This is the way, as an archivist myself. Photos, rare recordings, films (especially personal ones pre-2000) are all in danger of disappearing and need people like me to digitize and spread them before it's too late. It's a very fulfilling pastime and contributes something useful to the world.
Genealogy is a good alternative. Nerd out over the stats of your own ancestors and see how many lines you can trace back to colonial days and how much further you can find.
so the point might be to direct them to some more productive collecting pursuit or something (archiving historical docs?)