I saw a segment on the news the other day about how people are getting so tired of constantly looking at phones, tablets and computers that they are turning to analog activities for a break from screens.
The news reporter called these activities the “grandma hobbies” because they are pursuits that were traditionally engaged in by older women and men. Some of these back-to-basic activities are things like knitting and other kinds of needlework, crafting, doing jigsaw puzzles, baking, playing card and board games, and bird watching. The beauty of these types of activities is that you can do them while visiting with other people or while listening to music or even a podcast.
I learned to knit as a girl and still enjoy doing it. I keep my knitting basket in my writing room and will pick it up and knit a few rows when my eyes need a break from the computer screen. It’s very relaxing and rewarding at the same time because I can see the progress I make immediately.
My mother was fabulous at embroidery. If you don’t know what that is, it’s using thread to sew artistic designs on fabric. One of my regrets is that I didn’t ask my mom to teach me to embroider. It was one of the things she still enjoyed doing later in her life, and I feel like I missed a big opportunity to do it with her. I know she would have loved to teach me.
In addition to screens, I think many people are just weary of the constant barrage of negativity and the lack of civility we see on our screens every single day. And we have lots of screens at our house. Besides TVs, we have computers, iPads, phones and even digital photo frames with rotating photos. I believe people are going back to these “old” activities because they crave the human connection that we all had before the computer age.
I sent a few Christmas cards last month despite the $.78 cost of a first-class stamp. I tried to write a personal note in many of them. In early January, I received the nicest handwritten note from a friend in Texas who had received one. I haven’t seen her in two or three years and wanted to re-connect with the card…and it worked. She told me that receiving the card both surprised and pleased her. At the end of the note, she thanked me for remembering her at Christmas.
This past week, our next-door neighbor, Kathy, invited us to dinner at her house. She is a widow and lives alone after being happily married for many decades. She also invited another couple from our block. We contributed a salad to the dinner, and our other neighbors brought dessert. We sat around Kathy’s dining room table and had a lovely dinner and laughed and talked for two or three hours. There were no phones in sight, no TV on, just neighbors getting together and getting to know one another better. At one point, Kathy remarked that living alone gets very lonely and it about broke my heart.
We all had such a good time that we decided to continue the dinners and take turns hosting. Perhaps we will invite some of the other neighbors on our block too!
In this technological world we are living in, it’s so easy to stay in our own houses and only connect with other people on screens. But it isn’t the same as human connection…and people want to be connected with one another; it’s in our nature.
I think I’ll write a handwritten thank you note to Kathy today and thank her for giving us all such a splendid evening.