What does this generation of PRHS students think about hobbies and are they truly dead?
Listening to the radio, reading Nancy Drew, and the imagination to create a world were all favorite hobbies of the 1930’s according to the Children’s Theatre Company’s collected historical accounts, but have hobbies and how we look back on them change with the increased use of technology?
The internet and technology have become a big part of student’s lives especially with the introduction and integration of phones. Since students are living in a digital age and are spending around 7.5 hours in front of a screen according to a CDC infographic, hobbies have had the chance to change. For PRHS students, however, it seems that though it is the age of technology, hobbies are still a part of students’ lives.
Students at PRHS seem to have multiple hobbies even in the digital age. The generation with phones, computers, and an instant way to information still need hobbies that are hands-on and away from screens. Students need hobbies even though they can simply look at a glowing screen with bright colors that entertain their every thought, because after all phones eventually die and the want for hobbies grows.
Data has shown students at PRHS need hobbies to make their life happier in the long run. In a survey of students at PRHS, 100% said that their life would be happier with hobbies in it. Hobbies are definitely not a thing of the past according to the student survey and a statistic from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Statistics compiled in 2021 shows that people ages 15-24 spend on average 5.33 hours on leisure and sports activities. The student survey also provided that even in a society built on technology, hobbies are still important according to 90% of PRHS students that took the survey.
Senior Gwenyth Lemon, a student at PRHS, believes that hobbies have changed due to technology and have even been incorporated into hobbies. “I think hobbies have changed. For some people, hobbies have diminished, but there are also those who get involved in hobbies related to technology or use technology to share their hobbies,” Lemon said.
In general, it is hard for students at PRHS to know what a hobby is defined as. For example, one sophomore said, “I don’t know,” when asked how to define a hobby. This sophomore suggested that students at PRHS may have a hobby, but don’t know it. The true definition of hobbies according to Oxford Languages is “an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.” So, technically speaking, video games, watching tv, and scrolling through TikTok done on a regular basis all fall under the broad definition of hobbies.
However, what is considered a hobby can differ from person to person and that person can change the way a hobby is defined.
Lemon proves that people have varying views on what should and shouldn’t be considered a hobby.
It seems hobbies are not stuck in the 1930’s and forever lost in the past for this generation of PRHS students. In the absence of a clear definition of what a hobby should be considered and if technology should be a part of it, students are happier with the simple thought of having a hobby.
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