Ah yes, the old "turn your hobby into a paying career, and you'll never work again" saw. Which in reality usually just becomes "turn the thing you do for play into a job and you'll end up with all work and no play - and often end up hating the thing you used to love, to boot."
So _that's_ why school feels to so many like just preparation for the workforce. "We can't have them notice they never get to rest, so let's allow them to enjoy their work as a treat."
It's a great way to kill your interest in something. I found that out when my folks pushed me into selling my art and I was fully aware it was too niche to sell. I have to fight myself to enjoy my interest and say NO whenever people ask me to make stuff for them otherwise it kills my interest in it for months 😭
I don’t know about that. I was always obsessed with real estate. I even wrote papers about it in college. Once my youngest child turned 8 I decided to get in the field. I was a go getter, still being obsessed. I became a top seller in my town and kept going, and loving it for 20 some years. I eventually had to stop because of health concerns. I miss it every day.
Before I was subjected to Nicole I was living happily, puttering about and casually enjoying a bit of crochet or mending a sock here and there. Now I'm fully infected and waist deep in staymaking, silk ruffling and cobbling. It's a desperate life, feverishly clawing after more information and delving deep into history for techniques to learn, and I have little hope of there being a cure.
There is no cure! And the worst part is,all those around us and the culture itself seem to want us this way. Otherwise, why would they keep encouraging us?❤️🐝🤗
I’m so disappointed that she either don’t seam to care about that company’s practices or don’t research about her Sponsors before accepting their offer
Ironically these future-predictions were more right than they were wrong. They just weren't thinking dystopian enough. In today's economy it is more or less assumed that people will stay in school through around age 25 by way of college. Its just, they didn't foresee that we'd be forcing those students to take heavy debt burdens to pay for it (that cannot be removed by bankruptcy and will take most of their lives to pay off). Similarly, for social welfare programs like food stamps the work-week standard is 20 hours per week, as a significant chunk of the economy cannot employ people fulltime and thus the "part time" becomes the "full time." Welfare programs do not expect the low-ranking employee to have two 20-hour jobs (adding up to 40/wk) because most part time employers ALSO want those employees to be on call 24/7, to bring in without notice when desired and to send home when "labor is high" (term coined in fastfood meaning there's more people on the clock than work for them to do at the moment). Further food for thought: Aprox 60% of the population is employed at all per US labor participation rates. And that counts everyone 16 & up who works AT LEAST 1 hour per month, so once you cut out the people with after school jobs, seniors who do a couple hours here & there for spending money/entertainment, stay at home moms who only want to work during school hours, people who work sporadic part time jobs by choice (or because its all they can get), etc.... you're down pretty close to 40% employment when it comes to the people who have their employment taking up 20-24% of their weekly existence.
We absolutely could pull that off in current times. Productivity and value generated per hour of labor has gone up that much. However we went the dystopian route and all that value generated has gone to the top small percentage of those in power, and regular people are continuing to suffer and struggle to oppress them into being forced to generate even more profit for those at the top. But the prediction is not actually unreasonable.
The threat of lower class free time was that they would get involved in politics, activism and unions. So pushing hobbies to keep people entertained and thinking they were happy was a way to control workers. Back in the mid 70s i was supposed to hire people, my boss who had an MBA gave me a text book on interviewing and analysing people. One of the things they warned about was to reject people who had hobbies like photography or art because they would waste their creative skills and passion on these hobbies instead of work.
In the 90s, we'd ask our manufacturing managers to hire older women with needleworking skills. They'd never listen. Those skills translated well into building small, intricate electronic modules.
Yes, creative fire is notoriously compartmentalized. Allowing someone to live joyfully outside of work surely never beneficially affects their work quality as an employee. /s This sounds like something that could be in the CIA "How to Sabotage Your Workplace" manual.
Interesting. When I first got into the work force in the UK, when a few things were still being manufactured here there was a dying working class culture where everyone did variations of the same thing at the same time in their own time. You went shopping Friday evening and got out of work about 3 so you could do that. Pub with friends Friday night. Saturday morning hobbies, sports were particularly encouraged. Saturday night you spent with family or out with your SO and so on. People at larger employers could even go on vacations at the same time as they would close the works that week and some even went to the same place. It had a comforting assurance about it being part of a larger society but could also be annoyingly restrictive. Wouldn't have occurred to me at the time I was being controlled.
@@jelkel25 yes that was here in the 60s and 70s too. But it was because of options. Friday night was the only evening the stores were open if you were working. Until recently in Montreal everything shut down two weeks in July. That was when all the manufacturers retooled machines, renovated. Construction stopped. That was when I worked overtime upgrading systems. It was easier on manufacturers to shut down completely and let everyone go on holiday then be short staffed all summer.
I've always found it strange that there's a whole category for activities that aren't paid, and that category is looked on as unimportant or self-indulgent simply because it consists of things that are chosed out of interest or love. To my mind, it's those very activities that comprise a person's true life, the real pursuits that feed the soul and form one as the person she should truly be. It's only when we age out of our "proper" role in society that we have the freedom to take part in the things that comprise out true selves, proving Bowie's dictum that "getting old is just the process of becoming who we're really supposed to be".
"You're depressed not because you don't have a job or money but because you don't have anything useful to do" is a sentiment I have been told multiple times in my life as well. And then told to help out in the soup kitchen. As an autistic person with social anxiety and chronic pain. Yes, I'm sure that would have cured my depression for good.
I'm of the opinion that depression takes two forms- the actual brain chemistry problem that gets the most attention, or "shit life syndrome" where circumstances beyond someone's control are so bad that it causes emotional pain. The internet memes/cliches about: "oh, so XYZ is completely terrible for you? Best I can do is give you a pill to try to confuse your brain into not hating life in this realm." The medical/social obsession with "brain chemicals" (that are never named by compound, nor are "normal" versus "abnormal" measurements of them given) is just a convenient cover story for the whole rat-park problem. Its scientifically proven that addiction, suicide, and other similar issues to be driven by the quality of life for those afflicted. Recessions and depressions cause measurable spikes in such things. The UK alone had something like 40,000 statistically abnormal deaths as a result of the 2008-crash.
@@sgath92 I agree with you. They’ve never actually figured out how antidepressants work exactly. The theories that they had about serotonin have been disproven I believe. We’re seeing way more cases of treatment resistant depression and we also know more about the placebo effect.
@@sgath92 Absolutely. For me, I came from a very abusive home too and had been treated like crap and extremely underpaid in every job I had had so far (the worst was 50 cents an hour in some disability programme for very physically demanding labour), my father was dragging me to court over child support he never paid a cent of every couple of months and wherever I went for help I was told I should ask my family. It was always assumed they could and wanted to care for me when in reality it had been my job to do all of the chores and also regulate everyone's emotions going back to when I was still a literal child, and my mother taking most of any money I got from anywhere away from me. I couldn't pay for heating and the winters were quite harsh, couldn't even pay for regular meals, was severely underweight, and I've had extreme averse effects to every antidepressant I ever tried and could hardly pay for those anyway. But yes, my problem was certainly having nothing useful to do. My mother's obsession with me proving my worth by being "useful" all day long and basically being her parent certainly didn't do a number in my mental health in the first place. And when I refused to try more antidepressants as well as do what in my head amounted to slave labour in the soup kitchens (a place by the way that never spared me so much as a crust of bread because I couldn't prove I lived on benefits because I didn't receive any, or pretty much any money from anywhere at all), I was told I chose to be depressed and it was my own fault.
@@TheSapphireSprit - Do you get your info from popular magazine article? Go to PubMed and look for open source peer-reviewed articles about depression.
I've been told the same thing. As a person who has to "mask" at work or lose my job as well as having life long arthritis, my days off are about recovery. Yes, it would be wonderful to be a super involved volunteer,but it's not possible for everyone.
Italians say, “Il dolce far niente” (“that sweetness of doing nothing”), which encapsulates Italian (and Mediterranean) philosophy and approach to life. It is a stark contrast to cultures based on Protestant values, where even free time must be somehow productive because -canonically- idleness was considered sinful and only “work” was pious. Mediterranean cultures, by comparison, see it as a necessity of life to give yourself to delicious idleness: watching the world go by, sitting with others, contemplating, and “being” with no rush, no purpose other than enjoyment, and no concern for the outcome.
Yes! My friend calls my drive to always be doing something *useful or productive* as my 'Protestant Worth Ethic', and I think there is definitely something in that from my Dutch Protestant and Scottish Presbytarian background. Devil makes work for idle hands, and all that. Mainly I make myself clothes from vintage patterns. because it's getting harder to buy actual vintage, and I don't like almost any modern clothes, so it works out ok for me. ;)
The concept of ‘being’ is now a cornerstone of western psychology practice dubbed ‘mindfulness’, turns out that simply being without the need to judge thought or behaviour is an evidence based method to reduce physical and mental distress
Yes and no, I think it’s more a north, south thing than a Catholic, heretic thing. Flanders for example, staunchly Catholic but with none of the Mediterranean ‘lazyness’, Same with northern and southern France. It makes sense to do nothing in a climate that gets so hot and is so abundant, compared to a harsher colder climate up north. You see this on a grander scale gloabally, with the Northern hemisphere as a whole being much more industrious than the Southern.
Three related stories, from when I taught English in Japan (30+ years ago): * In class, I routinely introduced words not usually taught in school. One day it was “hobby,” and each student had to describe their hobby. One student happily said, “My hobby is taking a bath.” We all laughed, and I asked some questions to make sure that it fit the definition of hobby. It was true - taking a bath was, by any definition, his hobby. 🤣 * When I was there, schools were introducing two free Saturdays a month. My adult students were very concerned about their kids, and were all asking me, “What do American kids do on weekends? What activities do the parents organize?” Like those writing articles you cited, they couldn’t imagine the children themselves coming up with ideas for what to do. * One of my adult English Conversion students was having her kitchen remodeled, as a gift from her husband, because she was undergoing cancer treatment. But, though she begged, he wouldn’t let her have a dishwasher (just then becoming trendy). He said, “If you have no dishes to wash, what are you going to do all day?”
That’s really weird that “hobby”isn’t a word usually taught in school, because when I was in school しゅみ was one of the first words we were taught as beginners learning to ask and answer simple questions!
Interesting. In Australia during the first couple of years of the COVID epidemic there were a lot of lock-downs. Social security payments were increased to a level that actually got people above the poverty line, so that people who have been rendered jobless by COVID weren't starving on the streets. What I saw was how productive a lot of people were with their extra leisure time. (Aside: leisure both syllables of leisure rhyme with pleasure in Australian and British English.) I was a plasma donor at that stage (it's voluntary in Australia, you do get a snack afterwards but you're not paid) and I couldn't donate as frequently as I usually would have done because the spots were all booked out by people who had that extra time. People did take the opportunity to get more exercise, mainly in the form of walking or jogging - even if there were a few dogs wearing, "Can't you just leave me asleep, I don't want another walk," expressions. Garbage tips reported receiving more garbage than usual as people took the time to go through and do some cleaning and tossing out things they didn't want. There were the people who took the opportunity to attempt to make sourdough bread or to engage in various crafts. In short, what I saw was that if people have enough money that they don't have to worry about being homeless or where their next meal is going to come from and if they've got a bit of extra spare time, they are going to use it productively. Unfortunately capitalism is getting well and truly out of control again, and so we are losing many of the gains we made in the first 75 or so years of the 20th century.
I retired early and my husband has regularly been asked at work "how is she doing? Is she finding enough to do to keep her busy?" To calm their concerns he cites my hobbies, spinning, knitting etc. A lot of people are simply terrified of having to decide what to do with their time if a big chunk of it isn't decided for them in the form of paid work.
