How has the internet affected your hobbies?

[entremet]

There is a lot of talk about the modern internet getting enshittified. I do agree with some respects. I'm also not a fan of the Meta monopoly of Facebook, IG, and WhatsApp.

However, one thing that I still think the internet excels is its original conceit--information.

I do this especially with hobbies of mine, not just the consumptive hobbies of media (movies, game, books, etc) but the more craft and skill based hobbies.

For example, I'm a cyclists and there's just tons of great cycling tips online, not just the basic stuff, but routes, touring ideas, etc.

I get way more information than the older media like magazines and books.

Recently, I've been reviving a drawing habit and just tons of great stuff there too. It really helps you get deep with your hobbies.

And not to diminish consumptive hobbies, I have a few, but it's always great learning of new niche entries in those. The irony is not missed that I'm posting this on a gaming forum lol.

 

[lunarworks]

I can upload and share photos with an audience without the need for a gallery or the expense of making prints.

 

[Shadybiz]

It has definitely had a positive impact, no doubt about it.

I occasionally do some light woodworking.

I box for fitness.

I noodle around on the guitar. Not really very good or anything, but I'm…competent enough to put some chords together.

And of course, I play video games sometimes.

The Internet has improved my skill and knowledge in all of the above.

 

[blueredandgold]

My father is approaching retirement and it's becoming increasingly apparent he needs to "join Reddit" or some such to suddenly get the sort of innate understanding someone younger has when searching for information on the web for stuff like camping or whatever.

At the same time many industries are rubbing their hands together for the wave upon wave of grey nomad/cashed up leisure seekers that will only increase. They know this demographic won't sit on social media and get savvy for whatever deal takes their eye either.

 

[Pellaidh]

Mixed bag tbh.

It feels like somewhere around 10% of the stuff online is actually great, useful information that can really help you improve in whatever hobby you choose.

But then the other 90% is either extreme levels of elitism, unbelievable levels of pure consumerism, or both at the same time (i.e., you're not a real hobbyist if you don't spend tens of thousands of dollars for a hobby).

If you have time and knowledge to filter past all that 90% of garbage to get to the 10% of useful stuff, then it's really great. And in a sense it's still objectively better than not having that information available at all. But I find myself avoiding online communities for my hobbies more and more because it's just so discouraging most of the time. I'll still go there if I need some specific information, but not for much else.

 

[Poimandres]

What do you mean? The internet IS my hobby.

 

[Menchin]

For art, it's been mixed. There are a lot of great people with great advice to share for artists of any skill level, but then you have the tidal wave of trash like "art fixing", artist drama channels, Kooleen, etc. that gets pushed to me constantly when I try to find good art content

For fitness, there is no hope. People who have more juice in them than my local supermarket giving me advice on how to get natty gains fast, brah, while advertising their ape-themed "I Can't Believe It's Not Illegal" supplements

For everything else, it's great

 

[eXistor]

Much easier to get info in various forms. Also for me buying imported video games (or anything really) has been so much easier than back in the day.

 

[entremet]

Mixed bag tbh.

It feels like somewhere around 10% of the stuff online is actually great, useful information that can really help you improve in whatever hobby you choose.

But then the other 90% is either extreme levels of elitism, unbelievable levels of pure consumerism, or both at the same time (i.e., you're not a real hobbyist if you don't spend tens of thousands of dollars for a hobby).

If you have time and knowledge to filter past all that 90% of garbage to get to the 10% of useful stuff, then it's really great. And in a sense it's still objectively better than not having that information available at all. But I find myself avoiding online communities for my hobbies more and more because it's just so discouraging most of the time. I'll still go there if I need some specific information, but not for much else.

Click to shrink...

Good points about consumerism. You do see a lot of hyper consumerism. Whether it's travel or books.

Cycling is a big one that I'm familiar with and it can get very expensive

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Community knowledge sharing for video games is undeniably better than ever before. I can get nearly realtime aid with so much in the realm of games, and it's been cool to see the general skill level go up in something like fighting games because of how fast knowledge can spread. I feel like there's even a marked improvement in fighting game skill levels alone since even Street Fighter 4 and early MVC3 days. Those weren't the first fighting games to benefit from the internet by a long shot but they feel like the first that coincided with early livestream platforms and video essays and that's just made things so much better than the text guides and deciphering of arcane forum posts. The internet has driven so many quality of life improvements to video games across the board IMO, but I've felt the most tangible improvements in fighting games.

