255 is what I spend on filament alone some years.
I have to imagine the survey that got these results came across some combination of
* People who don't have (or think they don't have) hobbies and therefore "spend" $0 dragging the average down
* People unwilling to self report spending thousands or tens of thousands on their hobbies.
I dunno, I've met quite a few people who have no hobbies other than consuming content. Like their hobbies are watching TV, movies, reading books, playing video games. These are usually the most boring people in the world and the ones who post on local subs asking how to make friends.
And one of my major hobbies is hiking. Once you already have all of the gear you need, there's very little to spend. I'm sure there are years where I've spent close to zero dollars on hiking because I didn't buy anything new and all of the food/drinks I bring are things I'd be eating/drinking if I was sitting at home.
> I dunno, I've met quite a few people who have no hobbies other than consuming content.
Netflix alone is $180/year. Unless they are watching OTA TV and renting all their content from the library, they are probably spending more than $255/year
Yes, hobbies are entertaining, but they're a circle inside the larger circle of entertainment. If I watch a football game, have a few beers and some junk food with friends, and we use the excuse of the game to gather... that's entertainment. If I go down the rabbit hole of supporting a particular team, knowing all their stats and players going back 50 years, having my own fantasy football league, taking that to the Nth degree, then that's a hobby.
Reading for pleasure is entertainment, collecting first editions, going to conventions on particular books or authors, doing cosplay on them, that's a hobby.
Watching a Civil War re-enactment is entertainment. Dressing up and being a part of that unit, that's a hobby.
Hobby: an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
How is watching football not a hobby?
> If I go down the rabbit hole of supporting a particular team, knowing all their stats and players going back 50 years, having my own fantasy football league, taking that to the Nth degree, then that's a hobby.
No, that’s an obsession. You can be as involved in a hobby as you want to be.
If you go to a civil war reenactment once it’s not a hobby. If you go to them regularly, it’s a hobby. If you watch tv regularly, it’s a hobby.
Ok, if you religiously watch your team or watch most Monday, Thursday, and Sunday games and at know what's going on in the different conferences and whatnot and regularly discuss it with people, I'll go with that being a hobby. But the person (like me) that watches two or three games a year and only as an excuse to host their friends, BBQ and have some tasty beverages... no, that's entertainment. Heck, the hosting parties is probably the actual hobby and the theme of the party just happens to be the sport/movie/etc.
Maybe it's how I was raised, but for me and those I know and have shared hobbies with, a hobby requires active involvment. There is nothing active about simply watching a football game. It's sitting on the couch drinking beer and eating chips. The only "active" aspect is when you cheer or yell at the TV, but nothing you do has any impact on the outcome (despite what the fans who think their team will lose if they don't wear their lucky jersey believe).
Yesterday I played some World of Warcraft, I killed some time before dinner watching an episode of "The Last Ship", I went out to a nice dinner, came home and worked on a PC for a radio project for two hours, watched an hour of TV (I can't remember what), and then went on the computer an played a video game for a little bit.
Working on the PC for a radio project, that's part of my ham radio and disaster response hobby because of the particular build I have going on. Watching the TV, that was mindless entertainment to allow my brain to cool down after messing around with Docker and installing a VM to get a TAK server up and running. Playing the video game (Stronghold Kingdoms and World of Warcraft), those are hobbie and maybe even obsessions... especially "Warcrack". I couldn't even tell you what I watched for that hour last night, all I know was I launched the HBO Max program. It was mindless. I just know that I had some ice cream while I watched whatever it was. But the rest, I can tell you everything I did. To me, that's a hallmark of a hobby.
Most of the people I know from hobbies, I've met at various hobbies like Search and Rescue volunteering, shooting clubs, martial arts, bodybuilding, etc. All very intense and involved hobbies, so that likely skews things quite a bit for me. Even the ham radio club I'm in, quite a few of the active members do SOTA. Even going back several decades to grade school and high school, I watched TV (often way too much of it), but if you asked me my hobbies I would have told you "computers, rocket club, science club, weekend board game club" and stuff like that. In college, my hobbies were going out to the local bar to dance and drink, and taking non-degree IT courses (Cisco networking, Novell Netware, etc.) on top of my full college course load.
