How Gen Z hits pause with grandma hobbies

These slower, often painstaking pursuits might seem a mismatch for the restlessness and speed associated with youth. Yet, hobbies stereotyped as the preserve of the elderly—dubbed “grandma hobbies” on social media—are finding appeal with Gen Z. While many embraced analogue activities during the pandemic, plenty of teens and twenty-somethings have continued long after lockdowns. Knitting, crocheting, baking, gardening, puzzling, pickling, and cheese making are seeing younger enthusiasts seeking a creative outlet and relief from digital overload.

Social media trends such as “grandma core” and “nonnamaxxing” have romanticised these activities, celebrating slower, mindful living. But their staying power goes beyond cosy aesthetics. What may begin as curiosity evolves into an appreciation of the mental and emotional benefits of these slower pursuits.

Research indicates working with our hands can reduce anxiety and depression, improve life satisfaction and patience, and strengthen executive function – the brain’s ability to plan, focus, and remember details. Gen Z’s interest in grandma hobbies also reflects a broader shift in how this generation defines success, placing greater value on wellbeing and fulfilment.

Slower gratification

The chance to create something tangible is a strong draw for a generation raised amid digital noise. “Humans are not wired for instant gratification. Our brains are not designed to sustain this level of continuous stimulation and input,” says Delhi-based psychologist Nisha Sachdeva.

Activities such as knitting, pottery and gardening engage the brain differently, slowing the pace and providing a grounding break from digital overload. “Many young people are seeking regulation rather than constant stimulation.” She believes this is also a generation with little experience of the mundane: “They know loneliness, but not boredom.” She explains constantly seeking novelty overloads the brain and hampers creativity: “We need some dullness and consistency in order to create.”

Shortened attention spans often lead to fragmented thinking, whereas grandma hobbies demand sustained focus and mindfulness: “The practice of being present in the moment without actually meditating,” says Sachdeva.

Ahmedabad-based Pooja Asnani discovered crochet at a time when she desperately needed mental clarity. “My impatience and messy thoughts were confusing and overwhelming me,” says the 23-year-old who works with hotel management company ProMiller. “Once I started crocheting, there was no stopping because all my feelings and mess got an outlet.” She now turns to it whenever she needs to slow down, often spending hours crocheting.

Grandma hobbies require perseverance with an often time-consuming, step-by-step process. For Asnani, the craft taught her patience. “The initial stage was hard and messy, maybe because crochet first tested my patience before teaching it to me. The uncertainty about the result taught me to believe in the process.”

For others, the satisfaction lies in the challenge. Seventeen-year-old Bengaluru college student Ansh Pandey enjoys assembling 3000-to 5000-piece jigsaw puzzles. He started puzzling at the age of three, gradually graduating to larger and more complex ones. “Funnily, I did a lot of puzzles when I was younger with my grandma, but I don’t think of it as a grandma hobby,” says Bengaluru-based Pandey. Listening to music while puzzling allows him to become completely immersed.

This immersion is what psychologists describe as flow — a period of deep absorption with rapt attention. “It’s a healthy way to regulate stress and anxiety because you’re engaging the body and the senses,” says Sachdeva. “It improves sustained attention in a world that is constantly trying to fragment it.”

For many, the appeal simply lies in the opportunity to use one’s hands. “Having to spend so much time on screens at work makes you want to remove yourself completely from that environment and get your hands dirty,” says Swati Singh. For her, that urge translated into “immersing my hands in huge pots of milk” to become a cheese maker.

What started as her pandemic hobbies of cooking and baking continued alongside full-time jobs and law studies over the last five years. In October, Singh turned the passion into a profession by launching her cheese and fermentation brand The Farm in Bazpur, Uttarakhand. “To do something that requires hand-eye coordination and have something which is a more tactile experience is really important.”

These activities also offer something many young people feel is missing elsewhere in their lives: control. They often feel unmoored between academic expectations, workplace demands and digital interruptions in their daily environment. “These slower hobbies give us something we don’t get very often, the permission to not rush,” says Asnani. “With crochet, you have to sit with it, stitch by stitch, even when you don’t know exactly how the final thing will turn out.”

“Unlike the demands which they might have from academics or the workplace, which are externally decided, activities like this gives them a certain degree of autonomy,” says Sachdeva. Because the motivation is intrinsic, rather than driven by outside pressures, these hobbies can reduce reliance on external validation.