My friends are great but we do have differences. I’ve had the opportunity for the last week to be visited by a good friend that often sees me yoyoing. Finally he had to say, “yoyoing seems like such a waste of time.” I didn’t say anything but as the week went I yoyoed as usual. Several times he would repeat his thoughts regarding yoyoing. A couple of days before he left he pressed me and wanted me to defend my yoyoing. I just laughed and asked him what he had been doing while I was yoyoing. He responded that he had been watching me. I said, “Nice! Here’s a yoyo. Are you going to waste your time watching me or learn how to yoyo?” He laughed and started to become acquainted with the yoyo.
Over a lifetime of yoyoing I occasionally have people say things like this. Initially it got to me, now I just understand that they are seeing something they don’t understand. It really doesn’t bother me and I’ve developed a number of responses to encourage them to try it, and understand.
This thread is meant to be a series of strategies for dealing with comments or attitudes that we could choose to take as negative, turning things into a positive.
Please refrain from posting if your approach is "I hate it when…………and then I tell them they can get lost! No hate please.
thanks,
Oh and I’m still looking for that snow weasel.
It is always interesting to me how people spend their time and money. We all need something that keeps our wits grounded. Few people have just one such indulgence, but as we aren’t robots that just mindlessly drone our way from one work task to the next, we need something to divert our attention, to stretch our skills, or just to keep us from snapping at people. To anyone who would say I’m wasting my time or my money on yoyos, I’d say it’s just one of the ways I’ve found to keep my life interesting and to recooperate from life’s stresses.
You can choose to devote your time and money to many different hobbies and activities, some more constructive than others, but those choices are as unique as the individuals making them. It’s better all around to adopt the “live and let live” mentality, I think.
Sometimes I do think yoyoing is a waste of time though, not going to lie. That’s why a lot of people who love the hobby say they don’t have as much time for it.
You can say this about many interests though. I have a big passion for pool but on days when I’m playing for hours when I could be at the library I am thinking in the back of my head that I’m wasting my time.
Too much of anything is a bad thing. I understand your point tho, it’s just something I’ve thought about as I’ve gotten lost in doing something for hours before when I should’ve been doing something else
It’s all about what brings entertainment to one’s self, and this is a psicological necessity, not a luxury. This varies wildly from person to person. We all need something to keep our minds occupied to prevent us going insane, but what happens is that people will fail to acknowledge or value something different than what they consider the standard. Many people devote their entire free time to watching series, movies or youtube, and theres nothing wrong with that, as well as any activity people use to entertain themselves.
Also, is not fair for people (and even ourselves) to guilt trip each other with the “constructive” argument. Sure, it would be way more constructive and beneficial for me to spend the time i devote to yoyoing for reading or studying or learning, but would that bring me the happiness/satisfaction/psicological benefit that yoyoing brings me at that time, in that place? I would say no. So, if it helps you being a more integral person, there’s no way yoyoing is a waste of time.
And for me, one of the biggest thrills of yoyoing is the feeling of being proficient at something. That does wonders to my well-being. It just plain makes me feel good.
@andy569 I get what you’re saying, but if you are yoyoing when you should be doing something else isn’t it more a self discipline/priority issue than a waste of time?
Yoyoing keeps me grounded. The couple hours daily I spend throwing translates to mental benefits that far exceed any “wasted time”.
@skitrz I love the response you gave to your friend, I admire how non-defensive and friendly it is. I have a hard time answering this question without sounding slightly bitter at the person asking.
Yoyoing is something supremely important in my life, so I don’t enjoy having to justify it to anyone.
Money
I really don’t see it as a money pit at all. Hobbies like flying drones (which I do and love) are money pits. Most of the yoyos i own I can sell for near what I payed. Granted I tend to buy high end desirable throws. Most hobbies this isn’t the case. So besides strings pads and the rare bearing I see no loss and those are minimal.
Time
This one is easy. I spend my free time doing what makes me the happiest and a lot of the time it is yoyoing. It is great for my mental health. Like a form of meditation.
Usually when people ask me to justify my yoyoing, I think of it as they are trying to understand what the value is, as they have no experience. It gives me an opportunity to share what I love.
There was a thread asking for suggestions on spending a large sum of money to promote yoyoing. I loved the idea but to my way of thinking, nothing promotes yoyoing better than those that yo and love it. We just need to care to share and see the opportunities. Of course there are those that don’t want yoyoing to grow in popularity because they yo to be different. That is something else entirely.
It’s hard to really measure the time I spend throwing because I often multi-task, I yo-yo while I am wasting my time being at work.