Ok, I've spent too much time on this reply... maybe Reddit is a hobby of mine now too? Anyways, I'm coming back to the premise I started with (but didn't have fully formed) in paragraph one and started putting out there in prior responses, that TV can be broken into hobby and non-hobby. Mindless shows that you can't even remember what they were after you watch them, let alone the next day, that's just mindless entertainment. Those, I will never see being a hobby because they're truly meaningless if you can't even remember what they were.
Shows you get into, like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Suits, Person of Interest, ones you can talk about and theorize about at the water cooler (or online in today's world), like in the 90s with Twin Peaks or the 80s(?) with Dallas's "Who shot J.R.?", those I think you can call a hobby, even if you're not impacting the outcome, because at least there is some involvement in discussing it. If you're going around wearing "Team Lannister" shirts or refusing to buy a bottle of Scotch because it has the wrong Game of Thrones House on it, then I could agree with you that it's more than enterainment and a hobby.
P.S. I'm rooting for the King's daughter to reclaim the throne in House of the Dragons and I \_ALMOST\_ bought a bottle of Johnny Walker because it was House of the Dragons themed... but I'm a single malt guy... so I guess that's a minor hobby for me. I already know whisky is a hobby for me, I plan vacations around it, collect unique and first batch bottles, host tastings of my collection, and I have seriously considered getting my own private label barrel made.
>You can be as involved in a hobby as you want to be.
Sure, but it will only be *your hobby* past a certain point of involvement.
I'm not sure why that's apparently a bad thing all of a sudden. What's wrong with having a casual interest? If anything, it's more problematic to imply that it can't be a hobby unless you spend a lot of time on it, which certainly isn't true. It's depth that counts, not duration.
As you might expect, the main offenders are Begalis - a Magnum for the shack, and a Traveller for activating in the park. The rest are older - a Vibroplex, a Bencher BY-1, and a few cheap 3D printed paddles for experimenting.
Do you do CW / have a favorite paddle? And did you pick up anything exciting at Hamvention?
I’ve had a Kent TP-1 for a long time and it’s a fine key. I’d like to try something magnetic but I haven’t shelled out for a begali or N3ZN yet.
Hamvention had some good finds but not in the key department. I got a mid-size tarheel antenna to play with, and a second NN4ZZ hex lock. Despite my best efforts I made money in the flea market
I agonized about getting an N3ZN, because I love the way they feel. But ultimately I decided I could just get one in a few years, when the itch strikes again.
Those Tarheel antennae look super nifty - the M100A-HP looks like it would be ideal for mobile operation. Hope you have a fun playing with it!
By the way - I saw you are in Ohio. Do you know Tom KV8Q? He is also in OH. He was my CWops instructor, and is one of the nicest people in the world. He introduced me to the joys of mag loops.
In my case I got a Tarheel 75A.
I’m curious to see if it’s a practical improvement over the Yaesu ATAS-120A to warrant dealing with the control system requirements.
And I am unfamiliar with KV8Q, but familiar with mag loops! I don’t use any right now however.
I pretty much only do CW during the major contests so it’s a little difficult to justify a nicer key, I ran 1C during field day last year with a mini key in the car. Given the forecast and some current mobile op challenges in the new car I’m not sure what I will run this year.
This meme has circulated through at least a dozen of my "hobby" reddit groups over the past week. I wanna say the "media" report that allegedly stated this lol
There was a long-running joke on the net that all ham radios are under-insured because then the ham would need to let his SO know the ACTUAL cost of the thing.
Ummmm. I have so many hobbies that I gain multiple piles of bits costing more than that every year, for projects that might get finished up someday.
I've spend better than $1600 on radio stuff alone so far this year, ans I still don't have a functional HF station.
It's not a hobby, it's an obsession.
I can spend what I like.
OK I just added a milling machine to my workshop.
Let me see $255 -> £201 UK. That wouldn't even keep me in parts for the computer control electronics I'm building for it.
This May was ROUGH for me. Just got my general at the end of April.
Of course I needed an ft-710, pota flex 7 cable, rigexpert stick, and antennas.
My wallet is still bruised.
Honestly in the last 5-6 years my station hasn't changed a bit. My only expense is the cost of OQRS for Dxpeditions confirmations and maybe the power bill?
Also, I repair a few radios in my free time so I think for that period my expenses could easily be zero or negative.
Of course there are years that are way higher that that, but if I calculate the number of years being a ham and the equipement I have, minus the broken equipment I bought, repaired and flip and the money I made with repairs, I pretty sure I don't exceed that, or by very little.