And then there’s the retired woman who say they’re more busy now that they retired and they don’t know how they did everything they did when they worked
I think the thing is that those used to be very decent careers. Sewing was a base skill that with training paid a decent living. The industrial revolution changed that, took away the enjoyable part of work, and returned it to us packaged as a way to fix how depressed we were from boring work- in our own free time.
@@NicoleRudolph not everyone is good at those kinds of things and having a way to provide people who aren’t as good at sewing with clothes is important. Capitalism and infinite growth isn’t great but supplying everyone with food and clothing is there’s a balance not everyone’s a good Gardner I’m definitely not, I would be screwed if I had to grow my own food I think. Farmer boy by Laura Ingles Wilder is a good look at this in my personal opinion.
As a child growing up in the ‘60’s you never told your parents you were bored unless you wanted to be threatened with them finding something for you to do. 😃
I grew up in the 60s and yes this was done to me. I also did it to my children. Funny how they never complained of being bored, as they knew I would find them a job to do. 😂
As I grew into adulthood, I spent (and wasted) a lot of time realising a classic full-time job could never fit me for mental health reasons. It became a goal of mine to find a job that could both support me and afford me ample free time to enjoy my hobbies and get all the rest I can in order to function at a normal level. Now I write and perform musical shows for kids, averaging about 100 days of "real work" (performing) a year, I'm not rolling up in cash but make enough money to live a simple yet comfortable life, and I'm proud to be able to divide the rest of this time between "backstage stuff" (writing, recording, creating sets, costumes a d props), which is just loads of fun for me, my creative hobbies, and family.
Or her discussion with Edith, about what the latter might do to occupy herself with, after the war. Wasn't it something like: 'Gardening? Surely you can't be that desperate??' 😆 Maggie Smith, what an icon. She made us laugh, she made us cry and I will cherish her memory forever.
I had the scene in front of my inner eye when Nicole mentioned the worries of the Upper Class how workers might handle leisure time. Rest in Peace, Maggie!
@@raraavis7782 If I remember correctly, that scene was contemplating what Edith should do with her time, after she put her baby up for adoption, and was feeling quite lost. I think Granny encouraged Edith to start writing again.
I always thought part of the reason that the "working" class, as it were, was kept busy by capitalists was to make them too exhausted to do any organizing and unionizing 😅
As somebody who works 12-hour shifts, getting tired after 8 hours is real. We tolerated it for the overtime pay and three-day weekends every other week. My mother was a stay-at-home mom in the 1960s and early1970s who did sew some of our clothes. She went back to work gradually as we entered school until she was full time by the time we were in junior high and high school. In retirement she now has gardening as her hobby and doesn't sew anymore.
Luckily, it is not as if 12+ hour shifts are normal in situations where there is a constant concern for life or death impacts of mistakes. Say in the medicine or healthcare fields. .... oh. Wait....
Sewing in the mid-60s, as my mom did too, while I was preteen, easy and did not require much fitting. It was a money saver back then. She could make a decent dress for me at about half the cost of store made. When she was a teen friends of hers who sewed all their own clothes were mostly off size enough that it would have been harder to alter than to make from scratch. She made a few nice dresses for herself before me. She also made many of the curtains for the house.
@@kitefan1 Yep, my mom made me a few Halloween costumes and some pajamas and all the curtains for our house. She has seamstress that she also hired on the side that was really cheap at the time but you can’t find those prices now and I’m sure we underpaid.
@@aturtlethatisred Yep. I don't know how many women sew out of their homes for side money now. I'm sure you paid what the sewist told you. The last one I went to has passed away and was of my mother's generation. I went through a phase where I stopped doing my alterations and had more unaltered clothes in my closet than stuff I could wear so I caved to pay for things I can do myself, but don't. Mostly I used dry cleaner sewists and tailors now but I have gone to real tailors. Random factoid: back in the 80s being a trained tailor was a skill that got you immigration status as a trade into the US.
It is interesting to notice that things like knitting, crocheting and sewing are now considered hobbies or crafting. These pastimes were a necessary part of a woman's day to keep her family clothed. We always had home made dresses because we needed them and mom sewed because she had to.
My grandma remembered her excitement when ready to wear clothes became cheaper than home sewn, and she was finally free of having to sew all the kids clothes, all her husbands underwear, and shirts, etc!
Even longer ago, things like knitting was work that men did. Over time it became mainly girls and women doing them. It is nice to see that some men still do these activities as hobbies.
Oh no, those poor women, if they have time to sit down and think or talk to one another, they might start to think about vo--I mean, get really depressed!!!
I really enjoyed this video, but I have to correct one factual error. It is absolutely possible to unionize "people who work with spreadsheets." We can and have done so for decades. The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) exists and was established in 1945. It's part of the AFL-CIO and has roughly 90,000 members. If more offices unionized we'd probably see a pretty serious increase in mental health across wide swathes of the US population.
It seems to me that there is this big disconnect between people who think the arts are a waste of time, resources, and money in education. They constantly cut arts programs and budgets in schools, but fail to recognize that every single advancement people have made has been the result of a creative mind that has saw a solution to a problem that is outside of traditional thinking. Every thing is connected. Creativity drives progress. Very cool video. This isn’t something I’ve thought about a lot, and I have many hobbies and special interests.
Yes to everything being connected! I had a brilliant art teacher in high school who was also really good at maths and she always told us how close those two actually are. Like arts being math and math being beauty in a way. Many people have no idea about university level mathematics and such so they think traditional scienes are 100% formulaic and 0% creative.
@ absolutely. Think about how the golden ratio is used in composition of artworks and architectural design, just to name a couple of things. How awesome for you to have had such an impactful teacher!
I also think it’s very interesting how there’s still a division today between acceptable and unacceptable hobbies, which seem to come down to productivity. For example, creating art or reading is acceptable, but playing video games often isn’t. Something to do with the fact that art and reading are intellectually stimulating and produces something of “value”, while gaming is often viewed as passive and a waste of time.
Also, some people think that certain hobbies and collections should only be for children, such as collecting and playing with dolls. I’m an adult doll collector and enjoy playing them in different ways, including photography, styling hair, and making videos with them. Sometimes I even play with them like I played with other dolls as a kid.
@@wintersprite I love that. I "secretly" love dolls. My parents didn't get me many and I think I was never the kid to properly (role) play with them but nowadays I feel such a draw towards them? I'd love to buy and renovate a doll house, collect certain dolls and yeah, maybe find ways to play with them. I hate that I'm not fully allowing myself to engage in activities that other may find childish or bizarre but hopefully I'll get there and until then I admire people like you who just live their best lives :)
What I find funny is those that seem to criticize gaming are also the same people who think it’s acceptable to be held, and to hold you hostage, in front of a TV. At least gaming is interactive.
This post reveals such a new view to my life! I was in high school in the 60's, knew my grandparents and some of my great grandparents. Everyone was industrious; it was definitely a virtue at that time. My mother stayed at home and taught piano at home. We were always occupied and aimed at getting a university education. I was the last person who could stay at home during my marriage because of economics. I would say that my parent's generation was the last to have a comfortable middle class life in that they had enough money with which to enjoy life, including hobbies; they worked at one job and made enough money for us to feel very comfortable. They would have retired with enough to live comfortably through their days as many of the middle class in their generation. I'm very sad to see that today's generation will not have that level of security. I doubt that many will be able to afford a hobby, let alone a house. This is a very timely post. (I think it deserves the qualification of lecture, as so much thoughtful research and knowledge goes into every one of your posts!) I love this channel as it really makes me think. Thank you so much for your efforts Nicole.
A lot depends on how deep you get into a hobby and how deep you want to get into one. RUclips and social media have made it aspirational to be at the top of any hobby - which, like the top end of sports - is expensive. Some hobbies - like reading - only require a library membership or a computer with internet access
@@charlibrown7745 I would never assume that I was so special that I could to tell someone else how to think. We are all allowed to express and have our own opinions. I've never assumed that I could speak for everyone and I am aware that there are different levels of economic ability.
"stop trying to be woke" lmfao you could have left that bit out and your comment would have been normal are you so jaded that anyone expressing a heartfelt opinion automatically becomes "woke"? just say you think they're lazy or whatever you were really thinking instead of tacking on a cry for attention. Woke doesn't even have a solid definition in this context, i could ask ten different people that use the word and recieve ten vastly different answers. Just say what you mean in words that leave no room for misinterpretation.
It might be different in the USA but I just wanted to add (it doesn't contradict what you said just worth discussing) that Women's History has previously overlooked the middle class. A lot of middle class women worked and ran businesses! The men at the time skipped over writing about them because it wasn't romantic (they liked to think of wives as sitting at the window waiting pathetically for their husbands at home). When women's history as a field of study was founded in the 1970s, they initially focused on working class women, and a lot of work the upper class engaged in was viewed as ladies' charitable causes. Where I live, women were running entire shipping businesses in the 18th and 19th century. Unfortunately they disappear from the record if they get married (everything goes in their husband's name) but considering they could successfully run them when they were single and again when they were widowed? They were definitely still working.
Guess who's currently working on a book proposal and knows entirely TOO WELL that no one has written about the middle class (aside from political approaches).
Super interesting! It’s amazing that, while we do have so much technology, so much less labor (as in tiring physical exertion) needed for preparing food, maintaining clothes and living spaces etc, and for most people’s daily jobs, compared to previous human history, we have not gained leisure the way they predicted in the mid 20th century. The average family needs two incomes, has trouble affording healthcare and childcare, and has limited educational opportunities. The profits of all the technologies are not shared by us all as they imagined! Darn it. This isn’t right.
Before we had radio we had books and these were considered dangerous as well since like Radio and all that came after they were not active and books could rot your brain. On another note we need to bring back more hands on classes in schools. Learning how to make clothing, work with wood, metal or glass. Learning about growing plants, working with animals, survival skills are all great things to teach in schools as students can learn how to practically apply what they learn in academics.
_But, but, how can you do electronically graded standardized tests with three-dimensional hands on things, gotta have those tests for the school funding, you know!_ 🤔 As for me, yes, those kinds of classes are a grand idea and I did take some. Also, teaching household management skills. Even meal planning. Way back in the early 1980s when I was in high school, there was a household management class for several months of the year. And talking about that brings to mind a story from my Mom who was doing some substitute teaching in late 1980s-early 1990s where for a reason I do not remember at this point on the calendar, a 5th grade class went on a field trip to a local grocery store. Mom, who was a midwestern farm girl, then a nutritionist, then a dietician, was absolutely flabbergasted that no one among the students knew where the food items came from before they appeared on the store shelves.
I’m related to people who collected as hobbies in the late 1800s. We have a small box of snuff boxes. Lots of random stuff. Obviously the collections have been split up over time between people. Someone bought Napoleon’s brother’s doorknob (I believe from his New Jersey house. It’s such a weird thing to buy). And also scrapbooking
@@ravenpotter3 Doorknob sounds quite reasonable. Small, cheap, doesn't decay. A real piece of history. It was probably one of the cheapest things at the sale. Is it artistic or crafty. I hadn't thought about body parts (UGH!!!) except for hair in memorial things and studio portraits of deceased people. That makes sense, in a macabre way. I did inherit a gold crown that the grandparents generation has no idea whose it was. I have my last (removed) gold crown, that I intend to sell so that makes sense.
