Do hobbyists have the same story?
Yes, internet has an impact on people’s hobbies and hobbyist. To my opinion, you get useful information within seconds from internet and same way you can buy your hobby products with a click of your mouse.
"Pew Internet Project" collected stories about how the internet had an impact on people's hobbies. Here are some examples:
"Because of the internet, we've been able to turn a hobby of collecting antiques into a business of buying and selling antiques."
"I was searching for some information about my grandfather and his company in World War II, and Googled his name. A site came up that had a collection of letters and other papers that belonged to a famous Austrian composer. In that collection was PDF image of a letter that my grandfather had sent from Austria to this composer (who had apparently fled the country) on behalf of some friends that were still in Austria. I sent it to my grandfather, who doesn't even remember writing or sending it, and really had no idea who this composer was. But here was this piece of historical memory -- it was really amazing to find such a thing, and it sort of made my grandfather's stories about the war 'true' to see this evidence on the web."
"I discovered I could view art images of all kinds through museums and libraries around the world. I was just thrilled to be able to access this for my own education and enjoyment."
Online hobby research can inspire a person to travel, through activities like historical tourism, or inspire new experiences at home, like cooking or gardening. The internet can provide detailed information about even the most obscure hobby and can connect hobbyists of every stripe. Taxidermists can find just the right glass eye to complete a stuffed owl. Collectors can scour far-away troves to find that one quilt, stamp, comic book, or baseball card they desire.
The internet has also led to the creation of entirely new hobbies, as in the case of Geocaching – a hide-and-seek type of game using an interactive website and GPS technology.3 keeping a multimedia diary in the form of a blog is another uniquely online pursuit.4
Some facts and figures:
Since early 2002, there has been a significant jump in the overall hobbyist population online and an even more substantial increase in the daily number of online hobbyists. The online hobby population has grown from about 45% of all American adults in 2005 to 59% in February-March 2007 and the online hobby population on a typical day has increased from about 12% to 20% of all adults.
In that prior survey, 77% of internet users said they had used the internet to search for information about a hobby and 20% of internet users did so on a typical day.
Who uses the internet for hobbies?
Men, internet users under age 50, and those with home broadband connections are among the most likely groups to pursue their hobbies online.
Relatively young American adults are more likely than their elders to seek information about hobbies or interests online. Some 86% of internet users ages 18 to 29 and 88% of internet users ages 30 to 49 utilize the medium to pursue hobbies. By comparison, 77% of 50-to-64-year-old internet users, and 62% of online Americans ages 65 and older, report using the internet to pursue hobbies.
89% of respondents with a broadband connection at home report using the internet to find information about hobbies. However, it is important to note that eight-in-ten home dial-up users (78%) also go online for information about their hobbies -- further evidence of this activity's wide appeal.
On a typical day, one-third of online men, one-third of internet users in their 20s, and 38% of college-educated internet users pursue hobbies online.
Source link: Pew Research Center
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