yeah sorry for the wording i was running into character limits

there is a textbox as well, besides the title

...when they had fuck all to do they sat down and wrote (books, letters) for fun.

Just for the record, before the invention of radio, TV and the mass production of goods, they also had a variety of real-world crafts they could do and things they could make for fun & profit.

Rule 2. The entire showerthought must be in the title

that also has disappeared?

I'd say that's on a case-by-case basis. Hobbyists still weave on looms, even though there's not strict need. People still build radio sets from scratch, and yadda-yadda...

One of the things that always interested me about living in a commune is that there'd be a need to do stuff like this to some extent, on an ongoing basis.

i mean, now people are building the craziest shit with 3d printers. the crafts have just gotten cooler i'd argue

If you say so. But hobbyists are still doing crafts & stuff that mankind was doing thousands of years ago.

Or, look at mini-painting, par exemple. That's something artists and tacticians were involved in since near the dawn of civilisation, and today, it's kind of a super-hobby.

i think we're arguing the same point but with different words. we keep having the same hobbies, just the medium might change over the years. like, first people were singing and beating animal hide drums, and now we've got dwarfcore, but it's all music (and fun, if you're into it).

Your shower thought is amusing, but I fundamentally disagree with it in real-world terms. That's my overall point here.

oh, you're saying that they had other stuff to do besides reading.

i fucking wish i had more characters to fill in the thought in the title. this one had tangents and appendices and shit.

Truth.

Before the mechanical loom. The whole world was basically creating thread and weaving full time.
It would take just as long to hand make a sail for a viking ship as it would to make the whole rest of the ship.

The whole world was basically creating thread and weaving full time.

That's an underrated point, and (seems to me) severally under-emphasized in various historical fiction and such. Also could be kind of minimized / hand-waved away by many because it was (I'm guessing) seen as 'poor persons and womens' work,' with the rights of both of such groups commonly dismissed across history, going back ages...

Well, I'm sure in the past they didn't publicly humiliate themselves online like I do on the reg

Online? nah, but like my great grandsomething was a notorious town drunk. every day i hope to live up to his example

Exactly. However if you were weaving silk, you were making bank.

As soon as people were people, they started expressing themselves. If they ever stop, they'll be something else imo