After WWII in the UK everything was rationed and beautiful fabrics and exquisite goods were sold in Liberty’s and other stores for American export only. Our Dad who came home from the war made our clothes from discarded clothes as his mother had been a seamstress and he never used a pattern always hand sewn with smocking or embroidery and they were beautiful even though the fabrics and colours weren’t the norm. Mum knitted our vests and swimming suits with again wool she unraveled from other clothes and they were so sweet with little chicks or bunnies or flowers she knitted into the items. At school we had Domestic Science and the first thing we cut, sewed and embroidered was a tray liner, darning socks and stockings.
My Nana used to work at a `fashion house ‘ in Manchester as a cutter, her best friend Aunty Amy was a seamstress, between the two of them, my sister & I (& Amy’s daughter) were well dressed from the fabric remnants. My Mum and Gran were knitters, so cardigans, jumpers, mittens, & scarfs were made from either purchased wool, or `recycled’ wool from older woollen items. Nothing went to waste. I don’t remember any of them having `idle hands’, even chatting or watching the TV there was the click/click of the needles The first `domestic’ projects I did at school were a stuffed felt duck, a square with various stitches & and knitted (from string) dish cloth as a gift for my mum 🙄. When we moved to Canada we didn’t touch `domestic science’ until grade 7.
I wonder: even today, it’s assumed that women’s hobbies will involve making things (quilts, knitted things, cooking, sewing, embroidery, etc), whereas men’s hobbies will be purely relaxation (watching TV or playing sports). You can see it in things like man-caves full of pool tables and TVs, and she-sheds full of sewing machines or paint and canvases or yarn or whatnot. Even manly hobbies that create things (smithing, woodworking, etc) tend to be ones that are often monetized. Is this a direct development of everything you talked about here?
@@webwarren My paternal grandpa also enjoyed gardening, something that he passed on to my dad and he shared with my mom who is in fact a Master Gardener. Although grandpa wasn’t the best at choosing plants based on climate zones he did try to grow plants native to America (to be fair my grandpa was a computer scientist and mathematician not a botanist). My dad also has bee houses for carpenter bees in our yard and he will try to star gaze if he has energy on occasion.
As someone with D&D as a hobby, man do I wish we had more idle time! Scheduling is 100% the most difficult part of this (or really, any activity that requires multiple people to be free at the same time).
Same here. My Dungeon Master is currently taking a break from the job of dungeon mastering due to other social obligations. And as I offered to do so I will be in charge of coming up with a campaign.
I work from home (mostly with spreadsheets AND I belong to a union) so I have no commute. I only have to clean up after myself, so I find I have a LOT of leasure hours. So I have hobbies. During the pandemic, I painted rocks. I have so many painted rocks! I finally had to stop because I didn't want to let go of them, but didn't have room to keep them. Then I took up sewing again. I've had to pause that because I have more than enough clothes right now. So my latest endeavor is loom knitting. I cannot bring 2 sticks and 1 yarn together in any way, shape or form. Though I do crochet. So I bought a kit aimed at kids and sucessfully made a hat! Now I'm experimenting with a different weight of yarn but the same stitch. I may even try my hand at making socks with the sock loom I bought over a decade ago. Gotta love the hobbies!
Look at Continental knitting. Instead of "throwing" the yard with the right hand, you hold it in the left like crochet. It just clicked for me (a crocheter).
I think in Europe things were a bit different in the first half of the 20th century. Because of WW1 and WW2 it was an important factor to be able to clothe your family yourself or feed them with your own garden. Only in the 50ies and 60ies this changed again. When I was born in 1967 my mother sewed or knitted a lot of my clothes because it saved money for the young family. She was born in the middle of ww2. You saved money and spent on a little comfort.
I wonder if the philosophy of "incorporate your hobby into your business" is the reason why society pressures artists to sell their work. It seems like you can't create anything without someone telling you "you could sell that" as if the only way for anything that we do can be of any value is if we can profit from it.
@@rionka I crochet dolls and I feel like I'm in a never ending cycle of turning down commissions and explaining why I don't want to sell my hobby. It almost makes me want to just not show my work to anyone because I'm constantly being pressured to turn it into a side hustle. Why can't people just have hobbies???
I actually want to earn money through art (which I do, as a salaried artist). But it's still very annoying being told "you should sell that" when I doodle or do art in my free time, as if I wanted to do the labor of marketing myself to sell 50$ pieces earning me less than min wage, or go do a market where I'll spend more than I'll gain. Commission offers, at least you have someone right here, willing to put their money where their mouth is. Not enough money to justify the labor. But money. The people talking but not paying, that's a whole worse breed.
And the flip side of it is some people getting discouraged at their wonky first attempts because what is the value of an ugly painting if I can't sell it? What a way to poison leisure.
As an elementary public school art teacher I find this very interesting that the arts was added to the public curriculum partly because higher ups were worried people would get into trouble from being board.
I’ve been infected since childhood. I have a large room so full of art and craft supplies I can barely walk, and still I buy or collect more from nature. My only hope is to come into enough money to build onto the house lol❤️🐝🤗
I recently have been to a working artist’s studio and a few weeks later rented a studio of my own. While moving I realised that that artist had a lot of paintings in her studio, but I had not so many paintings, but a ton of art materials instead. And I’d rather have a ton of paintings. So I stopped buying art materials until I use up at least half of what I have.
I can’t remember who it was that said collecting supplies is a separate hobby, it may have been Nicole but it made me feel in a searchlight in a jailbreak type of way xx
@@indiabilly Right! Caught red handed…I’d have to agree it’s a separate hobby. And I have to admit, it’s as fun as actually making things. The thrill of the hunt and all that right?❤️🐝🤗
Very interesting topic. If you look back to prehistory and ancient civilizations there's evidence that very ancient people had hobbies as well! They've found all sorts of games/ game boards in ancient dig sites, and even very simple games drawn on cave walls. Hobbies have been around a very long time even though their definition has been different depending on the era.
I'm amused with the scaremongering by the rich that the working class will do bad things, if they get a day off. May day is a hard won bank holiday in the UK. And the traditions we have is; Morris dancing, maypole dancing, sports games, egg and spoon races. And outdoor fares where people sell cakes and jam. 😆 The rich seems to think we're a lot wilder than we are.
I don't know which working class stereotypes these rich people have been frightening themselves with, but clearly I could have been indulging in riotous living and labor agitation instead of knitting and modern dance (to name two of my hobbies). Well, it's early days yet. 😂
17:30 Well yeah in a way they’re right. Wording it as “being depressed because they don’t have anything usefull to do” is a bad way of saying “being deoressed because of a lack of purpose and meaning in your life which you derive from a job that gives you the chance to support yourself and your family.” Their concern also isn’t totally unfounded. Just look at today, we have more free time and more opportunities to persue more hobbies than ever before and what do most people do after work and two hole days on the weekend? Sit in front of a tv and scroll their phones.
Sure, people generally have more time and access to hobbies, but there’s a TON of other things to consider when discussing increased incidence of depression. It’s not just technology bad
@@VultureSkins I never said that. I said living a meaningless life is bad. Modern technology is not the root cause, but simply enhances feelings of jealousy, anxiety, lonelyness by constantly bombarding us with things we should buy or compare ourselves with or that we’re missing out on, or all the horror going on in the world etc etc. It also literally messes directly with your brain and indirectly with your overall health.
I'm 30 and I literally remember back when 6 day work week was the norm. I went to school on saturdays when I was in elementary school! It's crazy to think that my parents worked 6 days and had the energy to play with me and my sister. I could never😂😂
I'm twice your age and only vaguely remember that for services. Most insurance offices, utilities, service industries and so on where open half or a whole day on Saturday. That mostly went away when people could pay by check.
In Scandinavian countries, the concept of Sloyd was introduced in schools to teach craft and handiwork to younger people. It still lives on in woodcarving communities today.
The brain requires the things to do. The brain needs to change the thing often. Now there are many things I know how to do that I don't do right now because other thing needs to be learned 😊
I am honestly surprised that the fear of free time was that people would be bored and depressed and not that the people who weren't rich white men would get ideas and have time to start trying to change the social order.
What they say in print vs. what they think. Every social concern has a false front that actually sounds good in theory. There's definitely hints of the "who knows what they'll do!" in there. But frame it as "we're just worried about YOU" and they have a moral high ground. Ugh.
@@NicoleRudolph Look, had I known the worry was less about overall well-being and more about the possibility of labor/other agitation, I'd have brought my knitting needles to the party in honor of Madame Defarge and others like her. I still have yet to learn knitting in the round, but I daresay hats, gloves, and other small wearables would be a useful contribution to the various protests.
I grew up believing that all my hobbies needed to be productive. I feel like baking? Dad can use some cookies to take to work. Embroidery? Your aunt is redoing her downstairs bath, why not make her a set of guest towels? Outside? We have a half acre of garden that always needs something done. I'm still like that. I don't sew unless I'm making clothing or something else useful, I get my cooking desire out by doing the family food provision from store to plate, and I like to read non-fiction. I don't know that that was a helpful thing for my family to do.
there is STILL a lot of prejudice around allowing the working class to let loose.. drinking to excess when working class does it Is very much looked down upon compared to when rich people "blowoff steam" ... often because of the location each class can afford to do said activity.
"And if thats the case, I'm petty sure my channel would qualify as a super spreader. I apologize if you're now infected." Who me? Naaah. Just ignore the measurements spreadsheet I'm currently working at, for the dress I'll be making for my sister, the new gorgeous fabric I just washed and prepared for a skirt for myself, and the embroidery work I have literally in front of me, for my partner's shirt. Naaah, don't worry, I'm not infected aaat aaaalll..
Thank you for infecting me. Before I stubbled upon your channel and Abby’s channel, I knew next to nothing about sowing, and nothing at all about shoe making and fashion history. Your videos are always really interesting ones! The ones where you make things (clothes or shoes) are so relaxing to watch. I watch them on the week-end with my 8 year old as my 3 year old is taking a nap. It’s our nice quiet cuddle time.
10:07: The relief I felt hearing about working class people not having the time to make a bunch of clothing because they were working and trying to run a house. I feel bad about not having enough time to make more of my own clothes, but I've also just bought less clothing overall and it's nice to feel seen by history.
This explains so much about the gendering of certain hobbies as well! As an aside: as someone who has been in an union of mostly spreadsheet type folks, I maintain hope that mass organization is not impossible.
I love your rabbit holes! I learn all sorts of interesting things. That said you’re definitely a super spreader well honestly the whole RUclips is! Now I want to learn about and try all the thread working crafts! I’m sure I can figure them out! Oh and the historical crafts. I really want to try to do cutwork. I need to improve my button hole stitch…. Yeah I’m hooked sadly I can’t blame you I’ve always been drawn to arts and crafts. So many things so little time!!
this was fun and presented both a plethora of intriguing information, but also an opportunity to get about half of a wool skirt hemmed! Education and hobby! I have too many hobbies.
I have worked in both paying and non paying jobs for at least 48 years. I will tell you, I'm now on disability and it is the worst. Playing instruments, sewing, and reading have been lifelong hobbies of mine. I have had to quit or scale way back all of them. Talk about being bored and depressed. Enjoy your life and don't wait to do stuff.
Strange. My dad grew up in the depression (was a teenager then) and spoke extensively about it. I don't believe he ever mentioned boredom. There was always something to do. Most people had backyard gardens and chickens to provide food. But because everyone was broke, there was lots of community things like cheap or free dances with live bands. Often payment was bartering. Sports were very popular like soccer, rugby, or baseball where equipment was inexpensive and joining was free and no rent for the fields. No.....Dad never mentioned boredom and I believe there were more community based events then than what we have now in the same town he grew up in.
