Discussion

Discussion

This current study determined that all participants’ hobbies bring them joy. Individual and team sports, reading, and electronic content were some of the most common hobbies listed by those who experienced joy without reporting any hobby-related stress (see Table 2). Therefore, this study concluded that physical, logical, and electronic hobbies (in moderation) are most associated with bringing people joy. This conclusion confirmed that physical activity can have a positive impact on one’s mental health (Ng et al., 2021; Pressman et al., 2009).

However, the subjective nature of hobbies made it difficult to categorize all aspects of a hobby into one specific type. For example, a hobby like videography incorporates electronic, logical, artistic, and physical elements during the production process. In the context of this current study, videography was categorized under the artistic hobby type (see Table 2), because videography involves a high level of creative thinking. Simply categorizing it as creative does not account for the different components of the activity. Additionally, this research did not consider the limitations of the four hobby types. One of the students mentioned important relationships as one of their hobbies (see Table 2). This response was marked as ‘other’ since it did not fit with the four main hobby types. The answer warrants creating a new ‘social’ hobby type since it does not seem to involve anything artistic, physical, logical, or electronic based.

When students described what about their hobbies brings them joy, the majority stated that they provide an escape from stress and social connections (see Figure 8). It was interesting to note that students associate joy with getting away from something rather than directly associating joy with the hobby itself. Additionally, when asked what brings people joy, hobbies were rarely mentioned in the responses (see Table 4). Instead, things like food, coffee, or spending time with loved ones were mentioned. There was no consistent trend in the answers to the question of what brings people joy. Although hobbies may bring someone joy, people may not associate their favourite activities with joy when asked directly (see Table 4). It is reasonable to conclude that people associate hobbies with an escape from stress rather than something that causes joy.

While the participants’ responses provided information about why certain hobbies are chosen by students, there were few answers provided regarding an emotional connection between the students and their favourite activities. It may be easier to connect hobbies with mental health by establishing the feelings that people have when they participate in those hobbies. Question eight asked how participants view their relationship with their hobby. However, some answers were too general to understand the true nature of that relationship. For example, one person described their relationship with their hobby as “infrequent” which does not highlight any emotional connection to the hobby. Gathering emotional responses would allow for a better understanding of the impact people’s favorite hobby/hobbies have on them. Emotional responses could also provide more context into the participants’ overall mental health.

In the answers to question 12, five participants reported that their chosen hobby/hobbies bring them stress. The people who acknowledged stress as a result of their hobby/hobbies listed activities that mostly fit under the categories of artistic and electronic, such as video games, creative writing, and cooking (see Tables 2 & 4). One conclusion in this current study is that artistic and electronic hobbies are more likely to bring stress. This conclusion is consistent with previous research on the mental health impacts of electronic hobbies (Ali et al., 2021; Twenge & Farley, 2020).

When asked about the stresses related to their hobby/hobbies, every participant answered that perfectionism was a contributing factor (see Figure 7). For the purpose of this study, perfectionism describes additional pressures associated with chasing a desired “perfect” result in someone’s hobby. For example, one of the participants who mentioned that their hobbies bring them stress listed playing the violin as an activity they participate in (see Table 2). Stress caused by perfectionism might consist of potentially unrealistic expectations that are difficult to realize. This study concludes that while hobbies bring people joy, there are still elements of pressure within those tasks that contribute to stress.

This current study aimed to determine whether enjoying a specific hobby would also lead to participating in the subculture around that hobby (see Figure 5). Furthermore, this study sought to examine how people engage in the subculture(s) of their hobby/hobbies and to what extent this participation occurs. Every participant stated they engage in the subculture of their hobby/hobbies to some degree (see Figure 5). However, in question seven, people reported spending more time on their favourite hobby/hobbies than following the subculture around that hobby. The extent to which someone enjoys the subculture around their chosen hobby varies, but enjoying a hobby also involves participating in the hobby’s subculture.

The number of reported hours spent engaging in the subculture of a hobby/hobbies was less than expected. Most responses to question seven reported spending less than or equal to one hour on subculture-related activities. In comparison, over 50% of participants reported spending between two to five hours per day enjoying their favourite hobby/hobbies (see Figure 3). This is interesting because, in some cases, engaging in the subculture around a hobby might be easier than participating in the hobby itself. For example, playing a game of basketball could take a couple of hours and require physically going to a gym to participate. Watching highlight videos of basketball stars like Stephen Curry or LeBron James, on the other hand, requires very little effort because of the ease of access provided by phones, computers, or TVs. Therefore, for certain hobbies, it is possible that someone could spend more time engaging in a subculture than the actual hobby/hobbies. Perhaps participants are unconsciously engaging in their hobby’s subculture without even realizing it. An individual may participate in basketball and engage in the subculture by following a celebrity like LeBron James. However, they could be following LeBron for his starring role in Space Jam or his funny tweets, rather than his accomplishments as a basketball player. Therefore, if people unconsciously do not realize they are participating in a subculture, they may be spending more time participating in their hobby/hobbies than they think. Additionally, it is possible that activities associated with a hobby’s subculture could be considered an entirely separate hobby. The final aspect of subculture(s) to consider is different levels of engagement and the impact on the relationship with their hobbies. Someone who casually enjoys their hobby/hobbies would participate very differently from someone who considers themself an enthusiast. This study does not dive deeper into the levels of engagement that people have with their hobbies and subcultures; therefore, there is no way to differentiate between casual and dedicated participants.

The final question in the survey asked about participants’ overall life satisfaction. The most popular answer revealed that students had good overall life satisfaction (see Figure 9). However, using general terms like good, okay, and great did not provide a clear picture of how participants really viewed their lives (see Figure 9). The terms used in the question were akin to routine responses that people might use in a general conversation to evade giving a real answer. For example, people who answered that they were okay with their lives could mean that they have either a positive or negative life satisfaction. Without follow-up questions to glean more information, the responses are too vague to know how people’s hobbies and lifestyles contribute to their overall life satisfaction. A better approach for asking this question would be to consider changing the question to a long answer format or changing terminology in the answers to provide clearer responses. Those answers might consist of responses like “could be better” instead of “bad” or “I feel happy where I am right now” instead of “great”.