Some ‘old fogey’ ramblings about the decline in practical hobbies, if I may be permitted.
Born in 1939, I've lived through and observed profound societal changes that arose over the latter half of the last century which have reduced the amount of time (and money) that young people have in which to engage in hobbies, leading to a tendency towards fleeting ‘pastimes’ rather than hobbies.
Computers, internet, mobile phones, and social media are the thief of time. Texting, Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (for the ‘oldies’), WhatsApp. Crikey, many people can’t go out for a meal, to the supermarket, cinema, or restaurant without faffing about with their phones. (We didn't have a landline until we were thirty).
In some ways, my generation had it easy compared to my children and certainly my grandchildren.
I started school aged 5 in 1944 - the year that the school leaving age was raised from 14 to 15, and Secondary Modern Schools were created. At age 11, children took the 11-plus exam, which four in five failed. The one-in-five who passed went to grammar schools, took GCEs and left at age 16 and got an office job. The other 4 in 5 went to Secondary Modern Schools and left at 15 with no qualifications (there were none to be had, so no homework).
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Secondary modern schools were less disposed than grammar schools to promote academic achievement, they were more about reining in any fanciful notions you may have had about rising above your station in life - you were pre-destined to be 'factory fodder'. ("You'll be working with your hands - not your brain lad" ).
In their original conception, secondary modern school children 'were to be shielded from the stultifying effects of external examinations' with students having no access to GCE O Levels or other external examinations. Those who went there (including me) were taught rudimentary skills including metalwork and woodwork before being set to work at age 15 in factories, building trade apprenticeships or menial jobs. If they were lucky, (me), maybe an apprenticeship, where they’d typically have a day a week at college, and two nights at night school to study for C&G trade exams. Other than that, at the end of the working day and at weekends, their time was their own, and they had money in their pockets for hobbies, with few of the distractions of life nowadays.
In the mid-1950s, only 3.5% of school leavers went to university – overwhelmingly from middle class backgrounds.
Move on a generation:
1972: School leaving age for all raised to 16. Exams and homework for all.
2013: School leaving age Raised to 17. Yet more exams and more homework.
2015, raised to 18.
At age 18, I’d passed intermediate C&G Intermediate and Final practical and theory exams, was working unsupervised and had been earning a wage for three years. At 22 I was married, with a semi-detached house. One third was the deposit, two thirds the mortgage.
In 1972, 15% of school leavers went to university.
By 2000, 35% went to university, and in 2018, 50.2%.
It's not enough to get a degree - many are under pressure to get that all-important 2:1 or above degree classification. One-third of students were awarded firsts or 2:1s in 1970. In 2015 it was over two-thirds. (70%). They graduate with a debt of £40,000 and have to compete for jobs in the graduate jobs market. They won't get a face-to-face interview unless they pass an online multi-stage A.I. screening process.
So, studying for GCEs and A levels, then university leaves no time (or money) to take up hobbies.
If you get into positions of authority, by thirty, if you want to 'climb further up the greasy pole' you're going to need an MBA to top up your degree. If you're lucky, by mid career you may become cash rich, but you will be time poor and you're really not going to have hours on end to start building a model railway outfit. If you have twenty years experience, fifteen of it will be obsolete, and in the next five years, you'll need acquire challenging new skills.
For the most part, my generation, had none of those pressures – you left school on Friday, started a job on Monday and if you didn’t like it, you left and got another job. True, you had work and career pressures, particularly if you wanted to ‘rise through the ranks’ but you did have some time for hobbies and your working day was the time you spent at your place of work. Particularly since the start of the pandemic, working from home has taken off and as a result, many people have no clearly defined boundaries between work and domestic life, and hence, little free time for hobbies.
As a parent, the very last thing I'd have wanted for our two sons when they were studying for 'O' and 'A' levels would have been the distractions of a hobby. It was a relief - not a disappointment, that they had no interest in any of my hobbies (they thought hobbies were for dads - not for lads).
Our two sons went to university in the 1980s, before the distraction of internet, mobile ‘phones and social media. Our three granddaughters studied relentlessly for GCEs and A Levels. One (aged 24) graduated two years ago and our twin granddaughters (aged 21) are in their final year. They play a full part in university life, but hobbies are off the agenda. They will leave university later this year with tuition fee debts of £40K+
Some hobbies are flourishing, but most participants are in mid or late career or are retired and have both the time and the financial resources which younger people - however interested they might be - do not. The woodturning Club of which I’m secretary had 65 members when lockdown struck in March 2020. We were not able to re-launch the Club until March last year. In the two years of enforced closure, we lost 14 members due to infirmity, moving away, passing away, or losing interest, but have gained new members, now have 60 and are back on a sound footing.
Incidentally, not so much a hobby or a pastime, but my generation were very much involved in DIY. That seems to be well past its peak, given that we now live in a post-industrial society with many fewer people having been taught practical skills or working in jobs where craft skills were the norm. What was ‘DIY’ has been supplanted with ‘GSI’ –
Get
Someone
In. (Great for the trade – try to find a plumber, carpenter, kitchen fitter, decorator, electrician, brickie etc).
Apologies for rambling and dribbling all over the thread.
David.
'Use what talents you possess - the woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang there were those that sang the best'. (Henry Van Dyke).