There used to be a subsection of hobbies called "useful arts," where one could produce aesthetic yet useful items in one's spare time; some examples include knitting, cabinetry, and bookbinding. I've been knitting and crocheting since high school (I actually got into it not to avoid boredom, but because it was something new to learn, and I love to learn things). Since then, I'm never without a gift for any occasion, given enough notice. It still amazes people even today that one can bring socks into existence using only your hands, string, and a pair of pointy sticks.
It frustrates me no end when I've made something -- like a simple knitted bandana which is merely half a square dishcloth with a crochet chain edging or a scarf that is just a piece of fabric remnant with a hem -- and people go all google-eyed and say "Oh! I could NEVER do that!" Yes, you could. This is intro-basic stuff that everyone used to know how to do just like we all know typing on a keyboard today.
@@mbvoelker8448 I know the feeling well. When I gift someone, and they tell me they couldn't do that, my answer is always the same: I can fix that. So far, no takers.
I will say, not having a job, can be very detrimental to your mental health as well. People need freetime, but they also need time that is inherently productive. Especially one that gets you out of the house and socializing.
The origins of the term _hobby_ are truly fascinating! In my german mothertongue there's the very old expression "Steckenpferd" for a special interest, surviving in the form of "that's (not) my steckenpferd" if you have some (resp. no) clue about something. "Pferd" translates to "horse" while "Stecken" refers to a stick, staff or broomstick, so "steckenpferd" is referring to the very same toy stickhorses children are playing with and the english expression "hobby" is derived from.
As someone who has been out of work for a while due to chronic illness I can confirm a huge cause of my low mood is boredom and not doing anything purposeful, I have hobbies but am limited by my symptoms, so maybe the people had the right idea about people being depressed because of boredom and lack of hobbies lol
I agree with this, I am unemployed and have a lot of hobbies but still find my mental health has been impacted. Perhaps due to internalised capitalism and thinking what I’m doing is not “productive” and “purposeful”. It’s one thing to believe you are enough just exisiting vs the actual experience of it
I have watched almost all of your videos (some, several times). I find all of them to be important, but it is particularly this perspective that I find eye-opening. It's incredible how many of our modern day societal norms stemmed from Victorian foolishness and greed, and not really upon any sort of understood common or agreed upon logic of humanitarian fairness. Simple, "We can't get them to work 6 or 7 days a week, so let's have them work 5."
I am only at minute 2 but in oldtime Germany, instead of "hobby" they would indeed use "Steckenpferd" for a person´s special interest in his freetime. Literally translating as "Stick horse".
In 1933 there was a study done in the Austrian village called Marienthal. Almost all the people had lost their jobs and the study looked at how it affected the mental health and motivationn of the people, finding that eventhough they had a lot of time a lot of activities outside of work ceased as well.
I remember daydreaming as a child about being able to learn basket weaving at the local community college when I grew up, the last such program closed my 11th grade year, Im now over 40 and Im still mad
I personally want to learn how to weave on a loom. I’m great at embroidery but I always wanted to learn how to weave. As a practicing Wiccan I love the idea of making an item to decorate an altar especially in terms of cloth which I could then embroider on. Unfortunately I can’t afford a loom so I’ll stick to embroidery.
@@mirandagoldstine8548 You might explore backstrap weaving, even using small ridged heddles on a backstrap 'loom' (it's not really a loom like your picturing) would be far more entry level investment, hell if you learned to tie the soft heddles traditional to the form, which are basically scrap yarn you could get started for the cost of yarn and a couple dowels and paint stir sticks! Sometimes its worth remembering our fore-mothers did these crafts with forest findings and kit that packed in a bag! The big English looms create an unnecessary barrier of entry!
@@mirandagoldstine8548 You can make yourself a lap or narrow loom that ties to furniture, doorknob etc. If it's very narrow, say 6 inches you can connect the strips together. I did this as a Girl Scout project when I was in high school. Directions for that were all over the place in the early 70s but I can't find any now. A lot of traditional weaving was done on smaller looms. Papernstitchblog has instructions for a small frame lap loom online. You can buy one on line for under $50. These little ones store in a closet. Once you get into it you might be able to find a bigger second hand one.
Wow, I hadn’t realized people weren’t all making their clothes until you mentioned it. In retrospect, it makes sense that clothesmaking is a super skilled thing that not everyone would be doing. Weaving is a tough craft, for one, but sewing too!
8:55 there's a french magazine for young girls that, in its 1840s issues, had entire articles on how to make dresses. From what notions to buy, which thread to use where, there's 7 pages on sleeves alone! And the author mentions at the beginning that it would be inappropriate for the eldest daughter of a family to spend all her time doing leisure activities like embroidery, when their economic situation and the number of sinlings she has might mean she needs to work more. This magazine also routinely had patterns for clothing all throughout the 1840s (but afaik not in their 1830s ones)
I would definitely have clean coffe cups! I always prioritize my hobbies in the little free time I have (to keep depression at bay), so more free time would mean more time to cook, clean and maybe see some friends!
Well, when this depression passes I need to sew a base for a capsule wardrobe, sew a Christmas dress and finish my first knitted sweater. Because I’m retired.
I'd be sewing a lot more, and drawing, and gardening. Not much different from the early hobbies I see xD Oh and maybe I'd actually have time to clean the house.
With seniors you have to play the okay are they sick, bored or depressed (yes, specific illness) because they live alone, no friends or children, and coming to the doctor is like going to the cinema…. Or any given combination?
Art classes school were torture. Absolutely miserable experiences. It took me decades to be prepared to contemplate such activities without dread. Mind you, boredom was not an issue in my childhood. Fascinating to learn the reasoning behind it.
We didn't create laws for the 8 hour day. We had working class martyrs who were killed fighting for this concession, who forced it from the state. Look up the Haymarket affair in Chicago , so called usa. We owe these concessions to these anar chist martyrs and others who fought, remembered every international workers day in May (may day, as you mentioned). Important history, without which we might still be working longer hours and not have paid sick, holiday or parental leave etc.
15:20 of course they are concerned. Free time to be bored encourages reflection, which triggers philosophy and thinking about morals, justice and power. One moment later, you have a new political party. So you need to present something stimulating to distract the minds of the middle and working class but not stimulating enough to illuminate them with true empowering knowledge.
It was considered a hobby because he never sold anything, but check out the Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens, located in Dover, Ohio. Hand carved, articulated scale models of steam locomotives and other various carvings. Also included is his wife's extensive button collection.😊
Im sorry, WHY can't you unionize "people who work on spreadsheets"? Where I live almost all state workers participate in AFSCME. Clerical workers and tech workers included.
People work for the state like regulated jobs and are more likely to cooperate. There is also a strong anti-union vibe. Partially from work going overseas. And you have the benefits issue. If the state provides all the benefits, you have the problems of benefits being overpriced and over-regulated. The business owners in the US started offering health insurance as a perq during the Great Depression when they couldn't pay more. Small businesses with a handful of employees are difficult to unionize. In terms of the spreadsheets, working from home has the same problems but different. When people work away from the office they don't build the same team esprit de corps as they do face to face.
Wow, if 8 hours of a hobby is bad…my Fridays are definitely going to get me dirty looks lol. I tend to have my sessions, 2 in a row, dnd campaigns on Fridays. Each session is 4 hours and so it amounts to 8 hours. Technically I stay after and just chat with my my fellow players though so sometimes it can be 10-12 hours in total with that included. I play online view voice chat means with a wireless headset, so it isn’t like I’m not taking care of others things or myself while playing dnd. It just means I’m having fun being my character whilst I fold clothes or make myself lunch/dinner, and also feed the dogs. I have tried to consolidate my hobby time to as few days as is reasonable which is why I have this 8hour hobby time, as the rest of my time is usually dedicated to work and chores and so on. Honestly, my dnd time is the only way I can get my family to respect leaving me be to my own devices sometimes (caretaker of less able bodied family members, etc). I think it’s because it requires me to promise to set aside time with other people that I already promised that time to. So…maybe that’s why? I don’t know. But yeah! That’s how I spend my hobby time.
Growing up in the 80s with parents who grew up through the Great Depression, my parents had a go-to solution to my regular problem that I had little to no neighborhood friends. Any time I’d voice I’m lonely, the solution-you just need some chores to do. Work fixes all emotional ailments. Now while there are benefits from physical activity and accomplishment, using it in this way turns loneliness into a life-long struggle with love hunger.
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
Ah yes, the old "turn your hobby into a paying career, and you'll never work again" saw. Which in reality usually just becomes "turn the thing you do for play into a job and you'll end up with all work and no play - and often end up hating the thing you used to love, to boot."
So _that's_ why school feels to so many like just preparation for the workforce.
"We can't have them notice they never get to rest, so let's allow them to enjoy their work as a treat."
Turns out the grindset isn't new, its just awful.
It's a great way to kill your interest in something. I found that out when my folks pushed me into selling my art and I was fully aware it was too niche to sell. I have to fight myself to enjoy my interest and say NO whenever people ask me to make stuff for them otherwise it kills my interest in it for months 😭
Yup I was pressured yo sew professionally when I just wanted it to be fun and now it's way less fun
I don’t know about that. I was always obsessed with real estate. I even wrote papers about it in college. Once my youngest child turned 8 I decided to get in the field. I was a go getter, still being obsessed. I became a top seller in my town and kept going, and loving it for 20 some years. I eventually had to stop because of health concerns. I miss it every day.
Before I was subjected to Nicole I was living happily, puttering about and casually enjoying a bit of crochet or mending a sock here and there. Now I'm fully infected and waist deep in staymaking, silk ruffling and cobbling. It's a desperate life, feverishly clawing after more information and delving deep into history for techniques to learn, and I have little hope of there being a cure.
All we can do is treat the symptoms (buys more wool)
There is no cure! And the worst part is,all those around us and the culture itself seem to want us this way. Otherwise, why would they keep encouraging us?❤️🐝🤗
Definitely a super spreader!! Maybe I should buy more wool!
😂 🩷
❤
3:17 Why do people still take sponsorships from this awful company? Really disappointing :/
Because money talks, bs walks. But that's youtubers for ya. That's my guess.
Yeah, I really wish they hadn't come back, or that creators wouldn't have allowed them to. :/
Frfr bruh
I’m so disappointed that she either don’t seam to care about that company’s practices or don’t research about her Sponsors before accepting their offer
@@Hjg936- yeah. Really surprised her and other Costubers are still hawking their "services."
20 hour working week? full time education for all up to the age of 25? no war, disease, or famine? GOD I WISH
Ironically these future-predictions were more right than they were wrong. They just weren't thinking dystopian enough. In today's economy it is more or less assumed that people will stay in school through around age 25 by way of college. Its just, they didn't foresee that we'd be forcing those students to take heavy debt burdens to pay for it (that cannot be removed by bankruptcy and will take most of their lives to pay off). Similarly, for social welfare programs like food stamps the work-week standard is 20 hours per week, as a significant chunk of the economy cannot employ people fulltime and thus the "part time" becomes the "full time." Welfare programs do not expect the low-ranking employee to have two 20-hour jobs (adding up to 40/wk) because most part time employers ALSO want those employees to be on call 24/7, to bring in without notice when desired and to send home when "labor is high" (term coined in fastfood meaning there's more people on the clock than work for them to do at the moment). Further food for thought: Aprox 60% of the population is employed at all per US labor participation rates. And that counts everyone 16 & up who works AT LEAST 1 hour per month, so once you cut out the people with after school jobs, seniors who do a couple hours here & there for spending money/entertainment, stay at home moms who only want to work during school hours, people who work sporadic part time jobs by choice (or because its all they can get), etc.... you're down pretty close to 40% employment when it comes to the people who have their employment taking up 20-24% of their weekly existence.