But, internet's not perfect. I do think general society is having a long and difficult reckoning with a ton of the internet's negative qualities. Sometimes I have a hard time believing that it's a net good just because my hobbies have more depth to engage with. I'm admittedly kind of back-and-forth on how I evaluate the value of the internet, but I've been mostly negative on it as a whole the past decade.

 

[mrmickfran]

I discover a lot of new anime (some absolute favs) because of the internet so I can't complain.

 

[linkboy]

Obviously, with video games, there's the whole community aspect, and it's much easier to look things up for a game.

I'm also into rock hounding, and the internet has made it a lot easier to find places (just yesterday my wife and I were here looking for garnets), and this place isn't far from where we live

 

[RPGam3r]

Really well.

For some hobbies it has greatly increased accessibility, allowed me to have more awareness of what is out there, and it created a hobby since I build and maintain a site for one of them.

 

[MinerArcaniner]

I have been conditioned to avoid a lot of fandoms so I can enjoy movies/shows/games/etc. on their own terms.

 

[entremet]

I have been conditioned to avoid a lot of fandoms so I can enjoy movies/shows/games/etc. on their own terms.

Click to shrink...

Are fandoms that pervasive?

I'm a Star War fan, but I just stay away from the social media stuff since it's obsessed with "wokeism" right now.

 

[nel e nel]

There is a lot of talk about the modern internet getting enshittified. I do agree with some respects. I'm also not a fan of the Meta monopoly of Facebook, IG, and WhatsApp.

However, one thing that I still think the internet excels is its original conceit--information.

I do this especially with hobbies of mine, not just the consumptive hobbies of media (movies, game, books, etc) but the more craft and skill based hobbies.

For example, I'm a cyclists and there's just tons of great cycling tips online, not just the basic stuff, but routes, touring ideas, etc.

I get way more information than the older media like magazines and books.

Recently, I've been reviving a drawing habit and just tons of great stuff there too. It really helps you get deep with your hobbies.

And not to diminish consumptive hobbies, I have a few, but it's always great learning of new niche entries in those. The irony is not missed that I'm posting this on a gaming forum lol.

Click to shrink...

lol - I was about to say I'm much more hands on with cycling now, having started with basic cleaning and maintenance to now having rebuilt 3 bikes and a 4th from scratch.

 

[GeeseHoward]

I can much more easily find dnd groups to play with, but it also has somewhat vacated local game stores. Playing games in person lends a different vibe and physicality and everyone is usually more involved compared to online

 

[TaySan]

The internet has been a useful source of information for all of my hobbies. But in return most of my hobbies are internet related

 

[Reym]

It's killed my interest in most of my hobbies. I just can't muster any enthusiasm for them any more.

I've mostly just whittled it down to one hobby that I can do by myself offline and I don't really talk to anyone about it.

…and to anyone who wants to reply that it's stupid of me to allow the internet to ruin things I love,- well, yeah, it is. You're right. You win. Good job.

 

[Bobjob4167]

In all honesty, I've been oversaturated with my hobbies for the past 15 years. Searching for new anime, video games, comics etc was much harder back in the day. It was also more fun and made discovering new things more interesting.

 

[Ouroboros]

The games and music I would otherwise have missed without the internet is insurmountable.

Along with that just YouTubing how to do things. Learning how to play guitar, woodworking, just DIYing stuff. Insane.

 

[Kill3r7]

It's an excellent reference resource with lots of user provided advice. Is all the advice correct or best? Probably not but there is plenty of useful information.

 

[Stooge]

Honestly it's made the consumption of my hobbies far far worse. There are upsides like acquiring greater knowledge quicker but I feel like most online communities are toxic and gatekeepy

 

[Ernest]

I collect records, and without the internet, I wouldn't have found half the records I own.

 

[Dervius]

Good and bad.

The good - There is so much content people put out for free to help get people on board with new hobbied. I've learned a ton about drumming, rowing and writing by just perusing stuff people put out for free. It's an incredible and highly accessible resource.

The bad -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK8Z8hulFg

It can create sometimes toxic followings around different hobbies and just drain the life from them.

 

[Gelf]

It helps me discover things I likely would have had no idea existed in a pre internet age. For example there's a lot of 80s and 90s music I listen to now that I'd never heard of despite growing up in that era. Some of it wasn't even that obscure looking at listener numbers but whatever old fashioned ways to discover these things were available at the time passed me by. Frankly without streaming and the recommendations coming from that I'm not sure I'd be hugely into music at all now.

I don't feel much need to interact with communities so the negative side of that doesn't tend to affect me. I take the information I need and leave.

 

[entremet]

Honestly it's made the consumption of my hobbies far far worse. There are upsides like acquiring greater knowledge quicker but I feel like most online communities are toxic and gatekeepy

Click to shrink...

