"You can't download a crafting experience. While you may look up instructions, the digital world doesn't offer the feeling of a pencil on a sketchpad, wool yarn through your fingers, or shaping clay into a new vessel. It's an analog experience that more people are craving: sitting down to create something, meeting a new group of people, or being exposed to new ideas."
"A thriving hobby economy might be the perfect fit for the AI-era - and offer some labor-market solutions for a workforce that's having to pivot on the fly. "The hobby economy supports people to really become highly skilled at something," Lind said, "and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to graduate even from high school - not to mention college - in order to be somebody who is going to be leading a class on gardening or is going to be running a board game café.""
Many people crave analog crafting for sensory engagement: pencil on sketchpad, yarn through fingers, or shaping clay. Hobbies offer sit-down creative time, new social connections, and exposure to ideas. Hobbies act as a tech-proof activity that resists automation and accelerations by AI. Rising affordability pressures, social isolation, and reduced workplace interaction are pushing people toward hobby pursuits. A thriving hobby economy can provide labor-market resilience by developing high levels of skill among participants. Hobby-based skills and small-business ventures often require no college degree, enabling accessible leadership roles like gardening instructors or board-game café operators.
Read at Business Insider
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