We absolutely could pull that off in current times. Productivity and value generated per hour of labor has gone up that much. However we went the dystopian route and all that value generated has gone to the top small percentage of those in power, and regular people are continuing to suffer and struggle to oppress them into being forced to generate even more profit for those at the top. But the prediction is not actually unreasonable.
Instead, there are about 5 different wars, currently happening in 2024. 💔😭
No, we couldn't pull that off. Not even close
The threat of lower class free time was that they would get involved in politics, activism and unions. So pushing hobbies to keep people entertained and thinking they were happy was a way to control workers.
Back in the mid 70s i was supposed to hire people, my boss who had an MBA gave me a text book on interviewing and analysing people. One of the things they warned about was to reject people who had hobbies like photography or art because they would waste their creative skills and passion on these hobbies instead of work.
That's depressing. I guess I have another thing to lie about in interviews. 😂
In the 90s, we'd ask our manufacturing managers to hire older women with needleworking skills. They'd never listen.
Those skills translated well into building small, intricate electronic modules.
Yes, creative fire is notoriously compartmentalized. Allowing someone to live joyfully outside of work surely never beneficially affects their work quality as an employee. /s
This sounds like something that could be in the CIA "How to Sabotage Your Workplace" manual.
Interesting. When I first got into the work force in the UK, when a few things were still being manufactured here there was a dying working class culture where everyone did variations of the same thing at the same time in their own time. You went shopping Friday evening and got out of work about 3 so you could do that. Pub with friends Friday night. Saturday morning hobbies, sports were particularly encouraged. Saturday night you spent with family or out with your SO and so on. People at larger employers could even go on vacations at the same time as they would close the works that week and some even went to the same place. It had a comforting assurance about it being part of a larger society but could also be annoyingly restrictive. Wouldn't have occurred to me at the time I was being controlled.
@@jelkel25 yes that was here in the 60s and 70s too. But it was because of options. Friday night was the only evening the stores were open if you were working. Until recently in Montreal everything shut down two weeks in July. That was when all the manufacturers retooled machines, renovated. Construction stopped. That was when I worked overtime upgrading systems. It was easier on manufacturers to shut down completely and let everyone go on holiday then be short staffed all summer.
I've always found it strange that there's a whole category for activities that aren't paid, and that category is looked on as unimportant or self-indulgent simply because it consists of things that are chosed out of interest or love. To my mind, it's those very activities that comprise a person's true life, the real pursuits that feed the soul and form one as the person she should truly be. It's only when we age out of our "proper" role in society that we have the freedom to take part in the things that comprise out true selves, proving Bowie's dictum that "getting old is just the process of becoming who we're really supposed to be".
That's a good point.
"You're depressed not because you don't have a job or money but because you don't have anything useful to do" is a sentiment I have been told multiple times in my life as well. And then told to help out in the soup kitchen. As an autistic person with social anxiety and chronic pain. Yes, I'm sure that would have cured my depression for good.
I'm of the opinion that depression takes two forms- the actual brain chemistry problem that gets the most attention, or "shit life syndrome" where circumstances beyond someone's control are so bad that it causes emotional pain. The internet memes/cliches about: "oh, so XYZ is completely terrible for you? Best I can do is give you a pill to try to confuse your brain into not hating life in this realm." The medical/social obsession with "brain chemicals" (that are never named by compound, nor are "normal" versus "abnormal" measurements of them given) is just a convenient cover story for the whole rat-park problem. Its scientifically proven that addiction, suicide, and other similar issues to be driven by the quality of life for those afflicted. Recessions and depressions cause measurable spikes in such things. The UK alone had something like 40,000 statistically abnormal deaths as a result of the 2008-crash.
@@sgath92 I agree with you. They’ve never actually figured out how antidepressants work exactly. The theories that they had about serotonin have been disproven I believe. We’re seeing way more cases of treatment resistant depression and we also know more about the placebo effect.
@@sgath92 Absolutely. For me, I came from a very abusive home too and had been treated like crap and extremely underpaid in every job I had had so far (the worst was 50 cents an hour in some disability programme for very physically demanding labour), my father was dragging me to court over child support he never paid a cent of every couple of months and wherever I went for help I was told I should ask my family. It was always assumed they could and wanted to care for me when in reality it had been my job to do all of the chores and also regulate everyone's emotions going back to when I was still a literal child, and my mother taking most of any money I got from anywhere away from me. I couldn't pay for heating and the winters were quite harsh, couldn't even pay for regular meals, was severely underweight, and I've had extreme averse effects to every antidepressant I ever tried and could hardly pay for those anyway. But yes, my problem was certainly having nothing useful to do. My mother's obsession with me proving my worth by being "useful" all day long and basically being her parent certainly didn't do a number in my mental health in the first place. And when I refused to try more antidepressants as well as do what in my head amounted to slave labour in the soup kitchens (a place by the way that never spared me so much as a crust of bread because I couldn't prove I lived on benefits because I didn't receive any, or pretty much any money from anywhere at all), I was told I chose to be depressed and it was my own fault.
@@TheSapphireSprit - Do you get your info from popular magazine article? Go to PubMed and look for open source peer-reviewed articles about depression.
I've been told the same thing. As a person who has to "mask" at work or lose my job as well as having life long arthritis, my days off are about recovery. Yes, it would be wonderful to be a super involved volunteer,but it's not possible for everyone.
Italians say, “Il dolce far niente” (“that sweetness of doing nothing”), which encapsulates Italian (and Mediterranean) philosophy and approach to life. It is a stark contrast to cultures based on Protestant values, where even free time must be somehow productive because -canonically- idleness was considered sinful and only “work” was pious. Mediterranean cultures, by comparison, see it as a necessity of life to give yourself to delicious idleness: watching the world go by, sitting with others, contemplating, and “being” with no rush, no purpose other than enjoyment, and no concern for the outcome.
Being Protestant you are right. I have recently tried to stop calling myself lazy when I'm not doing anything.
Yes! My friend calls my drive to always be doing something *useful or productive* as my 'Protestant Worth Ethic', and I think there is definitely something in that from my Dutch Protestant and Scottish Presbytarian background. Devil makes work for idle hands, and all that.
Mainly I make myself clothes from vintage patterns. because it's getting harder to buy actual vintage, and I don't like almost any modern clothes, so it works out ok for me. ;)
The concept of ‘being’ is now a cornerstone of western psychology practice dubbed ‘mindfulness’, turns out that simply being without the need to judge thought or behaviour is an evidence based method to reduce physical and mental distress
Yes and no, I think it’s more a north, south thing than a Catholic, heretic thing. Flanders for example, staunchly Catholic but with none of the Mediterranean ‘lazyness’, Same with northern and southern France. It makes sense to do nothing in a climate that gets so hot and is so abundant, compared to a harsher colder climate up north. You see this on a grander scale gloabally, with the Northern hemisphere as a whole being much more industrious than the Southern.
@@banshee408 Good point. Although winters were pretty slow in the rural Northland before lighting and snow removal.
Three related stories, from when I taught English in Japan (30+ years ago):
* In class, I routinely introduced words not usually taught in school. One day it was “hobby,” and each student had to describe their hobby. One student happily said, “My hobby is taking a bath.” We all laughed, and I asked some questions to make sure that it fit the definition of hobby. It was true - taking a bath was, by any definition, his hobby. 🤣
* When I was there, schools were introducing two free Saturdays a month. My adult students were very concerned about their kids, and were all asking me, “What do American kids do on weekends? What activities do the parents organize?” Like those writing articles you cited, they couldn’t imagine the children themselves coming up with ideas for what to do.
* One of my adult English Conversion students was having her kitchen remodeled, as a gift from her husband, because she was undergoing cancer treatment. But, though she begged, he wouldn’t let her have a dishwasher (just then becoming trendy). He said, “If you have no dishes to wash, what are you going to do all day?”
By "taking a bath", did he mean going to bath houses? That would make sense in Japan.
That’s really weird that “hobby”isn’t a word usually taught in school, because when I was in school しゅみ was one of the first words we were taught as beginners learning to ask and answer simple questions!
Interesting.
In Australia during the first couple of years of the COVID epidemic there were a lot of lock-downs. Social security payments were increased to a level that actually got people above the poverty line, so that people who have been rendered jobless by COVID weren't starving on the streets.
What I saw was how productive a lot of people were with their extra leisure time. (Aside: leisure both syllables of leisure rhyme with pleasure in Australian and British English.) I was a plasma donor at that stage (it's voluntary in Australia, you do get a snack afterwards but you're not paid) and I couldn't donate as frequently as I usually would have done because the spots were all booked out by people who had that extra time.
People did take the opportunity to get more exercise, mainly in the form of walking or jogging - even if there were a few dogs wearing, "Can't you just leave me asleep, I don't want another walk," expressions. Garbage tips reported receiving more garbage than usual as people took the time to go through and do some cleaning and tossing out things they didn't want.
There were the people who took the opportunity to attempt to make sourdough bread or to engage in various crafts.
In short, what I saw was that if people have enough money that they don't have to worry about being homeless or where their next meal is going to come from and if they've got a bit of extra spare time, they are going to use it productively.
Unfortunately capitalism is getting well and truly out of control again, and so we are losing many of the gains we made in the first 75 or so years of the 20th century.
I retired early and my husband has regularly been asked at work "how is she doing? Is she finding enough to do to keep her busy?" To calm their concerns he cites my hobbies, spinning, knitting etc. A lot of people are simply terrified of having to decide what to do with their time if a big chunk of it isn't decided for them in the form of paid work.
And then there’s the retired woman who say they’re more busy now that they retired and they don’t know how they did everything they did when they worked
the whole thing about "people arent sad because theyre broke, theyre sad because theyre not useful" is still an adage that persists today
the most threatening thing to the bourgeoisie is an educated proletariat, so now college is a billion dollars
I think the existence of hobbies that are basically just work that we happen to enjoy is interesting. For example, sewing, knitting, or gardening.
I think the thing is that those used to be very decent careers. Sewing was a base skill that with training paid a decent living. The industrial revolution changed that, took away the enjoyable part of work, and returned it to us packaged as a way to fix how depressed we were from boring work- in our own free time.
@@NicoleRudolphI definitely agree with that!!
I think it's the only way we have access to any form of unalienated labour. (labour that is on our own terms, and not a job)
Doing those things while poor = work
Doing those things while rich or middle class = hobby
@@NicoleRudolph not everyone is good at those kinds of things and having a way to provide people who aren’t as good at sewing with clothes is important. Capitalism and infinite growth isn’t great but supplying everyone with food and clothing is there’s a balance not everyone’s a good Gardner I’m definitely not, I would be screwed if I had to grow my own food I think. Farmer boy by Laura Ingles Wilder is a good look at this in my personal opinion.
As a child growing up in the ‘60’s you never told your parents you were bored unless you wanted to be threatened with them finding something for you to do. 😃
Same!
I grew up in the 60s and yes this was done to me. I also did it to my children. Funny how they never complained of being bored, as they knew I would find them a job to do. 😂
If my kids in the late 90s early 2000s complained that they were bored, I would send them outside to pick up sticks in the yard.
I grew up in the 80s and my parents still said that to me. Tried it with my children and they just call my bluff and actually want to do a job!
I mean, I grew up in the 90s and 2000s and my parents still said that.
Didn't help the boredom, just made me not tell my parents when I was bored.
As I grew into adulthood, I spent (and wasted) a lot of time realising a classic full-time job could never fit me for mental health reasons. It became a goal of mine to find a job that could both support me and afford me ample free time to enjoy my hobbies and get all the rest I can in order to function at a normal level. Now I write and perform musical shows for kids, averaging about 100 days of "real work" (performing) a year, I'm not rolling up in cash but make enough money to live a simple yet comfortable life, and I'm proud to be able to divide the rest of this time between "backstage stuff" (writing, recording, creating sets, costumes a d props), which is just loads of fun for me, my creative hobbies, and family.