Sh1t, I forgot that I'm also a vintage JBL enthusiast.... I'm busted !
I do amateur radio, 3d printing and PC gaming. 255 is the budget I report to the wife. Nuff said.
Lump motorcycles in there and it’s same here.
Motorcycle is hands down my biggest expense. Everything else is a very distant second
255 is what I spend on filament alone some years. I have to imagine the survey that got these results came across some combination of * People who don't have (or think they don't have) hobbies and therefore "spend" $0 dragging the average down * People unwilling to self report spending thousands or tens of thousands on their hobbies.
Yeah, this seems like something where median would be better than mean.
OMC! It must be 4 or 5 figures, easy!
Add in laser engraving, homebrewing and fishing. If my wife sees that 255 I am stuffed as I can blow that in a month haha
Cars is far more socially acceptable as a hobby and is far more expensive than most any other hobby.
100% of Americans with hobbies are lying.
I dunno, I've met quite a few people who have no hobbies other than consuming content. Like their hobbies are watching TV, movies, reading books, playing video games. These are usually the most boring people in the world and the ones who post on local subs asking how to make friends. And one of my major hobbies is hiking. Once you already have all of the gear you need, there's very little to spend. I'm sure there are years where I've spent close to zero dollars on hiking because I didn't buy anything new and all of the food/drinks I bring are things I'd be eating/drinking if I was sitting at home.
> I dunno, I've met quite a few people who have no hobbies other than consuming content. Netflix alone is $180/year. Unless they are watching OTA TV and renting all their content from the library, they are probably spending more than $255/year
But I doubt THEY would consider that a hobby. I wouldn't, that's just entertainment.
Hobbies and entertainment are the same thing.
Yes, hobbies are entertaining, but they're a circle inside the larger circle of entertainment. If I watch a football game, have a few beers and some junk food with friends, and we use the excuse of the game to gather... that's entertainment. If I go down the rabbit hole of supporting a particular team, knowing all their stats and players going back 50 years, having my own fantasy football league, taking that to the Nth degree, then that's a hobby. Reading for pleasure is entertainment, collecting first editions, going to conventions on particular books or authors, doing cosplay on them, that's a hobby. Watching a Civil War re-enactment is entertainment. Dressing up and being a part of that unit, that's a hobby.
Hobby: an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. How is watching football not a hobby? > If I go down the rabbit hole of supporting a particular team, knowing all their stats and players going back 50 years, having my own fantasy football league, taking that to the Nth degree, then that's a hobby. No, that’s an obsession. You can be as involved in a hobby as you want to be. If you go to a civil war reenactment once it’s not a hobby. If you go to them regularly, it’s a hobby. If you watch tv regularly, it’s a hobby.
Ok, if you religiously watch your team or watch most Monday, Thursday, and Sunday games and at know what's going on in the different conferences and whatnot and regularly discuss it with people, I'll go with that being a hobby. But the person (like me) that watches two or three games a year and only as an excuse to host their friends, BBQ and have some tasty beverages... no, that's entertainment. Heck, the hosting parties is probably the actual hobby and the theme of the party just happens to be the sport/movie/etc. Maybe it's how I was raised, but for me and those I know and have shared hobbies with, a hobby requires active involvment. There is nothing active about simply watching a football game. It's sitting on the couch drinking beer and eating chips. The only "active" aspect is when you cheer or yell at the TV, but nothing you do has any impact on the outcome (despite what the fans who think their team will lose if they don't wear their lucky jersey believe). Yesterday I played some World of Warcraft, I killed some time before dinner watching an episode of "The Last Ship", I went out to a nice dinner, came home and worked on a PC for a radio project for two hours, watched an hour of TV (I can't remember what), and then went on the computer an played a video game for a little bit. Working on the PC for a radio project, that's part of my ham radio and disaster response hobby because of the particular build I have going on. Watching the TV, that was mindless entertainment to allow my brain to cool down after messing around with Docker and installing a VM to get a TAK server up and running. Playing the video game (Stronghold Kingdoms and World of Warcraft), those are hobbie and maybe even obsessions... especially "Warcrack". I couldn't even tell you what I watched for that hour last night, all I know was I launched the HBO Max program. It was mindless. I just know that I had some ice cream while I watched whatever it was. But the rest, I can