Over at The Conversation, they are bundling together articles on ‘hobbies’. If you are a hobby person, this is validation. If you are not a hobby person, this might be your kick start.
If you’ve not discovered The Conversation, let this be an important moment in your life.
In academia we have peer-reviewed journals at the top of the content quality pile.
And within your own profession, the academic literature is a great place to go to learn more about a topic. For example, I am a psychologist. If I want to learn about an important psychological concept, the place I will (most likely) get the highest quality content is academic psychological journals.
But what about ideas from outside of your expertise area? Or if you want to learn something, but you aren’t in the headspace for digesting a complex research article?
That is where The Conversation come in.
Academics, with the help of journalistic editors, take knowledge from academia and present it easy-to-read articles, free and updated weekly.
It is a news site, but where you can be more confident that the news is coming from people that know the topic well, because it is their academic expertise area.
In the content quality hierarchy (such things do exist), this would sit below peer reviewed research, but above just about anything else.
That matters in a world where the sheer volume of information can make it hard to judge what’s reliable.
Is that TikTok influencer actually knowledgeable, or just confidently incorrect? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
In an information-overloaded environment, knowing your sources matters. And The Conversation is a good one to have in your mix.
That was a long and convoluted intro to what I actually wanted to share
I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks, The Conversation has been featuring articles on hobbies.
And they’ve actually been collecting up the relevant hobby articles into a bundle they are calling the Hobby Starter Kit. At the time of writing this they’ve explored hobbies and mental health, adult play, bizarre leisure activities, starting a hobby, hobbies and distraction and how to protect hobbies in a productivity obsessed world.
Although my primary and high school report cards used to reliably say ‘Gareth should engage in more extra-curricular activities’ I am actually very pro hobby.
Nowadays I’d count art and gardening and (when I have enough money) computer building amongst my hobby areas. I also have some, what I’d label ‘quasi-hobbies’ because they are psychology (i.e. work) related but not things I have to do, but find interesting to do.
In fact, I think my primary and high school teachers would be proud of just how many life projects I have, although they might note I’ve gone too far in the opposite direction.
Unnecessary and excessive sharing about myself aside, hobbies and leisure are a known promoter of good mental health. I have leisure as its own distinct category in my presentations on mental health self-care.
I think it is important to validate hobbies and leisure as legitimate pathways to wellbeing, especially in a culture that prizes work and productivity.
A student even said to me the other day that they hadn’t been doing their hobbies, even though they know they are beneficial to their mental health, because they felt guilty about not being ‘productive’. It made me sad that they were denying themselves something that brought happiness into their life, because they felt
So if you are after a bit of validation about your hobbies or maybe interested in adding one to your life, bookmark the Conversation’s Hobby Starter Kit, have a read of some of the articles, and set aside even just a little block of time for some hobby action. I did mine already today. I did some art before leaving the house this morning.
Oh yeah, and while you are on The Conversation website, consider creating an account, so you have this important resource as part of your information diet.
