Fewer Special Interests As You Age?

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Anyone notice they get fewer as you get older? Or perhaps you have more?

The duration is what has changed for me. When I was growing up, I would have obsessions and special interests that would last a year or two. Starting in my twenties, the length of time that I was interested in one topic shortened to maybe six months and now, in my forties, they only last a month or two.

Sometimes I have mini-obsessions that last only a few hours. I'll see something on television, or my boyfriend will bring something up and I'll immediately need to know everything about it. After I've gone online and researched it to death, I'll drop it.

Thanks for responding, dyingofpoetry!

I don't think I've made this poll open ended enough. Please feel free to discuss any ways in which your relationship to your special interests has changed over the years.

I've noticed that the intensity and quantity of my special interests has changed as I've gotten older. Rather than having one or two special interests that I'm extremely passionate about, I have numerous interests of varying intensity that I cycle through every couple of months.

Allow me to elaborate: As a teenager, I would be almost religiously devoted to one or two highly specific things and deny myself of anything related to it for fear that my interests would change. For example, between the ages of 16 and 18 I was extremely passionate about the anime/manga series Hellsing. I refused to watch the majority of other anime for fear that I would lose my passion for Hellsing. I got angry with anyone who suggested I try something different.

Nowadays, as an adult, I have a handful of interests (all of them related to live-action movies) that I cycle through every couple of months in order to change things up and keep them fresh in my mind. Alice in Wonderland is obviously the one I'm most passionate about right now, but I do have other, lesser ones as well. Not only that, but I'm a lot more open to trying out new movies and seeing if they're worth adding to my mental "collection" of interests.

I have somewhat lost a certain desire to go on. Not like to die but I'm tired. I'm tired of pursuing interests yet I still do. I get swept along whether or not I want. The interests are still enjoyable, but these days there's something flimsy and unsubstantial to them. I think I have more now than I did when I was younger just because'I've had a chance to accumulate more interests.

When I was little they were immediate physical things that I'd create secret collections of. After about 12 or so it became more idea based and certain disciplines.

I wonder also if this pattern has anything to do with the fact that most of us older folk now work, have some semblance of a social life and perhaps families. I know before I started working I could spend much more time researchig my special interests. I also notice that the more I hang out with friends the less time I spend on my interests as well. When I'm not going out is when I feel the strongest desire to delve into my interests.

As I age, I seem to have more freedom to look into things that I would not have been able to look into before. I have more doors open to me and in that my interests have seemed to broaden as well. I cycle my interests... I always have and likely always will, so while I may only be really into one thing at a time, I have more things to cycle through now.

mine have been pretty consistant. rocks & gems, and sportscards!

I think so. I'm a lot less interested in superheroes/comic books than I used to be, but I haven't really gained new interests.

It's the oppiste to me, I had only one special intrest as a kid and I've only recently been able to have several at once but my special intrests aways usualy fit into the animals catagory. The only excepts were Rugrats, Invader Zim and Titan A.E.. I have no clue why I liked Rugrats so much perhaps it was just the routine. Invader Zim was because I could relate to Zim and Gir a LOT. Titan A.E. becuase I could relate to Cale and because of one of the alien characters who is a space lizard. I became so facinated with it, I wanted a space lizard of my own but ended up with a bearded dragon. After I got my bearded dragon, Pippin and bonded with her right away she became a special intrest. Bearded dragons became a special intrest. I call Pippin my little sister but the way she is pampered and obsessed over she is basicaly my daughter.

I had so few special intrests as a kid it drove my parents crazy and they were constantaly telling me stupid things such as I "needed to widen my horizons". My parents tried to limit my obsessing over meerkats. I think I repressed those memorizies becuase I've romantacied my parents for years on here but I remember they were sometimes very cruel about my special intrests. I don't know what made them come out of the dark but they eventualy did and never complained since.

My interests have changed over the years. I do not have one obsession from when I was a child because they changed as I got older. The longest obsessions I have ever had was autism. But I don't really read about it anymore because I got tired of reading textbooks about it and generalizations. I prefer memoirs and hearing personal experience with it and forums is the best place for it since it's free (except internet connection). Plus when I look up my special interests, it's the same photos over and over, nothing different.

I also can't keep my mind focused on my obsessions because of my short attention span. It's like "too long didn't read."

I prefer to not live behind the screen and have internet take over my life. I want to do other things. My mind changed this spring so it was like I could no longer focus on them and I want to do other things but yet I am still addicted to the internet but at least I don't have an internet addiction. Last year my obsessions were strong and then it changed this year. They don't feel as strong.

And I have had things I be obsessed with for a few weeks or months. I got told that was normal. I have had a short obsession with dead malls and abandoned buildings and places so I was watching videos on them and reading about them if it wasn't too long. And after seeing Cars when it first came out, I got interested in Route 66 so I read some about it and looked at some photos but it was a shame I didn't live near it. My ex said that was the whole point of that movie, to get people interested in Route 66 and basically the whole movie was about it.

I never recognized my interests as obsessions until I was confronted with the whole AS thing later in life. I have become less dedicated to most of my interests partly because I have become lazy and don't want to devote the enormous amount of time to them, and also because I have become disgruntled from the lack of pay-off from them. Most of my interests after childhood were more towards accumulating knowledge and learning certain things in depth, while ignoring other areas that didn't interest me that in hindsight would have been useful to understand better. Part of my reasoning for learning these different areas is that they would open up doors and provide different opportunities that mostly haven't materialized. I feel I know a whole lot about a lot of things, but most of it goes untapped. I ask myself why I spent an entire year of my life learning some subject to where I could discuss that something with an expert, but never actually use it for anything. There are whole chunks of my life that I would have been better off living and experiencing normal life instead.

For the first time, I seem more interested in learning about myself on a personal level. I do find myself studying autism spectrum disorders and spending time meeting people on the internet much more than I probably should. I worry I have just changed topics again.

I have more and it's hard to know which one I want to spend time on each day.
When I was younger I had few and was into them for a long time; over months and years.
Now some might last weeks or months. But never just drop them. I go back to them when I get bored with my current interest.

this is a tough one. I there are more less-intense obsessions these days