There's never enough time to do all the nothing I want to do - Calvin & Hobbes
This reminds me of “Downton Abbey,” and Violet Crawley asking “What is a week-end?”😮 (Rest in peace, Maggie Smith).
Or her discussion with Edith, about what the latter might do to occupy herself with, after the war. Wasn't it something like: 'Gardening? Surely you can't be that desperate??' 😆
Maggie Smith, what an icon. She made us laugh, she made us cry and I will cherish her memory forever.
I had the scene in front of my inner eye when Nicole mentioned the worries of the Upper Class how workers might handle leisure time. Rest in Peace, Maggie!
I had no idea that Maggie Smith had died... (I was in Uzbekistan for three weeks and barely checked the internet.)
@@raraavis7782 If I remember correctly, that scene was contemplating what Edith should do with her time, after she put her baby up for adoption, and was feeling quite lost. I think Granny encouraged Edith to start writing again.
I always thought part of the reason that the "working" class, as it were, was kept busy by capitalists was to make them too exhausted to do any organizing and unionizing 😅
sometimes it's still applicable today.
Honestly, "riding" a hobby is way more accurate to how it feels to get into something.
I have ADHD and have never heard a more accurate expression of my experience than 'riding a hobby'
As somebody who works 12-hour shifts, getting tired after 8 hours is real. We tolerated it for the overtime pay and three-day weekends every other week. My mother was a stay-at-home mom in the 1960s and early1970s who did sew some of our clothes. She went back to work gradually as we entered school until she was full time by the time we were in junior high and high school. In retirement she now has gardening as her hobby and doesn't sew anymore.
Luckily, it is not as if 12+ hour shifts are normal in situations where there is a constant concern for life or death impacts of mistakes. Say in the medicine or healthcare fields. .... oh. Wait....
Sewing in the mid-60s, as my mom did too, while I was preteen, easy and did not require much fitting. It was a money saver back then. She could make a decent dress for me at about half the cost of store made. When she was a teen friends of hers who sewed all their own clothes were mostly off size enough that it would have been harder to alter than to make from scratch. She made a few nice dresses for herself before me.
She also made many of the curtains for the house.
@@kitefan1 Yep, my mom made me a few Halloween costumes and some pajamas and all the curtains for our house. She has seamstress that she also hired on the side that was really cheap at the time but you can’t find those prices now and I’m sure we underpaid.
@@sgath92Some of our nurses and doctors are doing 36h shifts. Yup.
@@aturtlethatisred Yep. I don't know how many women sew out of their homes for side money now. I'm sure you paid what the sewist told you. The last one I went to has passed away and was of my mother's generation. I went through a phase where I stopped doing my alterations and had more unaltered clothes in my closet than stuff I could wear so I caved to pay for things I can do myself, but don't. Mostly I used dry cleaner sewists and tailors now but I have gone to real tailors.
Random factoid: back in the 80s being a trained tailor was a skill that got you immigration status as a trade into the US.
It is interesting to notice that things like knitting, crocheting and sewing are now considered hobbies or crafting. These pastimes were a necessary part of a woman's day to keep her family clothed. We always had home made dresses because we needed them and mom sewed because she had to.
My grandma remembered her excitement when ready to wear clothes became cheaper than home sewn, and she was finally free of having to sew all the kids clothes, all her husbands underwear, and shirts, etc!
Even longer ago, things like knitting was work that men did. Over time it became mainly girls and women doing them. It is nice to see that some men still do these activities as hobbies.
Oh no, those poor women, if they have time to sit down and think or talk to one another, they might start to think about vo--I mean, get really depressed!!!
I really enjoyed this video, but I have to correct one factual error. It is absolutely possible to unionize "people who work with spreadsheets." We can and have done so for decades. The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) exists and was established in 1945. It's part of the AFL-CIO and has roughly 90,000 members. If more offices unionized we'd probably see a pretty serious increase in mental health across wide swathes of the US population.
It seems to me that there is this big disconnect between people who think the arts are a waste of time, resources, and money in education. They constantly cut arts programs and budgets in schools, but fail to recognize that every single advancement people have made has been the result of a creative mind that has saw a solution to a problem that is outside of traditional thinking. Every thing is connected. Creativity drives progress. Very cool video. This isn’t something I’ve thought about a lot, and I have many hobbies and special interests.
Yes to everything being connected! I had a brilliant art teacher in high school who was also really good at maths and she always told us how close those two actually are. Like arts being math and math being beauty in a way.
Many people have no idea about university level mathematics and such so they think traditional scienes are 100% formulaic and 0% creative.
@ absolutely. Think about how the golden ratio is used in composition of artworks and architectural design, just to name a couple of things. How awesome for you to have had such an impactful teacher!
I also think it’s very interesting how there’s still a division today between acceptable and unacceptable hobbies, which seem to come down to productivity. For example, creating art or reading is acceptable, but playing video games often isn’t. Something to do with the fact that art and reading are intellectually stimulating and produces something of “value”, while gaming is often viewed as passive and a waste of time.
Also, some people think that certain hobbies and collections should only be for children, such as collecting and playing with dolls. I’m an adult doll collector and enjoy playing them in different ways, including photography, styling hair, and making videos with them. Sometimes I even play with them like I played with other dolls as a kid.
@@winterspriteI haven’t quite been able to reconcile my love of dolls and adulthood. Thank you for sharing ❤
@@wintersprite I love that. I "secretly" love dolls. My parents didn't get me many and I think I was never the kid to properly (role) play with them but nowadays I feel such a draw towards them? I'd love to buy and renovate a doll house, collect certain dolls and yeah, maybe find ways to play with them. I hate that I'm not fully allowing myself to engage in activities that other may find childish or bizarre but hopefully I'll get there and until then I admire people like you who just live their best lives :)
What I find funny is those that seem to criticize gaming are also the same people who think it’s acceptable to be held, and to hold you hostage, in front of a TV.
At least gaming is interactive.
This post reveals such a new view to my life! I was in high school in the 60's, knew my grandparents and some of my great grandparents. Everyone was industrious; it was definitely a virtue at that time. My mother stayed at home and taught piano at home. We were always occupied and aimed at getting a university education. I was the last person who could stay at home during my marriage because of economics. I would say that my parent's generation was the last to have a comfortable middle class life in that they had enough money with which to enjoy life, including hobbies; they worked at one job and made enough money for us to feel very comfortable. They would have retired with enough to live comfortably through their days as many of the middle class in their generation. I'm very sad to see that today's generation will not have that level of security. I doubt that many will be able to afford a hobby, let alone a house. This is a very timely post. (I think it deserves the qualification of lecture, as so much thoughtful research and knowledge goes into every one of your posts!) I love this channel as it really makes me think. Thank you so much for your efforts Nicole.
Time for a wealth tax so those with great amounts of money start paying into the society again!
A lot depends on how deep you get into a hobby and how deep you want to get into one. RUclips and social media have made it aspirational to be at the top of any hobby - which, like the top end of sports - is expensive. Some hobbies - like reading - only require a library membership or a computer with internet access
There are so many hobbies that are free, low cost, save money and make money. Stop trying to be woke.
@@charlibrown7745 I would never assume that I was so special that I could to tell someone else how to think. We are all allowed to express and have our own opinions. I've never assumed that I could speak for everyone and I am aware that there are different levels of economic ability.
"stop trying to be woke" lmfao you could have left that bit out and your comment would have been normal
are you so jaded that anyone expressing a heartfelt opinion automatically becomes "woke"? just say you think they're lazy or whatever you were really thinking instead of tacking on a cry for attention. Woke doesn't even have a solid definition in this context, i could ask ten different people that use the word and recieve ten vastly different answers. Just say what you mean in words that leave no room for misinterpretation.
It might be different in the USA but I just wanted to add (it doesn't contradict what you said just worth discussing) that Women's History has previously overlooked the middle class. A lot of middle class women worked and ran businesses! The men at the time skipped over writing about them because it wasn't romantic (they liked to think of wives as sitting at the window waiting pathetically for their husbands at home). When women's history as a field of study was founded in the 1970s, they initially focused on working class women, and a lot of work the upper class engaged in was viewed as ladies' charitable causes. Where I live, women were running entire shipping businesses in the 18th and 19th century. Unfortunately they disappear from the record if they get married (everything goes in their husband's name) but considering they could successfully run them when they were single and again when they were widowed? They were definitely still working.
Guess who's currently working on a book proposal and knows entirely TOO WELL that no one has written about the middle class (aside from political approaches).
The "I've about McFreakin Had It" smile on your face while relating the supposed ills of less work is so relatable 😂
Super interesting! It’s amazing that, while we do have so much technology, so much less labor (as in tiring physical exertion) needed for preparing food, maintaining clothes and living spaces etc, and for most people’s daily jobs, compared to previous human history, we have not gained leisure the way they predicted in the mid 20th century. The average family needs two incomes, has trouble affording healthcare and childcare, and has limited educational opportunities. The profits of all the technologies are not shared by us all as they imagined! Darn it. This isn’t right.
Before we had radio we had books and these were considered dangerous as well since like Radio and all that came after they were not active and books could rot your brain. On another note we need to bring back more hands on classes in schools. Learning how to make clothing, work with wood, metal or glass. Learning about growing plants, working with animals, survival skills are all great things to teach in schools as students can learn how to practically apply what they learn in academics.
_But, but, how can you do electronically graded standardized tests with three-dimensional hands on things, gotta have those tests for the school funding, you know!_ 🤔 As for me, yes, those kinds of classes are a grand idea and I did take some. Also, teaching household management skills. Even meal planning. Way back in the early 1980s when I was in high school, there was a household management class for several months of the year. And talking about that brings to mind a story from my Mom who was doing some substitute teaching in late 1980s-early 1990s where for a reason I do not remember at this point on the calendar, a 5th grade class went on a field trip to a local grocery store. Mom, who was a midwestern farm girl, then a nutritionist, then a dietician, was absolutely flabbergasted that no one among the students knew where the food items came from before they appeared on the store shelves.
I’m related to people who collected as hobbies in the late 1800s. We have a small box of snuff boxes. Lots of random stuff. Obviously the collections have been split up over time between people. Someone bought Napoleon’s brother’s doorknob (I believe from his New Jersey house. It’s such a weird thing to buy). And also scrapbooking
It used to be the thing to collect famous peoples body parts, so a doorknob seems perfectly normal.
@@NicoleRudolphok WHAT, that was a thing? I just thought that they were weird! Thank goodness there are no body parts
@@ravenpotter3 Doorknob sounds quite reasonable. Small, cheap, doesn't decay. A real piece of history. It was probably one of the cheapest things at the sale. Is it artistic or crafty. I hadn't thought about body parts (UGH!!!) except for hair in memorial things and studio portraits of deceased people. That makes sense, in a macabre way.
I did inherit a gold crown that the grandparents generation has no idea whose it was. I have my last (removed) gold crown, that I intend to sell so that makes sense.
After WWII in the UK everything was rationed and beautiful fabrics and exquisite goods were sold in Liberty’s and other stores for American export only. Our Dad who came home from the war made our clothes from discarded clothes as his mother had been a seamstress and he never used a pattern always hand sewn with smocking or embroidery and they were beautiful even though the fabrics and colours weren’t the norm. Mum knitted our vests and swimming suits with again wool she unraveled from other clothes and they were so sweet with little chicks or bunnies or flowers she knitted into the items. At school we had Domestic Science and the first thing we cut, sewed and embroidered was a tray liner, darning socks and stockings.
