In a Reddit post last week, user r/Specialist-Ad4561 confessed that she is a 27-year-old woman whose boyfriend is obsessed with tunnel digging. “He's spent roughly a year on it, and it's evident,” she writes. “He's got cement beams, electric lights, even chairs and a small table.” She was concerned because he spends “almost all of his free time” there and “doesn’t really have a social life” but notes that he’s “always really happy when he gets back from digging.” She didn’t want to disrupt his hobby but she also didn’t want to enable an unsafe or unhealthy habit.
Screenshots of the original post were shared onto Instagram and Twitter, and it descended into the algorithm’s spin cycle, inspiring a larger conversation about dudes who dig digging. The post unearthed story after story of guys finding solace underground. The Wikipedia article “Hobby tunneling” got over 250 times more views on Wednesday of this week than last, and writer Elizabeth Bruenig chimed in to say that every man has a metaphorical yard tunnel — an all-consuming but nonsensical hobby. Whether or not the Reddit post was even true, the topic clearly struck a chord.
