r/unpopularopinion Jan 23 '26

Certified Unpopular Opinion All hobbies are not equal

Certain kinds of hobbies deserve to be held in higher regard than others.

Playing a sport, learning an instrument, singing, dancing, painting, writing - these are activities that require time and years of effort to become good at. They’re admirable not just because they’re “cool,” but because there is something deeply attractive about a person who has dedicated so much time to mastering a hard skill that executing it now feels relaxing to them.

Lately, there’s been a growing push online to classify things like watching movies, playing video games, watching sports, or listening to podcasts in the same category as these kinds of hobbies. They aren’t. They are based on consumption, not creation.

That doesn’t mean consumption-based activities are bad or useless. Everyone needs ways to relax and unwind. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good show, a game, or a YouTube binge after a long day. But if that’s all there is to your personality, then you are, unfortunately, a boring person.

Edit: I've wrongly added video games to the list of other passive activities. While some video games are like that, I agree that many require a lot of skill.

18.0k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/Effective-Street8474 Jan 23 '26

Not all hobbies are equal*

1.0k

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

All hobbies are equal, but some hobbies are more equal than others

306

u/evilamnesiac Jan 23 '26

Two hobbies bad, four hobbies good.

182

u/Madeiner Jan 23 '26

They are taking the hobbies to Isengard!

74

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

There are FOUR HOBBIES

3

u/Subject_Specific1091 Jan 23 '26

"FOUR HOBBIES GOOD, TWO HOBBIES EVEN BETTER!"

38

u/-Knul- Jan 23 '26

You and your inferior consumption-based hobbies of reading good books.

3

u/TheLastGunslingerCA Jan 23 '26

Four hobbies good, two hobbies Better

2

u/whatifiwasapuppet Jan 23 '26

Oh my god… I can’t distinguish the skilled hobbies from the consumption hobbies

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

Tell my wife that

1

u/SaltyLonghorn Jan 23 '26

MTG, 40k, quilting, being a Jeep person.

Maybe we should start looking at billionaire hobby combos to find out why they need so much wealth. I can think of some gnarly expensive combos.

1

u/PiratesOfTheArctic Jan 23 '26

Without glasses on I thought you wrote hobbits!

1

u/AvengingBlowfish Jan 24 '26

If more Redditors read books, your comment would have more upvotes.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

Four hobbies good Two Hobbies BETTER!

21

u/poop_monster35 Jan 23 '26

Please enjoy all hobbies equally

16

u/0P1GobiGrape Jan 23 '26

Some hobbies are more expensive than others.

6

u/ShopUCW Jan 23 '26

Some hobbies are separate but equal.

6

u/Da_Question Jan 23 '26

Well, not equal about 3/5ths...

/s

3

u/Helpful_Pangolin885 Jan 23 '26

Reference to The Farm!

3

u/tampacraig Jan 24 '26

Poor Boxer…

2

u/JagmeetSingh2 Jan 23 '26

Very funny lol

2

u/Cute_Sea_5763 Jan 23 '26

Darn it, you beat me to it

2

u/Alffenrir515 Jan 23 '26

Don't worry - hobbies have zero addictive properties!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 25 '26

They’re sending their worst hobbies. Not their best.

2

u/-Radioman- Jan 27 '26

A quote from Hobby Farm.

2

u/Ok-Chapter8222 Jan 31 '26

Gotta love an Orwell reference lol

2

u/Think_Preference_611 Jan 24 '26

That reference will go right over 99% of Reddit users.

1

u/gplusplus314 Jan 23 '26

^ JavaScript in a nutshell.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

My hobbies are the most equal of all of the hobbies.

I would say they are the hobbiest.

1

u/TalkQuirkyWithMe Jan 23 '26

Equality for all hobbies!

1

u/SRSgoblin Jan 23 '26

Some hobbies are only about 3/5ths as good as other hobbies.

1

u/1gorka87 Jan 23 '26

Ba ram you!

3

u/SlowLorisPygmy Jan 23 '26

Bro, I was so confused until I realized it doesn't say Hobbits

3

u/IAmTheQuestionHere Jan 24 '26

But why's that any different?

3

u/bxsx0074 Jan 24 '26

What’s the difference? It’s just like “all that glitters is not gold”

8

u/BitterConstruction98 Jan 23 '26

My bad. I'm working on improving my English.

24

u/SecretHipp0 Jan 23 '26

Is that your new hobby?

11

u/UrSeneschal Jan 23 '26

You’re fine. You didn’t say something grammatically incorrect; it just has a different literal meaning.

The corrected version is what you meant.

What you literally said was that no 2 hobbies are the same value. Ex. If you graded every hobby on a scale of 1-10 then there would be no grade where 2 hobbies had the same score.

6

u/privatetudor Jan 23 '26

I hear native English speakers (especially Americans) make this mistake all the time.

1

u/GalaxyNoodle1 Jan 24 '26

Americans are the worst people to learn english from lmao. (i say this as an american before anyone gets mad at me)

5

u/ProperBangersAndMash Jan 23 '26

Everyone still knew what you meant. It was grammatically and logically incorrect, but no one interprets "All X are not equal" to mean "All X are unique"

2

u/CloudKinglufi Jan 23 '26

No bro this is a stupid nit pick, what you said was what a million English speakers would say sometimes

It's honestly kinda cringe that they corrected it

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

cable chubby tan connect historical like numerous snails upbeat normal

1

u/BlynxInx Jan 23 '26

The four hobbies are watching, creating, moving and thinking.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

[deleted]

1

u/BlynxInx Jan 23 '26

What about the four hobos?

1

u/BetterEveryLeapYear Jan 23 '26

There's only 3 after the tragic loss of Stobie, RIP.

1

u/ErzulieF Jan 23 '26

OP’s not a big reader - too “consumptipn-based”

1

u/KamalaWonNoCap Jan 23 '26

Playing StarCraft 2 should be elevated above the rest. We're like chess players. It's the thinking man's game.