Comic Strips

I think how I feel about collecting hobbies depends immensely on what is being collected and how it is used. If someone is collecting old books and actually reading them, then even if they buy $10,000 books, as long as they aren't trying to show it off on the basis of price - I have zero issue with such a thing.

Like it's fine if they want to show off that the book is really rare, explain why it's rare, how hard if was to find, what's special about it, etc. And then if as a result of that I can infer it must have been expensive, I'm not grossed out. But if they come at from the angle of "this book is 10 grand and that's why you should be impressed by it and transitively be impressed by me", that's nasty and pisses me off.

I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with collection-based hobbies, although I do think that in general they are not really impressive hobbies and should not be misinterpreted as a skill or something to be "proud of". But I think this is just a conflation being made because the word "hobby" does too much double duty nowadays. We use it to describe things that are simple, as well as things that are complex; impressive and unimpressive, skilled and unskilled, creative and consumption. "Hobby" usually just means literally anything I regularly do that isn't required of me. And as a result it carries baggage from it's various applications in between themselves, like using the same spoon for your curry and your soup and your ice cream.

If we taboo that word, then I think people collecting things is freed from hobby-connotations like:

• "this is something for me to be proud of"
• "this is something that makes me an impressive person"
• "this is something that demonstrates a skill or ability beyond that of the uninitiated"

And we can see collecting for what it is: nothing more than liking a thing, and wanting to have it around to admire/contemplate/use. I think collecting can be a very respectable demonstration of someone understanding what is important to themselves, and in being able to take joy in simple things or the same things over and over. The dark side of collection is obviously hoarding, void-filling, status-signaling, addictive behavior. But the light-side of it is cherishing things that being you joy, putting them somewhere where you regularly appreciate and protect them, sharing that joy with others. It can be very humble, vulnerable, and in fact can be very anti consumerist/hoarding/void-filling/status-signaling.

Like anything, I think it's all in the way it's done. But I don't think you need to be working on something or demonstrating a skill with it, or producing something, in order for the collecting to be respectable.

i once had my town's largest collection of Jack In the Box antenna toppers (i had 4) and am personally and deeply offended by this statement

I mean, this is Lemmy---practically everyone here feels superior to folks who use Twitter/reddit/Meta products/etc.

(Only half /s with this one...)