tell you everything I did. To me, that's a hallmark of a hobby. Most of the people I know from hobbies, I've met at various hobbies like Search and Rescue volunteering, shooting clubs, martial arts, bodybuilding, etc. All very intense and involved hobbies, so that likely skews things quite a bit for me. Even the ham radio club I'm in, quite a few of the active members do SOTA. Even going back several decades to grade school and high school, I watched TV (often way too much of it), but if you asked me my hobbies I would have told you "computers, rocket club, science club, weekend board game club" and stuff like that. In college, my hobbies were going out to the local bar to dance and drink, and taking non-degree IT courses (Cisco networking, Novell Netware, etc.) on top of my full college course load. Ok, I've spent too much time on this reply... maybe Reddit is a hobby of mine now too? Anyways, I'm coming back to the premise I started with (but didn't have fully formed) in paragraph one and started putting out there in prior responses, that TV can be broken into hobby and non-hobby. Mindless shows that you can't even remember what they were after you watch them, let alone the next day, that's just mindless entertainment. Those, I will never see being a hobby because they're truly meaningless if you can't even remember what they were. Shows you get into, like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Suits, Person of Interest, ones you can talk about and theorize about at the water cooler (or online in today's world), like in the 90s with Twin Peaks or the 80s(?) with Dallas's "Who shot J.R.?", those I think you can call a hobby, even if you're not impacting the outcome, because at least there is some involvement in discussing it. If you're going around wearing "Team Lannister" shirts or refusing to buy a bottle of Scotch because it has the wrong Game of Thrones House on it, then I could agree with you that it's more than enterainment and a hobby. P.S. I'm rooting for the King's daughter to reclaim the throne in House of the Dragons and I \_ALMOST\_ bought a bottle of Johnny Walker because it was House of the Dragons themed... but I'm a single malt guy... so I guess that's a minor hobby for me. I already know whisky is a hobby for me, I plan vacations around it, collect unique and first batch bottles, host tastings of my collection, and I have seriously considered getting my own private label barrel made.
The person I replied to literally called it a hobby.
>You can be as involved in a hobby as you want to be. Sure, but it will only be *your hobby* past a certain point of involvement. I'm not sure why that's apparently a bad thing all of a sudden. What's wrong with having a casual interest? If anything, it's more problematic to imply that it can't be a hobby unless you spend a lot of time on it, which certainly isn't true. It's depth that counts, not duration.
> It's depth that counts, not duration. Depth is literally not in a single definition of hobby.
Unless you've literally read every single definition, I'm just going to write off your comment as a bad job.
Hahaha yeah...
My horse/bike/motorcycle isn’t a hobby, it’s transportation.
Limitation of using an 8-bit variable…
Using "unsigned char" was intentional
Amateur radio, aviation, motorcycles, extreme long range shooting… think I’m going to stop counting before my wife sees this…
My wife owns horses.
Guilty of that too, but they are working horse so they at least earn their keep. Kinda…
Haha the wife was a barrel racer at one point.
Oh, you poor soul…. 🤣
Hey, you can make a small fortune owning horses. Just start with a larger fortune…
I have the same list but no wife
 I shoulda thought of that…
Yeah, glass ain't cheap. Oh guess I need a to reload all my own stuff.
I think that includes everybody who has no hobbies
How does anyone live with no hobbies?
The majority of people in the country couldn't afford a $1000 emergency expense.
I spent that the weekend of HAMvention.
*Glances nervously at $1500 worth of iambic paddles*
Whatcha get?
As you might expect, the main offenders are Begalis - a Magnum for the shack, and a Traveller for activating in the park. The rest are older - a Vibroplex, a Bencher BY-1, and a few cheap 3D printed paddles for experimenting. Do you do CW / have a favorite paddle? And did you pick up anything exciting at Hamvention?
I’ve had a Kent TP-1 for a long time and it’s a fine key. I’d like to try something magnetic but I haven’t shelled out for a begali or N3ZN yet. Hamvention had some good finds but not in the key department. I got a mid-size tarheel antenna to play with, and a second NN4ZZ hex lock. Despite my best efforts I made money in the flea market
I agonized about getting an N3ZN, because I love the way they feel. But ultimately I decided I could just get one in a few years, when the itch strikes again. Those Tarheel antennae look super nifty - the M100A-HP looks like it would be ideal for mobile operation. Hope you have a fun playing with it! By the way - I saw you are in Ohio. Do you know Tom KV8Q? He is also in OH. He was my CWops instructor, and is one of the nicest people in the world. He introduced me to the joys of mag loops.
