Even though Vinu Jayapradhaban, senior, says she is not very good at painting, it serves an important purpose in her life.
“I feel like throughout the entire week, I’m just running. I have this test, that quiz, these notes to take, this lab to write, and it’s just a lot that I’m doing throughout the week,” Jayapradhaban said. “I have an hour that I allocate for painting on Friday nights where I just sit down and I put paint on the canvas.”
Jayapradhaban said she struggles with social media addiction, as it is often easy to “doom scroll” for extended periods of time.
“That one hour is grounding,” Jayapradhaban said. “This one hour is taking a break from the world and just doing something for me.”
Slow hobbies, or activities done intentionally and mindfully, are a growing trend among all ages due to the prevalence of digital technology.
Ashley Hobbs, AP psychology teacher, said the growth of handheld devices, especially smartphones, has made it difficult for young people to delay gratification.
This has damaged the resilience of adolescents, Hobbs said. This has become obvious to Hobbs after observing her students anxiously waiting for grade updates in Infinite Campus and jumping to radical measures, like dropping the class, if they perform poorly on a small quiz near the start of the semester.
“Adults are starting to have it too. We all want instant information,” Hobbs said.
It is important that people’s brains are stimulated, but not overstimulated, Hobbs said. Humans seek out activities they find stimulating enough to be happy, but not too boring. This changes from person-to-person as well as with societal shifts.
“COVID forced us to go back to some of those less stimulating activities, and I think a lot of people learned how to appreciate slowing down,” Hobbs said.
Modern American society values a packed daily schedule, Hobbs said, and the vast majority of Americans are overcommitted and sleep deprived.
Choosing to “relax” with scrolling social media and consuming fast-paced digital information forces our brains to process this vast array of content without experiencing true relaxation, Hobbs said.
When students can’t fully engage in an activity due to demanding notifications, messages and online content, Hobbs said the primary activity at hand becomes boring because the student is not fully present.
“You have to find time to be present with yourself,” Hobbs said. “Even if it’s in the car, when you’re parked in the parking lot, you just take a few minutes to take a deep breath and take stock of how you’re feeling. We can say we don’t have time, but if we can make time for all of those other things, we can make time for literally two to three minutes.”
Fiber Arts
On the weekends, Olivia Ellington, sophomore, loves to spend time crocheting.
“I have gifts that I can make people or just fun things that I’m proud of,” Ellington said.
Ellington said she crochets whenever she gets extra time to immerse herself in a new project.
“It is calming in a way. It can be stressful when you’re learning it, but once I know it, it’s just a rhythm and I can do it in the background while having a conversation or watching TV,” Ellington said.
Ellington said having slow hobbies like crocheting can help avoid overstimulation from social media and fast-paced digital activities.
“Plus, you’re making something, which is not only fun but also rewarding, unlike sitting and mindlessly scrolling for hours,” Ellington said.
Activities like knitting, crocheting, macrame, weaving, felting and other fiber arts let people use their hands and engage their brains, Heather Swan, owner of Yarncom, said.
Yarncom is a small fiber arts business in Creve Coeur, offering a variety of fibers as well as fiber art classes.
“We have people that get sent here from their mental health professionals telling them that, along with exercising and eating healthy foods, it’s important to engage your brain in healthy ways that can help you to relax,” Swan said.
Swan said there is now significant research about the importance of what artists call the “flow state,” or becoming completely immersed in an activity and letting everything else fall away.
“It can really help with high stress situations,” Swan said. “Something to be able to disconnect from all of it can help your brain reset to get a new, more healthy perspective on the situation.”
Swan said the slow arts are especially important today because smartphones condition the brain to have immediate gratification.
“Truly in life, nothing just happens overnight,” Swan said. “You can’t click the button and have the sweater show up the next morning because things that are good in life take time to create and bring to fruition.”
Outdoor Hobbies
Charlie Wang, sophomore, loves to fish.
“When the fish hits the line, and the tension goes, and your reel starts screaming, I think that’s pretty fun,” Wang said.
Wang started getting very involved with fishing when he went to Key West, Florida, when he got a new perspective on fishing and how it worked.
“Every time you set down the bay, you always caught another fish,” Wang said. “The fish were always unique, you had never seen it before.
Today, Wang said he fishes often at local lakes, along with his neighbors or swim teammates for two to three hours.
“Fishing allows you to go outside more, away from your screens and your phones,” Wang said. “It makes you really appreciate the wildlife, and it’s ultimately a good source of entertainment.”
Brittany Sharitz, librarian, said she loves hiking and goes on trails at least twice a month.
“There are a lot of really good trails in the Saint Louis area, so I’m constantly going to different places,” Sharitz said.
Spending time in nature is phenomenal for your mental health, Sharitz said. It helps people take time away from the stressors of technology and clear their heads.
Sharitz said she often hikes with friends, which is an added enjoyment.
“We hit up Bluff View a lot, which is off of Old State Road, and then recently, we’ve been going to one called The Chub, because it has lots of elevation changes because we’re training for a spring break trip,” Sharitz said. “We’re going to a place called Havasu Falls, which is this really famous waterfall off of the Grand Canyon.
Mahesh Boddapati, freshman, has a hobby for aviation.
After finding them on sale at an antique shop, Boaddapati started using his binoculars to try and see and identify different planes which flew overhead.
“Nowmally, you don’t get to see these planes every day,” Boddapati said. “My eyes are only so good.”
Boddapati said that he uses websites like FlightRadar24, a website which tracks commercial planes, to see if there are any planes flying near time. If he ever notices a plane flying overhead, he will try to see if he can find it, and identify what kind of plane it is.
Boddapati said that he loves aviation, especially military planes, and that he has even piloted a plane for an hour before. Boddapati said that this is just another part of his overall love for planes.
“You don’t get to see these [planes] every day unless you’re a pilot or you have some security clearance,” Boddapati said. “It’s fun to see planes ‘out in the wild,’ so to speak.”
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