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Inflation is a thing but the world is also much less classist, at least economically, today. Back in my boomer parents era, my grandpa had to get a promotion f
by VLM 5y ago
Inflation is a thing but the world is also much less classist, at least economically, today.
Back in my boomer parents era, my grandpa had to get a promotion for my boomer dad to afford expensive hobbies like photography or listening to 60s rock.
For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made.
It used be a sociological class thing, like on resumes and college applications being into home photography meant you were upper middle class for jobs and schools whom wanted to filter on that class membership. Now those hobbies mean a kid once tapped an icon on his phone, and has about the same hiring/application significance.
I would guess there are still mainstream-ish hobbies today that are still expensive, but I'm trying to think of what they are, if you cross off stuff cancelled by covid. I guess fandom of expensive streamed services, fandom for HBO netflix ESPN disney+ cbs streaming service shows is one of the few remaining ways to show off wealth in public. Fandom is kinda tacky anyway.
- heavyset_go 5y ago> For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made. It's still a class thing, because poorer school districts don't have the resources to give always kids free tablets or laptops that are sufficient for actually getting things done, which became a big deal during the pandemic because of the shift towards remote learning. Access to the internet has certainly increased, but those connections to the internet can be poor and metered, like cell connections. Music as a hobby is still expensive, as lessons and instruments are expensive. Team sports are still expensive, requiring that parents can afford uniforms, fees and the free time to get their kids to practice and games regularly. Most tech related hobbies are expensive, as well.
- Spooky23 5y agoSports replaced those hobbies. To play high school soccer or baseball in my area, you pretty much need to drop $2-$10k on club sports. They’re unregulated and you have to be careful as some of the coaches are assholes that hurt kids - one guy had 11-12 year old throwing curveballs. Soccer is particularly bad. The big high school coaches basically have a side hustle running these club/travel teams as a funnel. Those soccer teams can be easily $10k, plus travel expenses of the team goes a a tournament. You’re basically forced to payoff a public employee to make it, which parents think is a big deal for college admissions. My kid plays baseball and his nephews play soccer. I’m sure other sports are similar.
- rdtwo 5y agoThe other poster nailed it. Sports of any kind is huge time and money commitment. A lot of the fake and real STEM labeled stuff as well. Honestly though everyone is trying to create a self made man/woman nerarative for their kid because that’s what sells. It’s very American to pretend you made it on your own when you grew up in the top 1-5%