I think this is very true. I have a sense that you are right, though I'm not sure if anyone is doing high quality studies on the topic. One reason I think is d

I think this is very true. I have a sense that you are right, though I'm not sure if anyone is doing high quality studies on the topic. One reason I think is due to declining economic stability. It's hard to have the mental space for hobbies when the basics of healthcare or shelter are out of reach for so many people. And even if you are doing well, there's the constant sense that one slip-up could have you fall off the middle class pedestal, never to recover. I think an equally important reason is that pervasiveness of the attention capturing tech companies. Some of the world's largest companies build their empires around capturing every last second of free attention. The smartest people in the world are measuring and experimenting to make sure their product is as addictive and time consuming as possible. There's even an advertising company trying to invent self driving car robots so that they can colonize the last bits of our day not spent staring at a screen. Put these two things together and it doesn't leave much room for stamp collecting for the typical person. My mom collected stamps and coins, which seems positively quaint now.