In this day and age, a good way to In this day and age, a good way to reduce screen time is to try having analog hobbies. Analog hobbies are defined as tactile activities that don’t require screens to be done, and some good examples of these hobbies are scrapbooking and crocheting, baking and gardening.
While there is nothing wrong with having digital-based hobbies, it can be important to have something to do outside of being online.
Personal finance and economics teacher Neissey Vigil is someone who values her physical hobbies, as she attended and graduated at the LOK Fashion Institute here in Stafford, Virginia to help pursue her hobby of creating fashion wear and clothing.
“I do a little bit of hand sewing, on the machine [sewing], and I do know how to use an industrial machine and just regular simple machines,” Vigil said. “I got my certification for fashion design back in 2021 and I was able to make a little clothing line. I only made four items and it was really cool.”
Vigil also enjoys going on nature walks and adventures on top of her fashion pursuits. On top of that, besides menswear, she likes to sew a little bit of everything.
In a similar sense, freshman Natalie Powell also enjoys handcrafts and making special objects, as she likes origami and is currently learning book-binding.
“For origami, I really just fold a bunch of paper and I make little roses, and occasionally I’ll make hearts and some animals,” Powell said. “And in bookbinding, it’s a lot easier than a lot of people seem to think. I sew papers together, and then I use hot glue… and then I use cardboard to make the cover, and then fold whatever fabric or leather I want to cover it with.”

Powell has been doing origami since 2020 and got into it easily due to the COVID lock down, and she has only recently discovered bookbinding.
“My brother had this giant box that had like a thousand pieces of paper and he just never used it so I just kind of took it and that was one of my COVID-19 [lockdown] crafts and then book finding was like I honestly just saw a video and I thought that I could totally do that.”
On the flip side, Vigil has been into fashion since she was eight years old.
“So when I was eight, I used to make clothing for my Barbies out of pop balloons because I wanted some- thing new and I couldn’t always get new clothing for them,” Vigil said. “And because I grew up loving fashion and clothing in general, I wanted to start making my own. So, in high school I took Fairfax Academy fashion class and that’s where it all started.” When it comes to analog hobbies like sewing, it can take a lot of time to get to a place where it feels comfortable and ‘easy,’ but a good piece of advice would be to keep persevering and learning from your mistakes.
“My biggest, biggest advice has to be practice practice practice because you won’t perfect it until you actually start practicing it more,” Vigil said.“Every time you see a mistake, don’t get frustrated and I would say keep all of them so you can see your progress from when you first started up until where you are now.”
Even though both Vigil and Powell have been doing crafts and their respective hobbies for multiple years, they were both beginners once. And while it may be daunting to get involved with these kinds of hobbies, it’s important to know that the product will be worth the journey.
“Don’t get discouraged when you do [something] for the first time because it almost never looks good for that first time,” Powell said. “And if it does for you, good job. But most of the time, it doesn’t look good on your first try. And that’s perfectly okay.”