Curious, how so? What hobbies?

 

[weemadarthur]

Being able to look up video game walkthroughs when I'm stuck in a game is lovely.

E-books are great for reducing the weight of carrying around enough real books to fill my downtime.

Finding machine manuals once the live version has been misplaced makes home maintenance easier.

It could be convenient to get enough people together for a sports meetup. Facebook did increase local area knowledge for a lot of small businesses too.

 

[Stooge]

Curious, how so? What hobbies?

Click to shrink...

Wrestling. The IWC is filled with people who genuinely seem to not enjoy watching wrestling

The group here is pretty good but if you ever leave here for wreddit or Twitter it's a cesspool

 

[Sadire]

Large library of knowledge allowing me to learn particular things is a positive, but some of that information is bullshit.

Learning guitar via tabs, and then they are obviously wrong.

 

[Rellodex]

I absolutely hate guitar and music discussion online. I lived on it in high school but outside of instrument care and basic techniques I now realize a disproportionate amount of the consensus was driven by embittered musicians who couldn't cope and who were uninterested in evolving styles and changing tastes.

It took me moving to a place with an actual local scene to see how full of shit the guys online were about nearly everything.

The quantum leap in home recording since then and extreme popularity of Bandcamp and curated submission-driven YouTube music channels has probably changed this...or at least hopefully has changed this.

But also I'm talking back in the mid 2000s.

 

[GamePnoy74]

The hyper elitism and consumerism for some hobbies I'm into can turn me off on a community and remind myself to indulge in such things with moderation and simply enjoy on my own. Not to name, but some threads here on ERA have recently become that to me, unfortunately.

And that's ok. At the end of the day tuning out eases myself from FOMO anxiety and be able to keep some money in my wallet lol

 

[sionydus]

Yes, for my hobbies, it's been mostly great. Lots of great sheet notes out there for piano that I can start from. If I'm not fully satisfied, at least it saves me time for my own transcription. Similar thing for recipes in the cooking world (though there are a lot of not-great ones out there so discernment is key). Lots of great coffee advice.

However, I haven't found any creative writing resources I like. And a LOT of the visual art and graphic design resources out there are crap at teaching anything beyond basic technique and software. The latter is now a major part of my career, and if I listened to places like r/graphicdesign, I'd definitely be lost right now.

 

[The Albatross]

A lot of my hobbies I would not have in the same degree without the internet. My career was basically a hobby that only existed because of the internet and it turned into a lucrative career.

For other hobbies like playing musical instruments, the internet is also the major influencing factor. I took piano lessons as a kid, from 7 to 15 or so, but lapsed as a teenager and took the guitar up when I was 18-20, and then have been self taught / internet taught for 20 years. Every melody I can play, chord I've learned, technique I've learned, I've learned from the internet.

Fishing… took up fishing in the last 10 years and again prettt much self taught in terms of tying knots, techniques and so on, from YouTube.

Gardening pretty similar I learn a lot from the internet. Though probably less so than my other hobbies because local gardening gudides willl always be better than the shit that floods the internet. Still a lot of my favorite gardening people are people I've followed online.

Home improvement, totally self taught through YouTube.

Every technical hobby that I have, non work computer programming, all my technical know how is all from the internet.

Video games are heavily influenced by the internet. Can't really separate them. I'm doing a 100% checklist run thru RDR2 right now and use online guides for a lot of it.

 

[Rhomega]

I've expanded my horizons on games, movies, books, TV shows, and music thanks to the Internet, making me more open to things than when I was a kid.

 

[Alcoremortis]

For cross-stitching, it's been great. I only completed a few projects prior to the internet, but now with endless streaming services to watch, I have loads of things to have in the background while I work. Not to mention it's never been easier to find cool patterns.

 

[Gr8one]

internet is good for entertainment (gaming retro and modern, movies, music) and shopping for my hobbies and that's about it. Most internet forums for what I do outside of gaming are dead or taken over by a community I don't want to read or interact with. I don't really fuck with Discord, I kinda hate how it killed message boards and it's a pain in the ass to find useful information on anything on that platform even with pinning you miss a ton of other information. rip to shit like chowhound, also message boards for certain sports that decided to kill political discussion, although magats seem to be free to talkshit, and add likes. Reddit and upvoting sucks too. Everyone just wants to have the best take instead of discussion. :(

 

[Mammoth Jones]

All better since internet let's me discuss my hobbies and find information about them that I couldn't before the internet.

 

[KamenSenshi]

Hate it a ton. Would go back to 98-05 Internet faster than the Flash could process it.