I'm a software professional. My hobbies are fountain pens, chess, and Go (the game, not the language). Going to a pen show I meet people from vastly different career paths, including those who make a living in the orbit of the hobby.
Appreciating/critiquing art at an art show--or attending a certain style of social event on a monthly basis--certainly requires more active participation than spending time in a theater.
And if you doubt what sort of time investment an anime fan would require in keeping up with their hobby, take a look at much material someone would have to keep up with in just a three-month period alone: https://myanimelist.net/anime/season
Interesting. I actually sniff at that idea :) For me, watching movies is a pasttime activity, similar to say scrolling your phone. A differentiation between pasttime activity and a hobby for me is that hobby requires some level of effort.
Essentially this. I'm a software engineer in the U.S. And here are some of the places & situations I've been in where I've come across other software engineers (as discovered through simply chatting up random strangers)
- At anime conventions
- At a martial arts school
- At an art showing in a Middle Eastern-themed cafe
- At in-the-park social events
- At wine-and-cheese tastings
You find people where they spend their time. If you're visiting a website that caters to try-hard indie hustlers, you'll be surrounded there by try-hard indie hustlers.
On the flip side, if you're going out and _doing_ actual hobbies, you'll be surrounded by people who go out and do actual hobbies. Some of them might even share your same career choices.