About kids in the hobby:
Being the optimist that I am, I still hold onto a feeling that the
decline could be a dip, that is, there might be a swing back up at a
later date.
I watched my own sons with respect to video games, computers, and
model railroading (we didn't have television in the house). They are
now 20 and 21 years old, neither one has any interest in model
railroading.
What I did notice was that video games are strictly to kill time. They
don't seem "interested" in video games. They just play because they
don't have anything to do. The games they like are games that create
an alternate reality, and in which you have to progress through and
conquer obstacles to achieve some final victory. I scratchbuild models
that are from a time period I never saw, and I have to learn new
skills on each model until I can finally put it on or beside a track.
On the computer, their main interest is chat rooms. It doesn't matter
what they chat about, they are so starved for community that they go
online to get it. Today I will go to a Bay Area S Scalers club meeting
which is ostensibly about model railroading. We will look at trains
for 30 minutes talk about everything under the sun for three hours.
I think the main reason kids are not into the same hobbies as their
parents is that their parents expected them to be in the hobby for the
same reason as the parents. They have their own culture, and their own
interests. If model railroading is going to be a part of that, it is
going to be on different terms than it is for the graying population
we comprise. Rather than "get them interested in model railroading" we
need to know what their interests are, and then show them how model
railroading is a great way to satisfy those interests.
-Michael Eldridge
-Enough philosophy, time to go make a mold so I can cast some parts to
convert a Walthers O.L King and Sons Coal Yard to an S Scale structure.
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