My Nana used to work at a `fashion house ‘ in Manchester as a cutter, her best friend Aunty Amy was a seamstress, between the two of them, my sister & I (& Amy’s daughter) were well dressed from the fabric remnants. My Mum and Gran were knitters, so cardigans, jumpers, mittens, & scarfs were made from either purchased wool, or `recycled’ wool from older woollen items. Nothing went to waste. I don’t remember any of them having `idle hands’, even chatting or watching the TV there was the click/click of the needles
The first `domestic’ projects I did at school were a stuffed felt duck, a square with various stitches & and knitted (from string) dish cloth as a gift for my mum 🙄. When we moved to Canada we didn’t touch `domestic science’ until grade 7.
I wonder: even today, it’s assumed that women’s hobbies will involve making things (quilts, knitted things, cooking, sewing, embroidery, etc), whereas men’s hobbies will be purely relaxation (watching TV or playing sports). You can see it in things like man-caves full of pool tables and TVs, and she-sheds full of sewing machines or paint and canvases or yarn or whatnot. Even manly hobbies that create things (smithing, woodworking, etc) tend to be ones that are often monetized. Is this a direct development of everything you talked about here?
Grandpa's hobby was gardening. Dad's was working on his car. Mom sewed, knitted, crocheted...
Have a dear friend who currently has her model railway layout occupying her quilting table. 🚂🚃
@@webwarren My paternal grandpa also enjoyed gardening, something that he passed on to my dad and he shared with my mom who is in fact a Master Gardener. Although grandpa wasn’t the best at choosing plants based on climate zones he did try to grow plants native to America (to be fair my grandpa was a computer scientist and mathematician not a botanist). My dad also has bee houses for carpenter bees in our yard and he will try to star gaze if he has energy on occasion.
As someone with D&D as a hobby, man do I wish we had more idle time! Scheduling is 100% the most difficult part of this (or really, any activity that requires multiple people to be free at the same time).
So many good campaigns have died for want of coordinated free time. RIP
The Schedule is bigger than any BBEG, alas
True! I feel like every time we play we start out like amnesiacs: who are we and what are we doing here?
Same here. My Dungeon Master is currently taking a break from the job of dungeon mastering due to other social obligations. And as I offered to do so I will be in charge of coming up with a campaign.
I work from home (mostly with spreadsheets AND I belong to a union) so I have no commute. I only have to clean up after myself, so I find I have a LOT of leasure hours. So I have hobbies. During the pandemic, I painted rocks. I have so many painted rocks! I finally had to stop because I didn't want to let go of them, but didn't have room to keep them. Then I took up sewing again. I've had to pause that because I have more than enough clothes right now. So my latest endeavor is loom knitting. I cannot bring 2 sticks and 1 yarn together in any way, shape or form. Though I do crochet. So I bought a kit aimed at kids and sucessfully made a hat! Now I'm experimenting with a different weight of yarn but the same stitch. I may even try my hand at making socks with the sock loom I bought over a decade ago. Gotta love the hobbies!
Look at Continental knitting. Instead of "throwing" the yard with the right hand, you hold it in the left like crochet. It just clicked for me (a crocheter).
I think in Europe things were a bit different in the first half of the 20th century. Because of WW1 and WW2 it was an important factor to be able to clothe your family yourself or feed them with your own garden. Only in the 50ies and 60ies this changed again. When I was born in 1967 my mother sewed or knitted a lot of my clothes because it saved money for the young family. She was born in the middle of ww2. You saved money and spent on a little comfort.
I wonder if the philosophy of "incorporate your hobby into your business" is the reason why society pressures artists to sell their work. It seems like you can't create anything without someone telling you "you could sell that" as if the only way for anything that we do can be of any value is if we can profit from it.
Oh, that's an excellent point.
yeah this is very ingrained in our minds.. we can't just paint, we must make it useful 😢
@@rionka I crochet dolls and I feel like I'm in a never ending cycle of turning down commissions and explaining why I don't want to sell my hobby. It almost makes me want to just not show my work to anyone because I'm constantly being pressured to turn it into a side hustle. Why can't people just have hobbies???
I actually want to earn money through art (which I do, as a salaried artist). But it's still very annoying being told "you should sell that" when I doodle or do art in my free time, as if I wanted to do the labor of marketing myself to sell 50$ pieces earning me less than min wage, or go do a market where I'll spend more than I'll gain.
Commission offers, at least you have someone right here, willing to put their money where their mouth is. Not enough money to justify the labor. But money. The people talking but not paying, that's a whole worse breed.
And the flip side of it is some people getting discouraged at their wonky first attempts because what is the value of an ugly painting if I can't sell it? What a way to poison leisure.
As an elementary public school art teacher I find this very interesting that the arts was added to the public curriculum partly because higher ups were worried people would get into trouble from being board.
I’ve been infected since childhood. I have a large room so full of art and craft supplies I can barely walk, and still I buy or collect more from nature. My only hope is to come into enough money to build onto the house lol❤️🐝🤗
i really, really _don't_ like how relatable this post is
@@technopoptart We can only hope a cure is found in the future.🐝❤️🤗
I recently have been to a working artist’s studio and a few weeks later rented a studio of my own. While moving I realised that that artist had a lot of paintings in her studio, but I had not so many paintings, but a ton of art materials instead. And I’d rather have a ton of paintings. So I stopped buying art materials until I use up at least half of what I have.
I can’t remember who it was that said collecting supplies is a separate hobby, it may have been Nicole but it made me feel in a searchlight in a jailbreak type of way xx
@@indiabilly Right! Caught red handed…I’d have to agree it’s a separate hobby. And I have to admit, it’s as fun as actually making things. The thrill of the hunt and all that right?❤️🐝🤗
The irony is not lost on me that horses and native ponies are my hobby. I now want to add a miniature to our barn and name them Hobin.
Very interesting topic. If you look back to prehistory and ancient civilizations there's evidence that very ancient people had hobbies as well! They've found all sorts of games/ game boards in ancient dig sites, and even very simple games drawn on cave walls. Hobbies have been around a very long time even though their definition has been different depending on the era.
I'm amused with the scaremongering by the rich that the working class will do bad things, if they get a day off.
May day is a hard won bank holiday in the UK. And the traditions we have is; Morris dancing, maypole dancing, sports games, egg and spoon races. And outdoor fares where people sell cakes and jam. 😆
The rich seems to think we're a lot wilder than we are.
I don't know which working class stereotypes these rich people have been frightening themselves with, but clearly I could have been indulging in riotous living and labor agitation instead of knitting and modern dance (to name two of my hobbies). Well, it's early days yet. 😂
i like a book from this time "on the right to be lazy" it has many great points
17:30 Well yeah in a way they’re right. Wording it as “being depressed because they don’t have anything usefull to do” is a bad way of saying “being deoressed because of a lack of purpose and meaning in your life which you derive from a job that gives you the chance to support yourself and your family.” Their concern also isn’t totally unfounded. Just look at today, we have more free time and more opportunities to persue more hobbies than ever before and what do most people do after work and two hole days on the weekend? Sit in front of a tv and scroll their phones.
And more people have mental health issues than ever before. :(
We need purpose in our lives.
Sure, people generally have more time and access to hobbies, but there’s a TON of other things to consider when discussing increased incidence of depression. It’s not just technology bad
@@VultureSkins I never said that. I said living a meaningless life is bad. Modern technology is not the root cause, but simply enhances feelings of jealousy, anxiety, lonelyness by constantly bombarding us with things we should buy or compare ourselves with or that we’re missing out on, or all the horror going on in the world etc etc. It also literally messes directly with your brain and indirectly with your overall health.
I'm 30 and I literally remember back when 6 day work week was the norm. I went to school on saturdays when I was in elementary school! It's crazy to think that my parents worked 6 days and had the energy to play with me and my sister. I could never😂😂
I'm twice your age and only vaguely remember that for services. Most insurance offices, utilities, service industries and so on where open half or a whole day on Saturday. That mostly went away when people could pay by check.
Many people still work seven days a week.
One of the reasons I look forward to your videos is that they top up my infection. (Watching while hand sewing cuffs.)
In Scandinavian countries, the concept of Sloyd was introduced in schools to teach craft and handiwork to younger people. It still lives on in woodcarving communities today.
Me and my AuDHD special interests feel very called out. 😂
The brain requires the things to do. The brain needs to change the thing often. Now there are many things I know how to do that I don't do right now because other thing needs to be learned 😊
When I saw that collecting was the main early hobby my first thought was autism 🤣 (I’m audhd too)
'Hobby' is from the name of a small hunting hawk. People used to keep them and do a bit of falconry for fun in the Middle Ages.
you are, in fact, at least partially responsible for me dropping out of engeniering and pursuing tailoring
As someone who comes from a family of engineers, it's basically the same thing 😂
I am honestly surprised that the fear of free time was that people would be bored and depressed and not that the people who weren't rich white men would get ideas and have time to start trying to change the social order.
What they say in print vs. what they think. Every social concern has a false front that actually sounds good in theory. There's definitely hints of the "who knows what they'll do!" in there. But frame it as "we're just worried about YOU" and they have a moral high ground. Ugh.
Once our heads come up, their heads come off ...
I feel like this is very much implied. That "bored and depressed" thing is....camouflage.
@@NicoleRudolph Look, had I known the worry was less about overall well-being and more about the possibility of labor/other agitation, I'd have brought my knitting needles to the party in honor of Madame Defarge and others like her. I still have yet to learn knitting in the round, but I daresay hats, gloves, and other small wearables would be a useful contribution to the various protests.
@@NicoleRudolph Of course, they managed to organize anyway. Funny how displacements of people promote that.
I grew up believing that all my hobbies needed to be productive. I feel like baking? Dad can use some cookies to take to work. Embroidery? Your aunt is redoing her downstairs bath, why not make her a set of guest towels? Outside? We have a half acre of garden that always needs something done. I'm still like that. I don't sew unless I'm making clothing or something else useful, I get my cooking desire out by doing the family food provision from store to plate, and I like to read non-fiction. I don't know that that was a helpful thing for my family to do.
there is STILL a lot of prejudice around allowing the working class to let loose.. drinking to excess when working class does it Is very much looked down upon compared to when rich people "blowoff steam" ... often because of the location each class can afford to do said activity.
I always love it when you fit a bit of labor history into your video topics.
"And if thats the case, I'm petty sure my channel would qualify as a super spreader. I apologize if you're now infected."
Who me? Naaah.
Just ignore the measurements spreadsheet I'm currently working at, for the dress I'll be making for my sister, the new gorgeous fabric I just washed and prepared for a skirt for myself, and the embroidery work I have literally in front of me, for my partner's shirt. Naaah, don't worry, I'm not infected aaat aaaalll..
This was the most informative and interesting video essay I’ve seen in years! Great job!!!!
Thank you for infecting me. Before I stubbled upon your channel and Abby’s channel, I knew next to nothing about sowing, and nothing at all about shoe making and fashion history. Your videos are always really interesting ones! The ones where you make things (clothes or shoes) are so relaxing to watch. I watch them on the week-end with my 8 year old as my 3 year old is taking a nap. It’s our nice quiet cuddle time.
10:07: The relief I felt hearing about working class people not having the time to make a bunch of clothing because they were working and trying to run a house. I feel bad about not having enough time to make more of my own clothes, but I've also just bought less clothing overall and it's nice to feel seen by history.
This explains so much about the gendering of certain hobbies as well! As an aside: as someone who has been in an union of mostly spreadsheet type folks, I maintain hope that mass organization is not impossible.