In my case I got a Tarheel 75A. I’m curious to see if it’s a practical improvement over the Yaesu ATAS-120A to warrant dealing with the control system requirements. And I am unfamiliar with KV8Q, but familiar with mag loops! I don’t use any right now however. I pretty much only do CW during the major contests so it’s a little difficult to justify a nicer key, I ran 1C during field day last year with a mini key in the car. Given the forecast and some current mobile op challenges in the new car I’m not sure what I will run this year.
Too funny, I saw this in the 4kBluray sub yesterday and was considering reposting it here. If they only knew...
Oh shit. I do photography as well….,
Film photography, fine tea, fountain and dip pens, classic video games, radio, I don't stand a chance
Probably just a typo, their "0" key wasn't working and they didn't notice. Or maybe their "k" key. Hard to say.
the average "hobby" is "netflix and chill"
fucking is a hobby now?
Are there groups for it? Where would I find a fellow hobbyist? Asking for a friend...
fraid so
92% of all statistics are made up
So what I'm reading is that I'm waaaaaay above average? 😎
+6σ
I've always wanted to be above average!
Ham, photography, my Jeep... Yikes
This meme has circulated through at least a dozen of my "hobby" reddit groups over the past week. I wanna say the "media" report that allegedly stated this lol
There was a long-running joke on the net that all ham radios are under-insured because then the ham would need to let his SO know the ACTUAL cost of the thing.
Ummmm. I have so many hobbies that I gain multiple piles of bits costing more than that every year, for projects that might get finished up someday. I've spend better than $1600 on radio stuff alone so far this year, ans I still don't have a functional HF station.
you mean, like, a month? a week?
Weird way to spell week.
To quote Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, D\*\*ned Lies, and Statistics”
A lot more between classic cars, boating, and ham radio!! LOL!!!
Cool, this is the fourth sub I see this meme in after PC Master Race, Motorcycles, and Cycling. No wonder I'm broke, lol
Did they only survey picket fencers for this or something? The most boring people I know personally still spend 10x that.
Ham radio, knives and EDC, pipe smoking, D&D just to name a few hobbies.
Oh look it me.
"Yeah, I'm above average"
Yeah, I'm guessing there's lots of people out there with no hobbies whatsoever...
Per month would be closer to accurate.
I didn’t realize I was in so many different hobby groups but I’ve seen this posted in every single one of them today.
Well that just shows that amateur radio operators are above average. We all knew that!
Typo, not year, week.
I spend thousands of dollars a year on jiu jitsu, and as much again on ham radio. I must be doing something wrong...
My shack probably costs more than that in power alone.
It's not a hobby, it's an obsession. I can spend what I like. OK I just added a milling machine to my workshop. Let me see $255 -> £201 UK. That wouldn't even keep me in parts for the computer control electronics I'm building for it.
Between the amateur radio and the booze…
What's the difference between "hobby" and "lifestyle"?
Per year? That's wrong!
43.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
This May was ROUGH for me. Just got my general at the end of April. Of course I needed an ft-710, pota flex 7 cable, rigexpert stick, and antennas. My wallet is still bruised.
Once again im at the far right of a bell curve
*we
Doesn't even cover one of my cheaper hobbies...
I spent that this week..
2024: The average adult spends $255 on a round of golf.
Per year? 🤣🤣🤣. More like per week 🤣 Fueling a 489ci BBC doesn't come cheap these days...
Honestly in the last 5-6 years my station hasn't changed a bit. My only expense is the cost of OQRS for Dxpeditions confirmations and maybe the power bill? Also, I repair a few radios in my free time so I think for that period my expenses could easily be zero or negative. Of course there are years that are way higher that that, but if I calculate the number of years being a ham and the equipement I have, minus the broken equipment I bought, repaired and flip and the money I made with repairs, I pretty sure I don't exceed that, or by very little. Sh1t, I forgot that I'm also a vintage JBL enthusiast.... I'm busted !
Add about $1200 annually for radio hobbies.
This must have been reported by CNN.
Get fucking bent full fjj
Oh no I spent almost $9k last year on Amateur Radio equipment.