

So I established a rule which just strike three you're out, if the algorithm shows me posts that are upsetting, unrelated to what I like, or just has bad vibes, I still stop using it for a few days. I also look for cool fanart by using tags and search results instead of the for you timeline.

And that's my update on finding hobbies. Not exactly a lot changed, but yea life is nice