Millennials embracing traditional, old-fashioned hobbies
During isolation, traditional, tactile pastimes like puzzles and knitting are booming
The collection of postage stamps has long been a hobby dominated by “old white men” according to Bill Longley. He has been operating a public auction firm for over 30 years specializing in selling postage stamps and postal history memorabilia.
But in the past few years, Longley has noticed increased interest from a new demographic. “The uptick in interest has certainly surged and the biggest growth has come from people who are 25 to 40,” he explains. “While older collectors usually go to trade shows, the new wave is very adept at using the internet as a tool to find what they want.”
Since the pandemic hit, Longley says he’s seen a bump in sales through his online auction firm. “People have more time on their hands and they’re spending it on hobbies for enjoyment and to forget the worries of the outside world,” he says. “The millennial who’s now sitting at home can have quiet time working on displaying their stamps.”
Stamp collecting is just one of the many traditional hobbies that have seen a resurgence in recent years, augmented by the pandemic. Millennials in particular have gravitated toward time-consuming pastimes like jigsaw puzzles, embroidery and knitting. Allyson Arsénio Rod is the general manager of the Game and Hobby Zone in Yorkville and she has noticed an increase of interest in model kits of items like cars and planes.
“Model kits that you glue and paint, those are doing really well as well,” she says. “They take a few hours to do.”
Despite closing her bricks-and-mortar store, Claudia Quintanilla, owner of the Bloordale craft store EweKnit, says that sales on items like yarn for knitting and crochet, embroidery kits and sewing supplies have been steady thanks to online and phone orders. Prior to the pandemic, her store also hosted workshops on classic crafts like punch needle embroidery and rigid heddle weaving.
There are two things that these hobbies and crafts have in common: they’re hands-on and time-consuming. It’s why Marcel Danesi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, believes that younger generations like millennials and Generation Z are the ones fuelling this renewed interest, especially when we’re stuck inside our homes.
“Having played with virtual objects all their lives, young people today may be experiencing the need to grasp, literally, real physical objects,” Danesi explains. At the University of Toronto, Danesi teaches an undergraduate course on the history of puzzles and games and has observed an increased interest in classic games even before the pandemic hit. “In the last two years in particular, I’ve noticed that some of the traditional games, including chess, Monopoly and jigsaw puzzles are making a bit of a comeback.”
Danesi sees puzzles and traditional games as being a preferable form of escape during tough times like a pandemic. “Watching TV gets boring after a while,” he says. “However, if I start a jigsaw puzzle, it’s not going to end right away, especially if it’s a complex one. I really do believe that puzzles engage and challenge you so much, that the feelings of becoming stir crazy or wanting to go out kind of recede into the background.”
Sulmaz Ghorashi sees the appeal of puzzling over TV. “I binge-watched a show on Netflix yesterday and I just felt so tired at the end of the day,” she says. “But I don’t feel the same way when I puzzle. I feel more energized.”
Ghorashi, a 35-year-old executive assistant, reignited her interest in puzzles after a recent purchase from a charity event a few years ago. She now reserves “regular puzzling nights” during her week and spends most Sundays tackling her latest puzzle — a photograph of a gumball machine.
“I think that it’s a really nice distraction if I’m feeling depressed or anxious,” Ghorashi says. “Now that I work from home, I have the luxury of taking puzzle breaks so I do that sometimes during lunch or if I’m feeling stuck on something I’m working on.”
Bridging something old with something new, Ghorashi also follows social media accounts of other puzzlers, notably @puzzleinprogress on Instagram. The account is run by Jessica Joaquin, a Toronto-based puzzler and YouTuber who posts time-lapses of puzzles being assembled and reverse shots of puzzles taken apart. Similar videos are trending on TikTok where the hashtag #jigsawpuzzle has generated over two million views on the platform.
The social-media friendly nature of these hobbies has contributed to their popularity among younger generations. Puzzling time-lapses are satisfying to watch. Bright and colourful crafts are Instagram gold and crafters have found ways to make their works modern, like creating feminist patterns and trendy tag lines in embroidery. Millennial stamp collectors find creative ways to organize and display their collections, like creating collages of country-specific stamps or organizing by colour.
Above all, sharing traditional crafts and hobbies online is proof of one’s skill and patience — characteristics that some say are counter to the millennial generation. “I’m part of a Reddit group where people post their jigsaw puzzles when they’ve completed them,” Ghorashi says. “When I post it somewhere, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I do feel more motivated by posting. Otherwise, I don’t know that I would complete quite as many puzzles.”