Why do some special interests live on and some do not?

Post Reply New Topic

As a child, I picked up a bird book out of the school library... it fascinated me so I memorized it. Then it branched out into other books (not just about birds but some plant and mammal and other books too) and setting up bird feeders. So I went to college for a Zoology degree. Then afterwards I had several short-term jobs involving birds where I learned to be a better birdwatcher, because earlier I had not interest in learning bird songs but I had to for my jobs and now identifying the sounds birds make is my favorite part. I don't have a car so I can't go anywhere, but when I do go out I even have an app where I can instantly record location, time and bird seen (it supports entering bander's codes, I can look up a bird just typing three or four letters) and send them off to a website. The special interest lives on.

In college I was writing a story and wanted to include Sonic the Hedgehog characters in the story. So I went on some websites researching the characters. This sparked a fascination and also remembering when I played the games earlier in my life. So I studied the games, bought the games, wrote informal guides about the games, made art, made 3D models, etc... but this interest, despite my avatar, has pretty much become dead now.

I wonder, do interests that appear earlier in life tend to stick around longer, or is it just unpredictable the fate of a particular interest?

For me, one of my life long Special Interests has always been Astronomy. It started when I first saw the stars when I was probably around 3 or 4 years old (don't remember but I was still little enough for Mum to carry me) She was carrying me in from the car one night and I spotted them. It was love at first sight.

I'm 47 now and it's still my most important Special Interest. I'm saving up to buy a $6000 telescope.

Sometimes my life long Special Interests fade into the background and slow down but they never go away. Mathematics and Computers are the other two life long Special Interests I've had.

Sun Microsystems became a SI when I was about 20 something and lasted more than 15 years. It would be still going if Oracle hadn't of killed it.

So I don't think it really makes a difference when they start. I just think that some things were just meant to be special to you. The only thing I think is perhaps we look more lovingly at our life long ones because they've been around so long, we're most likely never going to get sick of them and there's also the nostalgic feel to them.

Oh I was just about to make a thread similar to this, my band obesseions passes but not my obsession with psychology or serial killers, although my mother didn't allow me to continue that last one bc it scared my mother but yeah I'm curiou about this too

I find that for me, interests that involve the real world are lifelong, while those that involve fiction pass. It might be because learning about the world is something I value highly, and I just use fiction for creative inspiration.

Sometimes they get too frustrating and I give up, sometimes they cost too much money so I end up having no choice then to abandon them, others I simply end up running out of information to consume and it gets boring at that point. I don't just get into something for the sake of spending massive amounts of time on something, there has to be a reason.

It's natural I think. LIfe changes us as we move through it.

Another thing is trying to make something your special interest. For example, I really want to learn Spanish, but I find myself unable to become very much involved in learning it. I've learned a lot since I started trying to learn it a year ago, but the progress I am making no es muy bueno. In fact, I feel like I get less involved in interests in general now after I learned about AS and that it was a symptom of it.

Isn't it just because some topics are perpetually relevant despite the passage of time... whereas others essentially have a fixed time of validity, past which they cease to be relevant?

Y'know... I always considered myself a Sonic fan too...

... until I went to the Summer of Sonic convention last year... or at least I think it was last year. Anyway, the people there showed me what Sonic fans really are... and I kinda felt that maybe I'd never been as strong a fan as I thought I was.
Well... that and they were pretty much fanatics.... even about the newer games. And frankly anyone who considers themselves a Sonic fan but focuses on things AFTER Sonic Adventure.... well.... I didn't really want anything else to do with those sorts of people. I just had to accept that the Sonic I used to like was dead... and even Sonic Generations failed to bring it back.