Hobbies change over time. Some become very trendy while some just quietly disappear in the passage of time. We sent out a survey asking for details of people’s old hobbies. 11 stood out. Some of their passions used to be mainstream, but now they’re pastimes of the few and the brave. So here are a bunch of hobbies that were once really popular but now hardly anyone talks about.
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Ham radio operating
Amateur radios connecting you to strangers across the country, hundreds or even thousands of miles away? It was like magic. But now, there are so many more ways to talk with people who live far away, it’s a niche hobby.
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooks are what parents and grandparents used to use to save family memories, tickets, and printed photos. From these, they created beautiful hand-decorated pages. Kids these days have social media and digital photo albums, so the scrapbooking craft has gone out of fashion.
Rock tumbling
Kids used to love rock tumbling, getting pockets full of rough stones, and then using small barrels to polish them into shining gems. This classic science-comes-into-contact-with-nature hobby is now almost unheard of.
Collecting autographs
Meeting a celebrity and getting their autograph used to be a huge deal. People collected them in special books and even framed them. Now, selfies have just replaced them.
Roller disco
Roller rinks used to be massive, with lines out the door. People flocked to them to skate around and around to disco music, the entire rink lit up with hundreds of twinkling little lights. It was the place to be. Roller skating still exists of course, but the disco style is pretty much gone.
Model ship or airplane building
Carefully gluing tiny parts together to build a perfect model used to be a popular rainy-day pastime. It taught patience and attention to detail. Fewer people do it now, with video games and streaming taking up most of that quiet hobby time.
Collecting matchbooks
Collecting matchbooks helped to keep mementos from hotels, bars, restaurants, and different places you visited. They all had unique designs on the cover and told stories of your travels. Smoking has gone out of fashion in much of the world, and lighters have replaced matches, so matchbook collecting has almost vanished.
Soap carving
Soap carving was a surprisingly widespread hobby. It was especially popular during the Great Depression when people had little to spend money on and needed to get creative. You’d carve animals, flowers, or little characters out of bars of soap. It’s a disappearing art now.
Yo-Yo tricks
There were times when yo-yos weren’t just toys. They were a full-blown trend. Kids competed to see who could master the hardest tricks. You can still see them around, but they never seem to be as big a deal these days.
Stamp collecting
Kids everywhere used to have little booklets full of colorful stamps. Stamp collectors would trade them with one another, look for rare stamps at market stalls, and proudly show them off at school or in stamp-collecting clubs. Now people rarely use stamps or even the post.
Kite fighting
Flying kites wasn’t always just about watching them float peacefully in the sky. Back then, people would actually battle each other, trying to cut the other person’s string while their kites tangled in midair. In some places there were even whole festivals for it, but now it’s mostly just something people remember from the past, at least in the Western world.
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