An In-Depth Study On DIY Projects And Blog

This study (an in-depth study on DIY projects and blog) is conducted to understand the ethic of becoming self-dependent through different DIY projects, blogs and motivations.

What Is DIY?

‘DIY’ is an ethic of becoming self-dependent by implementing/completing tasks without hiring an expert or professional. Having this ethic is a smart way to save money and time, enjoy some quality-time while doing the task, learn a new skill and experience something real.

Importance Of DIY:

DIY projects are potentially important for children, youngsters or students. Because, when they do something by themselves, the task then exercises their body, mind and brain; also helps to evolve their logical and critical thinking. DIY ethic triggers someone’s creativity and enables him/her to put it into practice. That’s why youngsters like DIY projects and use their imaginations in real life.

Goals And Objectives of DIY-based Projects And Blogs:

Benefits of DIY Ethic’ (studied and enlisted by “alldiysolutions.com”) as follows:

The main objective is to share different research based knowledge and expertise on various DIY projects with viewers/DIYers across the world so that they can fulfill their vision having full control over their project including financing.

Almost all DIY contents are dedicated to share and educate people with basic DIY skills and will be helpful for people in many ways (physically, mentally and financially). Such as-

• DIY articles help people to do a lot of tasks by themselves without hiring a professional and thus they can save money.
• DIY knowledge and skills enable people to sense self-pride and self-accomplishment.
• DIY projects make people spend more time at home with family, which strengthens the bonding among family members, friends and neighbors.
• If someone is bored and jobless, he will definitely find something potential and productive with DIY. 
• Anyone can try something new with DIY.
• People will be more active at doing something new with DIY.

Present Status Of DIY:

Presently people are considering DIY as a straightforward solution for many household problems by self-study.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) includes a vast amount of content. It is not limited to home improvement, repair and decoration related activities only.

Genuinely DIY was born as different life hacks for people. Now it is establishing a new cultural resolution of our daily life. DIY is becoming popular day by day because of its easy-to-learn nature and intrinsic excitement of self accomplishment.

Active people love to do certain things as a hobby or passion all by themselves. Sometimes they become so skilled and productive that they can start their own business like craftsmanship, epoxy furniture making, boutiques, dying clothes (tie dye clothing), doing blocks on t-shirts etc.

There is plenty of ‘Do-It-Yourself’ content on the internet. These activities are available as both video content (step by step visual demonstration) and step by step guideline in written form. Among them home decoration, improvement and repair related contents are most popular.

Every DIY community has a primary goal to engage more people in DIY activities through their blogs and other streaming platforms (social media). Presently DIYers are making a wide variety of products worldwide on a regular basis. The best demonstration of making such DIY products is audio visual presentation or video contents. There are potential and excellent opportunities for DIY craftsmanship as it is expanding globally and creating new markets in different continents. And these opportunities are expanding with no signs of going down.

In a research study, Technavio predicted that the DIY industries would be worth $13.9 billion by the year 2021. Because within time DIY ethic and culture has become so much popular that people are practicing it more than ever before.

Technavio also predicted the extensive growth of DIY and said that it will become a potential field of new job opportunities in future for many people.

Covid-19 Influence On DIY Activities:

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, people across the world had to maintain social distance and stay inside homes for more than 3 years (2019 to 2022). It’s true that we had spent/stayed more time at home than ever before in past couple of years which may have involved us with doing many things and household chores like changing a fused light, plumbing and bathroom pipe fittings, checking the functionality of different home appliances, home decoration (painting wall, installing curtains, flooring, tiling etc.), cleaning carpets and rugs, fixing something broken, floor tiling, setting up a fire pit, making pethouse, fairyhouse, dollhouse and so on. Most of us did them from the point of responsibility and unavailability of professionals due to pandemic lock down. Some people practiced them as their hobby and some people started to earn their new livelihood with them. These activities can be listed down as DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects.