Time is tricky subject to begin with, we each only get so much time to do anything, but when mine runs out I’m pretty sure I won’t be regretting the portion of it I spent enjoying throwing and the folks I met because of my love of it.
My most strongly held beliefs on time I take from literature (graffiti mostly)
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so, (Douglas Adams)
Time flies like the wind, fruit flies like the bananas ( Benny Hill)
I also like, “garbage can, so can you” Jamie Farr. Not really a time thing , but inspiring none the less.
Sure, any hobby can theoretically be a “waste of time” be it playing with yoyos, racing RC vehicles or playing video games. But in the end it’s what keeps us relaxed and satisfied and thus we don’t see it as a true waste as we feel like we’ve gotten something out of it. If anything, I feel like yoyo could be the least of a waste of time due to the sheer portability of it. We can keep ourselves entertained while waiting for a bus/train, on break at work, or any other moment where we’d otherwise be a phone zombie.
Most part I usually hear positive comments from kids and adults even when I flub a trick. I had a guy at Walmart simply exclaim “woah sweet!” when I was waiting, messing with Yuuki Slack. But it’s not all butterflies and rainbows, have heard remarks like “haha look at that guy, he has too much time on his hands, he’s probably never been…(refraining from adult subject matter)…before.” Best thing was to ignore them after giving them a quick glare and continue my thing. At least I didn’t look like I up to no good like they appeared to be.
I don’t see it as a waste, or even really an expenditure of time, so much as an investment. And the yield has been a little more sanity, a little more calm, a childlike naïvité that I can do the impossible, and the opportunity to EXPERIENCE my present rather than spend all my time regretting the past or worrying over the future.
Oh yeah, and it’s FUN - know how many times I’ve shown a kid a trick and had them call it a “waste of time”? 0. Throw in the fact that it goes with you anywhere, requires no batteries, bluetooth, or other technology, comes with free access to an inspiring community, AND you can do it your whole life and literally never run out of things to learn… Yeah I don’t really regret not joining the bridge club, golfing, or binge-watching whatever it is that people binge-watch.
If(of course you may not be) you ‘are’ the average person; never consider throwing yo-yos to be a waste of time.
I know people that go to Fitness Clubs for about 2 hours a day; at least 5 days a week.(not counting travel time. Since the average person honestly doesn’t have the slightest clue about effectively exercising to actually achieve positive results; that practice alone wastes about 15 hours a week. The average person checks their cell phone about 180 times a day. The average person; working 8 hour shifts; spends about two hours a shift doing absolutely nothing they are getting paid to do.
People that spend too much on yoyos. And then realize the yoyos come without tricks included. And then make no actual attempt to commit the time to ‘learn something’; usually end up identifying yoyos as a waste of time.
Get a little log book. Just do about one week of time keeping. From the moment you get up; start briefly logging in the time you spend ‘doing things’. Including watching reruns of Big Bang Theory; or whatever your jam is.(reruns; even😳). How much time you spend watching TV. How much time you spend on the Internet. How much time you spend playing Video Games. How much time you are worthless at work. How much time you spend Vaping. And whatever else you do.
Log down everything that you do that is not necessary; to get through the day.
Your potential to achieve any results in doing something; is like most anything else; depends on your efforts in the endeavor.
Throwing yo-yos is not a waste of time. You don’t have to spend hours a day getting frustrated because you get stuck on a certain trick. Most anybody can throw a few minutes a day and still have ‘enough time left’ to do other things.
If for example:
*You have no clean clothes
*A single half jar of pickles in the fridge
*Taxes unpaid
*Unpaid Bills
*An overdue assignment or close to it
*etc.
And you are working on lacerations for half the day, the priorities need to get straight.
Hobbies can be the reward for the day, not the focus.
I have spent time yo-yoing when there were things that needed to get done.
Funny thing is, I do kind of view yoyoing as a waste of my time. But this was just the way I was raised. I was rarely ever allowed to play video games when I could be doing chores around the farm, and I now always feel a little sense of guilt when I spend time indulging hobbies.
So my answer to someone who tells me that yoyo is a waste of time would probably be: yea, but it’s fun and I like doing it. It’s no more of a waste of time than anything else.
My secret is that everything I do is a waste of time, so none of it is.
But I think this is more of a philosophical question with nihilistic realizations. What gives value to our ‘time’? If we are to state that the goal of life is to acquire as much money as possible, then anything deviating from that would be seen as a waste of time.
BUT if you believe that the meaning of life is to enjoy life as it is, with the goal being of chasing whatever fleeting happiness you can get your hands on, then yoyoing is one of the best possible ways to spend your time.
