Hobbies are important for someone’s well being. According to Harvard Health Publishing, people who have hobbies had better health and higher life satisfaction compared to counterparts who didn’t have hobbies. Hobbies can be things like reading, hiking, roller skating, video games, knitting and much more. A hobby is something that you can do to relax but also to improve yourself.
However, the rise of technology has been a double-edged sword for hobbies. It has made it easier for people to learn about activities they might not have the resources to learn about. At the same time, things like social media can decrease someone’s motivation.
Social media can be a great source of inspiration for people looking for a new hobby. You can see people make pieces from yarn that look surreal or see someone show how much their drawing has changed over a decade. This can give people inspiration to try new things they never thought they could try.
On the other hand, something that media platforms like TikTok tends to miss is how much time and sweat goes into these hobbies. Behind a 10-second TikTok are hours and hours of someone messing up and not getting it right the first time.
With progress posts, we get a glimpse into the reality of trying something new and the struggles and rewards of it. However, nothing is more humbling than actually trying something new instead of daydreaming about it. Progress is never pretty and linear; it is messy and all over the place.
Alongside social media came influencers. People can profit from hobbies they genuinely enjoy. This sounds great, and for some people, it is. But for people starting something new, this could make something that was supposed to be relaxing, now stressful. Thoughts about not being as perfect as people do that hobby professionally can cloud that person’s mind.
This makes it intimidating to start something new because you won’t be perfect from the get go. Nobody is perfect from the start, and that is just what makes us human. It’s okay to do something for yourself without turning it into a side hustle.
Speaking of perfection, something that has recently affected hobbies is artificial intelligence. Instead of taking years of honing your craft, you can just put a prompt into some code that will spit out something back. Nothing from AI is ever original, as it uses people’s hard work to learn how to do things.
Technically, one can argue that people use other’s hard work to learn how to do something. Yes, that is true. However, when creating art specifically, there’s on thing that AI can’t replicate, and that’s the emotion that goes into making art.
It’s discouraging to see people use AI for recreational purposes and people praise them for it.
“I get that I can still do things just for the enjoyment of them. That’s easier said than done, though,” user oldmanjacob stated on a Reddit post in r/TrueOffMyChest. “Part of the enjoyment I got from my hobbies and work was from the appreciation by others. Now there is none because it is lost in the sea of AI”.
It is true that people praising your hard work feels amazing, and it is easier said than done to not care about the words uttered by your peers. Looking for a community where you can practice that hobby is ideal, whether that is online or local. There are clubs on campus for hobbies and students are encouraged to create their own club if they want. Local businesses like LangLab, The Well, and Holly and Oakley Yarn Co. have meetups for people to work on their project. Local libraries have resources to learn a new hobby and have some clubs to meet up with people doing that same hobby.
It might be scary to try something new, but doing something while scared is iconic. Do things nervous with clammy hands. Do things with barely a sweat. Just do things.