History Of DIY Activities And Projects:

Reasons Behind The Popularity Of DIY:

When we study the history of DIY, it shows us that DIY includes activities like home decoration, damage repair and home improvements. Genuinely DIY was arisen as different life hacks for people to make life simple and valuable for humans. People started such DIY home improvement activities in the early 20^th century (from or before 1912).  But the phrase ‘Do-It-Yourself’ came into Standard English by the common people in the 1950s. From then, this phenomenon emerged as a trend by the people undertaking various craftsmanship, home decoration and improvement related tasks for self creativity, recreation and saving money.  Now these activities are commonly enlisted under the term ‘home décor’.

In the 1970s, DIY evolved to a level where it was characterized by published books and magazines on DIY home decoration and improvement projects. Then in the 1990s, DIY was exploded on the internet by thousands of DIYers and developers as they started blogging with their own websites and became expert authors. Also, in 1970 when the VCR was invented, DIYers adopted a new strategy of demonstrating their DIY home projects through the audio-visual method. This was highly praised by the audience and new potential DIYers. 

Then DIY started to appear on television in 1999 with different popular programs highlighting home repair and improvements. On the other hand it was growing through the internet where a vast amount of DIY-focused sophisticated websites were successfully streaming every day. This growth of DIY resources on the internet had no limit. Many DIY experts started blogging with their knowledge and experiences and most of them successfully started their own online based small organizations.

Now in this 21st century, the number of internet users worldwide is increasing day by day. On the other hand, modern social media platforms are transparent and have freedom to make a dialog and influence a mass number of audience. There are potential and excellent opportunities for different DIY craftsmanship/projects in this century as it is expanding globally and creating new markets daily in different continents of the world. And these opportunities are expanding with no signs of going down.

Basic Benefits Of DIY Ethic:

The principal advantages DIYers get from various DIY contents is self learning and gaining capability of self execution with confidence.

The editor-in-chief of a well known do-it-yourself magazine “Make” Mr. Mark Frauenfelder said that the DIYers come from various levels and communities like rich, poor, male, female, young, old, religious, atheist, liberal, conservative etc. and there is no limit to their aspirations.

Moreover, DIYers from every community are friendly people who love to share knowledge and skills. Also, they adopt and exhibit a self courage attitude of doing things with confidence.

Mr. Mark studied many DIYers’ lifestyles and enlisted 5 basic and important benefits people gain from self courage and DIY ethic. They are given below-

1. A deeper connection to the things that keep us alive and well
2. An appreciation for the things you have and the systems that make it possible
3. An opportunity to use your hands and your brain
4. A connection to other people
5. A path to freedom. 

He also added that several DIYers have successfully turned their passion of DIYing from a hobby into a small business. 

Characteristics Of Professional Designers And DIYers:

Characteristics Of A Professional Designer:

Drawing skill In 2 D &3D (Include render)

Original idea

Problem solving

Unique/identity

Philosophy 

Function/valuable

For the wealthy and upper class

Characteristics Of A DIYer:

Marketing in social media

Storytelling (writing skill)

Use Persuasive/interesting words

Photography

Video maker (tutorial/organize)

Editing/graphic drawing skill

For everybody (all classes)

Understanding The Present DIY Trends:

Professional designers can become DIYers by using social media platforms wisely. Also, DIYers can be professional designers by interacting with their audience and students.

On the other hand, if an individual has the capability of learning and mastering both professional designer’s and DIYers ability perfectly, then he/she will become both designer and DIYer.

People need free time for relaxing and creative people enjoy their free time in a productive manner with their DIY ethics of craftsmanship. DIY contents are entertaining, informative and educative to people. Also, they can be shared easily through writing (blogging) and audio visual contents. Through those contents, DIYers share their own life full of positive things and spread happiness to other people.

Nowadays a new trend is found among people known as ‘YOLO’ (you only live once) and the principle of that trend is “you only live once, so enjoy it”. This principle of life can be achieved through DIY activities and projects. That’s why the principle of both DIY and YOLO get along nicely.

At present we are living in a time when everything can be viral through the internet and viral things influence many people worldwide within a very short time period. Also, viral things make people more creative. Once something gets viral over the internet people give a lot of response to it making it popular for a certain period of time (even a year which makes it trend of the year). After this trending time period, people start to get bored with it. When people are bored with it, they start to think and create new ideas. Then these new ideas become viral and new trends.

