geekhack Community > Off Topic
Feeling Weird about This Hobby Now
Kavik:
My interest in keyboards has waned a lot recently. The last keyboard I bought was two years ago - a RAMA U80 -, which I wasn't terribly hyped about; it just looked like a well built unit. When I received it a year later, it was mildly interesting and worked ok. But I eventually just switched back to one of my first mechs, a CM Quickfire TK, because I was tired of worrying about scratching my other keyboards. I haven't rotated in any other keyboards in probably eight months.
But just now, my waning interest turned into feeling like an outsider looking in. I had the feeling that others must have when they see this hobby and don't understand it. I watched a Chyrosran22 video for the first time in a long while, and I noticed he has 116k subscribers. Wow, that seems like a lot for a keyboard channel. Oh, Taeha Types has almost a half million?! And there's a new channel, Glarses, with even more subs than Taeha? I watched a few videos and realized I really don't have any idea what they're talking about anymore. I haven't kept up with all the new switches and new custom keyboards and keysets. I don't know what the trends are, so everything just looks alien to me. It was like stumbling onto someone else's hobby I'd never heard of, especially when I saw comments on Chyrosran's video complaining about his outdated opinions since he likes vintage stuff; that just struck me weird. Maybe staying on my little corner of Geekhack has insulated me from the larger world of keyboards, what with Keebtalk (is that still a thing?), r/MK, and nearly infinite Discord servers, each with 100 million channels (how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it). It probably doesn't help that I just ignore ICs and GBs too. This was already an esoteric hobby, but there's so much new stuff now that it seems impossible to keep up or even compare things.
I think my loss of interest was partly caused by the endless chase of perfection that was never realized no matter how much money was spent. Every board and every switch and every keycap set have not lived up to expectations or hype, even the really good stuff. There was always some nitpick that didn't live up to my imagination. Disillusioned may be an apt description for me.
Maybe some new keyboard or switch will come along and rekindle the passion. Someday, I'll receive the Ellipse F77 I ordered years ago. Maybe that will get me back into it, but it's been so long that patience has got the better of me, so I'm not terribly eager for it anymore.
Well, anyway, pointless ramble is pointless. The feeling of not only being uninterested but also a total outsider just really struck me.
jamster:
I've never approached this mechanical keyboard hobby as any cultural grouping, which is much of the Youtube/Reddit/Instagram stuff seems to be about. I just happen to like keyboards (using and a bit of tinkering), have a couple of IRL friends who have a similar appreciation as we're all old school geeks.
I look at much of Geekhack and feel like an 'outsider looking in,' especially if I look at IC/GBs. But this is something that is common throughout much of my existence. My own interests have always been solitary and unusual, and I have no problem with this.
Then again, I never expected much of out keyboards either... I just want to use boards that are nice and pleasant-feeling. The whole custom metal board with an infinite variation of slightly different MX clone thing has always looked quite odd to me- if thousands of people on Discord or whatever want to obsess about this stuff, then good for them, but I am not missing anything.
Edit: I guess I've appreciated mechanical keyboards from when it was a guaranteed outsider thing. Now that it seems to have gone a bit more mainstream, if I'm still an outsider, then that's probably a more comfortable state to be in.
tp4tissue:
Repeat 3 times, Aged Out...
It's normal, it can happen in your 30s and 40s, 50s, and on.
Time to Eat Veggie, Calibrate monitor, and Play piano.
HoffmanMyster:
--- Quote from: Kavik on Fri, 11 June 2021, 00:55:11 ---My interest in keyboards has waned a lot recently. The last keyboard I bought was two years ago - a RAMA U80 -, which I wasn't terribly hyped about; it just looked like a well built unit. When I received it a year later, it was mildly interesting and worked ok. But I eventually just switched back to one of my first mechs, a CM Quickfire TK, because I was tired of worrying about scratching my other keyboards. I haven't rotated in any other keyboards in probably eight months.
--- End quote ---
This is pretty normal. You'll notice that not many people stick around longer than a few years on here. Hell, I wouldn't be on here nearly as much (possibly at all) if I weren't a mod. Kind of a weird thing to think about, since the hobby was once such a big and important thing in my life, but we move on and try new things. As long as you had fun along the way, it was worth it. :)
My RF10AE hasn't left my desk in probably 4 years now, aside from the occasional need to swap to something with a numpad. Not much need to geek out over keyboards when you're content and aren't buying things anymore (which, let's admit it, is basically the heart and soul of the actual "hobby" - not counting the friendships and other more meaningful things you get out of it).
--- Quote from: Kavik on Fri, 11 June 2021, 00:55:11 ---how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it
--- End quote ---
Discord is a young man/woman's game. I'm "in" a few discord servers, but am not at all active unless I'm pinged. There's no way I could keep up with all of that and still have a relationship with my wife, take care of my responsibilities, etc. I would have been all over that in my teen years though. :P
TheWonderBubble:
--- Quote from: Kavik on Fri, 11 June 2021, 00:55:11 ---But just now, my waning interest turned into feeling like an outsider looking in. I had the feeling that others must have when they see this hobby and don't understand it...I watched a few videos and realized I really don't have any idea what they're talking about anymore. I haven't kept up with all the new switches and new custom keyboards and keysets. I don't know what the trends are, so everything just looks alien to me.
--- End quote ---
I'm new to keebs, but I can heavily relate to this from my other/first main hobby. I simply found what works in general and what works for me. Sure, I could keep up with all the latest and greatest, but why would I? At the end of the day, there's nothing coming out that's so groundbreaking as to be worth the time investment into checking the other thousand products that'll happen between now and then. When something truly revolutionary does come along, I'll hear about it whether I'm directly involved with and on top of that hobby or not.
--- Quote ---nearly infinite Discord servers, each with 100 million channels (how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it).
--- End quote ---
Maybe I'm just a young'un here, but I'm sitting in 10 keyboard discords, another 10 other servers, and then 80 others that I basically never touch. :D If you've ever got questions about discord feel free to ask, the biggest thing that I've found helpful is figuring out what channels you don't need to be looking at and then muting them. If there's 100 channels in a server, chances are you can mute anywhere from 20-95 of them depending on just how involved you want to be.
--- Quote ---I think my loss of interest was partly caused by the endless chase of perfection that was never realized no matter how much money was spent. Every board and every switch and every keycap set have not lived up to expectations or hype, even the really good stuff. There was always some nitpick that didn't live up to my imagination. Disillusioned may be an apt description for me.
--- End quote ---
Part of me is worried about this happening to myself (I'm only on my second week of being interested in keebs), but at the end of the day I'm largely here to get better tools. I spend 8-14hrs a day behind a keyboard at both work and home, getting a properly nice setup that fits me is an investment - especially with split boards for better ergos to try and avoid future issues I can already feel creeping in. There's some really, really nice rigs out there, but I don't need a $1200 piece of art to run reports at work or hold long-winded discussions on discord. I just need a nice piece of equipment that'll last me years of feeling good to type on. The enjoyment of building it myself is just a bonus that allows me to get exactly what fits.
It's not abnormal or unwarranted to "grow out of" a hobby. But at the same time, it's a hobby. There's no required level of interest or interaction. If you just want to be around to vibe with older setups, I'm sure you're not the only one. There's no membership requirement saying you have to be able to give a dissertation on the Pandaverse and what upcoming group by most closely resembles their switch feel. Noobs like me still need the "old-timers" like you to remind us that it's just a keyboard, it's okay to not be a collector, and to answer the inevitable questions of "hey what's this thing?" when everyone else is too focused on the new hotness to remember how the longstanding setups were.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version