I love your rabbit holes! I learn all sorts of interesting things.
That said you’re definitely a super spreader well honestly the whole RUclips is! Now I want to learn about and try all the thread working crafts! I’m sure I can figure them out! Oh and the historical crafts. I really want to try to do cutwork. I need to improve my button hole stitch…. Yeah I’m hooked sadly I can’t blame you I’ve always been drawn to arts and crafts. So many things so little time!!
this was fun and presented both a plethora of intriguing information, but also an opportunity to get about half of a wool skirt hemmed! Education and hobby!
I have too many hobbies.
I have worked in both paying and non paying jobs for at least 48 years. I will tell you, I'm now on disability and it is the worst. Playing instruments, sewing, and reading have been lifelong hobbies of mine. I have had to quit or scale way back all of them. Talk about being bored and depressed. Enjoy your life and don't wait to do stuff.
So one of my hobbies is horses. And there is a yellow hobin out in my pasture. So tickled at that.
Had to puase to say the gentleman on the left at 1:09 is truly a fashion icon. We need someone to recreate this!
I remember watching a Ted Talk about how we need to be bored occasionally. With so many things goin on in our brain, it makes perfect sense.
Strange. My dad grew up in the depression (was a teenager then) and spoke extensively about it. I don't believe he ever mentioned boredom. There was always something to do. Most people had backyard gardens and chickens to provide food. But because everyone was broke, there was lots of community things like cheap or free dances with live bands. Often payment was bartering. Sports were very popular like soccer, rugby, or baseball where equipment was inexpensive and joining was free and no rent for the fields. No.....Dad never mentioned boredom and I believe there were more community based events then than what we have now in the same town he grew up in.
In the northeast US, there would have been.
There used to be a subsection of hobbies called "useful arts," where one could produce aesthetic yet useful items in one's spare time; some examples include knitting, cabinetry, and bookbinding. I've been knitting and crocheting since high school (I actually got into it not to avoid boredom, but because it was something new to learn, and I love to learn things). Since then, I'm never without a gift for any occasion, given enough notice. It still amazes people even today that one can bring socks into existence using only your hands, string, and a pair of pointy sticks.
It frustrates me no end when I've made something -- like a simple knitted bandana which is merely half a square dishcloth with a crochet chain edging or a scarf that is just a piece of fabric remnant with a hem -- and people go all google-eyed and say "Oh! I could NEVER do that!"
Yes, you could. This is intro-basic stuff that everyone used to know how to do just like we all know typing on a keyboard today.
@@mbvoelker8448 I know the feeling well. When I gift someone, and they tell me they couldn't do that, my answer is always the same: I can fix that. So far, no takers.
12:02 this is genuinely the worst description of the Haymarket massacre I've ever heard
I will say, not having a job, can be very detrimental to your mental health as well. People need freetime, but they also need time that is inherently productive. Especially one that gets you out of the house and socializing.
Any job can be unionized. And should be!
The origins of the term _hobby_ are truly fascinating! In my german mothertongue there's the very old expression "Steckenpferd" for a special interest, surviving in the form of "that's (not) my steckenpferd" if you have some (resp. no) clue about something.
"Pferd" translates to "horse" while "Stecken" refers to a stick, staff or broomstick, so "steckenpferd" is referring to the very same toy stickhorses children are playing with and the english expression "hobby" is derived from.
Very enlightening! Fantastic work as always!
As someone who has been out of work for a while due to chronic illness I can confirm a huge cause of my low mood is boredom and not doing anything purposeful, I have hobbies but am limited by my symptoms, so maybe the people had the right idea about people being depressed because of boredom and lack of hobbies lol
Yep, been there. Hang in. Not being around people, for me, is as bad.
When I was on bedrest during my third pregnancy I did more knitting than I'd ever done at any other time in my life.
I agree with this, I am unemployed and have a lot of hobbies but still find my mental health has been impacted. Perhaps due to internalised capitalism and thinking what I’m doing is not “productive” and “purposeful”. It’s one thing to believe you are enough just exisiting vs the actual experience of it
I have watched almost all of your videos (some, several times). I find all of them to be important, but it is particularly this perspective that I find eye-opening. It's incredible how many of our modern day societal norms stemmed from Victorian foolishness and greed, and not really upon any sort of understood common or agreed upon logic of humanitarian fairness. Simple, "We can't get them to work 6 or 7 days a week, so let's have them work 5."
I am only at minute 2 but in oldtime Germany, instead of "hobby" they would indeed use "Steckenpferd" for a person´s special interest in his freetime. Literally translating as "Stick horse".
i never knew the hobby horse came before the hobby etymologically! how interesting
Fantastic video! Rest and relaxation have been hard won by the working classes and continue to be fought for, cheers!
In 1933 there was a study done in the Austrian village called Marienthal. Almost all the people had lost their jobs and the study looked at how it affected the mental health and motivationn of the people, finding that eventhough they had a lot of time a lot of activities outside of work ceased as well.
I remember daydreaming as a child about being able to learn basket weaving at the local community college when I grew up, the last such program closed my 11th grade year, Im now over 40 and Im still mad
Online?
Several years ago we had to drive over an hour to take stained glass classes.
I personally want to learn how to weave on a loom. I’m great at embroidery but I always wanted to learn how to weave. As a practicing Wiccan I love the idea of making an item to decorate an altar especially in terms of cloth which I could then embroider on. Unfortunately I can’t afford a loom so I’ll stick to embroidery.
@@mirandagoldstine8548 You might explore backstrap weaving, even using small ridged heddles on a backstrap 'loom' (it's not really a loom like your picturing) would be far more entry level investment, hell if you learned to tie the soft heddles traditional to the form, which are basically scrap yarn you could get started for the cost of yarn and a couple dowels and paint stir sticks! Sometimes its worth remembering our fore-mothers did these crafts with forest findings and kit that packed in a bag! The big English looms create an unnecessary barrier of entry!
@@mirandagoldstine8548 You can make yourself a lap or narrow loom that ties to furniture, doorknob etc. If it's very narrow, say 6 inches you can connect the strips together. I did this as a Girl Scout project when I was in high school. Directions for that were all over the place in the early 70s but I can't find any now.
A lot of traditional weaving was done on smaller looms. Papernstitchblog has instructions for a small frame lap loom online. You can buy one on line for under $50. These little ones store in a closet. Once you get into it you might be able to find a bigger second hand one.
Wow, I hadn’t realized people weren’t all making their clothes until you mentioned it. In retrospect, it makes sense that clothesmaking is a super skilled thing that not everyone would be doing. Weaving is a tough craft, for one, but sewing too!
Seing the stupidity in social media I think majority of people needs 16 hours shifts.
8:55 there's a french magazine for young girls that, in its 1840s issues, had entire articles on how to make dresses. From what notions to buy, which thread to use where, there's 7 pages on sleeves alone! And the author mentions at the beginning that it would be inappropriate for the eldest daughter of a family to spend all her time doing leisure activities like embroidery, when their economic situation and the number of sinlings she has might mean she needs to work more. This magazine also routinely had patterns for clothing all throughout the 1840s (but afaik not in their 1830s ones)
What would you do with your free time if you only had to work 4 hours a week instead of 40 for full pay?
nap😂
Probably read even more
I would definitely have clean coffe cups! I always prioritize my hobbies in the little free time I have (to keep depression at bay), so more free time would mean more time to cook, clean and maybe see some friends!
Well, when this depression passes I need to sew a base for a capsule wardrobe, sew a Christmas dress and finish my first knitted sweater. Because I’m retired.
I'd be sewing a lot more, and drawing, and gardening. Not much different from the early hobbies I see xD
Oh and maybe I'd actually have time to clean the house.
Thank you for infecting me! You are so enjoyable and informative. Long may you intentions spread
With seniors you have to play the okay are they sick, bored or depressed (yes, specific illness) because they live alone, no friends or children, and coming to the doctor is like going to the cinema…. Or any given combination?
I don't know what would happen if my elderly SIL ever had to give up her garden.
Art classes school were torture. Absolutely miserable experiences. It took me decades to be prepared to contemplate such activities without dread. Mind you, boredom was not an issue in my childhood.
Fascinating to learn the reasoning behind it.
We didn't create laws for the 8 hour day. We had working class martyrs who were killed fighting for this concession, who forced it from the state. Look up the Haymarket affair in Chicago , so called usa. We owe these concessions to these anar chist martyrs and others who fought, remembered every international workers day in May (may day, as you mentioned). Important history, without which we might still be working longer hours and not have paid sick, holiday or parental leave etc.
15:20 of course they are concerned. Free time to be bored encourages reflection, which triggers philosophy and thinking about morals, justice and power. One moment later, you have a new political party.
So you need to present something stimulating to distract the minds of the middle and working class but not stimulating enough to illuminate them with true empowering knowledge.
It was considered a hobby because he never sold anything, but check out the Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens, located in Dover, Ohio. Hand carved, articulated scale models of steam locomotives and other various carvings. Also included is his wife's extensive button collection.😊
I wish the only problem I had was "too much time" while living a comfortable life
Im sorry, WHY can't you unionize "people who work on spreadsheets"? Where I live almost all state workers participate in AFSCME. Clerical workers and tech workers included.
People work for the state like regulated jobs and are more likely to cooperate. There is also a strong anti-union vibe. Partially from work going overseas. And you have the benefits issue. If the state provides all the benefits, you have the problems of benefits being overpriced and over-regulated. The business owners in the US started offering health insurance as a perq during the Great Depression when they couldn't pay more. Small businesses with a handful of employees are difficult to unionize. In terms of the spreadsheets, working from home has the same problems but different. When people work away from the office they don't build the same team esprit de corps as they do face to face.
Fascinating topic so well structured and presented. Thank you!
Wow, if 8 hours of a hobby is bad…my Fridays are definitely going to get me dirty looks lol. I tend to have my sessions, 2 in a row, dnd campaigns on Fridays. Each session is 4 hours and so it amounts to 8 hours. Technically I stay after and just chat with my my fellow players though so sometimes it can be 10-12 hours in total with that included. I play online view voice chat means with a wireless headset, so it isn’t like I’m not taking care of others things or myself while playing dnd. It just means I’m having fun being my character whilst I fold clothes or make myself lunch/dinner, and also feed the dogs. I have tried to consolidate my hobby time to as few days as is reasonable which is why I have this 8hour hobby time, as the rest of my time is usually dedicated to work and chores and so on. Honestly, my dnd time is the only way I can get my family to respect leaving me be to my own devices sometimes (caretaker of less able bodied family members, etc). I think it’s because it requires me to promise to set aside time with other people that I already promised that time to. So…maybe that’s why? I don’t know.
But yeah! That’s how I spend my hobby time.
Would a man be infinitely free if he had the whole of his time at his disposal? YES!!! You literally just described freedom!
Would love the source on the image at 2:49 . Splendid!
9:20 I think I own this sewing machine! A Singer 201 from 1947. An absolute dream to sew on. The woman's hair and outfit also suggest 40s-50s to me
we can still unionize, we need to find new ways to do it. the internationally organised union is the best future we can have!
Growing up in the 80s with parents who grew up through the Great Depression, my parents had a go-to solution to my regular problem that I had little to no neighborhood friends. Any time I’d voice I’m lonely, the solution-you just need some chores to do. Work fixes all emotional ailments. Now while there are benefits from physical activity and accomplishment, using it in this way turns loneliness into a life-long struggle with love hunger.
I just found your channel and I'm in love!!!! Great video 💖
Oh no! I'm infected! Bring me needles! Bring me thread!! I need my sewing machine, stat!!!😁