DIY As A Learning Method or Platform In Future Education:

We are living in a transition era of analog to digital medium of education. In this era we cannot force anyone to study and learn a certain subject/topic/thing. Because, now students or other learners can choose and learn according to their own interest in studying a discipline through the internet. They can learn wherever they want with unlimited access to learning on various online platforms. Today people only study what they desire to learn and avoid wasting time on studying something they don’t like.

DIY contents are enjoyable/entertaining to learn. But all the fields of knowledge on DIY cannot be transferred and learnt through online. Because there are certain things which should be learnt by the DIYers practically on the work. DIY is a practical thing with a self doing tendency. If you are an expert of a certain DIY activity then you can share it in written or audio visual format on the internet so that other people or your audience or DIYers can learn it. Here is the important criteria of becoming a DIYer and it is ‘learn and execute for creating things at the same time’. DIY is not about theoretical study. It’s all about practical knowledge to make something new or repair something damaged.

The procedures of DIY activities with tips/tricks/limitations can be shared online. But a DIYer must learn it by reading or watching the content and executing the procedure physically at the same time. 

So, we can say that a DIYer can only gather information and tutorials on a particular task/topic for study. But for learning he must execute the whole procedure following the step by step guide line on the tutorials. 

So, we can conclude the basic elements of DIY contents as follows-

• Entertaining
• Informative and
• Educative for people/audience/DIYers.

Understanding The Academic Learning Methods And The Use Of Internet:

In the classroom, if a student doesn’t understand the whole lecture, he then gets help from the internet and starts to collect more information related to that lecture. This indicates that the classroom study is not enough and the students need outside help (from the internet) to understand the lesson. In the classroom lecturers/professors are the guide of students on a particular topic to be learned. But on the internet you are on your own to find and gather knowledge resources on a particular topic. And, at present there is more than enough content available on a particular topic. That’s why the students must know the required keywords for searching on the topic. Otherwise, they will be confused and waste a lot of time searching for unnecessary things from the internet. This issue will create a tendency of keyword research for a particular topic and make them swift internet users.

We are now witnessing a new era (4^th) of industrial revolution where the internet has become one of the primary needs in life.

Famous German economist Klaus Schwab has written in his book “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” about the concept of the new revolution which changed human life and work strategy.

That’s why we need to alter the strategy of educating students also and migrate to digital platforms. 

Comparison Between Academic Learning And DIY Learning Methods:

In the universities, colleges, high schools and other educational institutions teachers should select specific contents for teaching by making them more understandable and fun to learn. Otherwise, the internet will beat them and become the primary medium of education.

Educational institutions have their own strategies of teaching and transferring knowledge among students. It’s different from DIY. DIY only shares the knowledge and tends not to care if people have learned or understood them.

On the other hand, in universities or schools teachers are the concerned authority or responsible for teaching and making the students understand the teachings. It makes them capable of utilizing the knowledge wisely during their whole life span. 

However, DIY has become popular and a great learning medium across the world through the internet with audio-visual presentation. And it is undeniable in this new era of technology.

Scope Of DIY To Make Everyone A Designer:

If anyone wants to beautify rooms of his house, make something (showpiece, sculpture, wooden racks & little furniture extensions) for inside home decoration, install carpets on the floor all by himself, then the answer is ‘YES!’ He can do it.

But he can’t do the fundamentals of designing a complete house like professionals do. These fundamentals include the followings-  

• Designing a full comfortable room 
• Creating an aesthetic internal atmosphere 
• Evaluating and calculating the cost precisely 
• Selecting and purchasing the proper materials 

Nevertheless, if someone joins in some interactive online learning course on DIY projects and participates in online Q&A sessions, exams, knowledge sharing workshops, then it is possible for him to be a professional. All he needs is the ethic of continuous self practice.

At present DIY is a trigger of success for people. With DIY, there is no limit in achieving dreams. A person can do anything and be anyone with various DIY projects.

One of the realities of society is that the interior designing of houses is a rich people thing. Rich people don’t have time or tendency to do it by themselves. But the majority of the people in a society are not rich. In that case, no one will do interior designing of their houses but themselves. So, in such life situations, the knowledge and skills of DIY comes in handy for upgrading lifestyle with aesthetic values inside home.