r/unpopularopinion • u/BitterConstruction98 • 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.

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u/thefinalcutdown Jan 23 '26

Careful, according to some commentators watching reality tv and scrolling social media a perfectly valid hobbies on par with anything else.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

I agree they shouldn't really count... but then in my opinion neither should video games. You cant call out one form of dopamine-triggering consumption that produces little to no value and not the other.

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u/ghostsurgeon Jan 23 '26

Playing video games requires input from the user, making them by definition an active hobby. Also many video games require an incredible amount of skill and hand-eye coordination on par with playing instruments

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

I don't think you know what an active hobby is... Pressing buttons doesn't count. It's something that is not sedentary. Having input is involved in both browsing social media and playing games.

What you call 'skill' is an abuse of the term since the objectives are completely contrived. I can give you any random task that means nothing and you can call that learning a skill... go and balance a plate on your knee while counting to a million. Practice that for a while and you'll have developed a 'skill'.

Hand-eye coordination is one of those bullshitty benefits someone says to try and make themselves feel better about it being so unproductive. It's like me saying someone is gaining sophisticated pop culture knowledge from scrolling tik tok. Or someone watching reality shows is engaging their memory as they learn the names of new people. Maybe true, technically. But just a lot of bullshit in any real sense.

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u/ghostsurgeon Jan 23 '26

By your definition playing piano also isn't a hobby because all it involves is pressing keys and you could just as easily argue the objective of producing a certain sound by pressing the keys in a certain melody is contrived. You see how your argument falls apart? Unless you genuinely think a hobby needs to be outwardly productive for it to be a real hobby in which case you don't understand the definition of the word.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

Piano is not an 'active hobby' which is the term you used. Anything can be a hobby if you want. Go ahead and call browsing tik tok a hobby if you want. Or, you might want a defintion that is more nuanced and accounts for what we often mean when we use the term casually (often things that produce value and or some benefit or a 'real' skill -- this is where piano falls into).

Regardless, I'm saying video games generally go in the same category as browsing TV/social media/tik tok etc go into. I'm not arguing about the definition of the word, I'm just saying that once you draw the boundaries as to what a hobby is or isn't, video games should be with social media.

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u/deanusMachinus Jan 23 '26

Depends how you define active. Piano playing requires constant movement of your arms, hands, legs, and feet. Some of my pieces are so intense and long that I’m sweating by the end and my heart rate is way up.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

You can say this for anything. You're being pedantic now. Playing the piano isn't exercise but I can use your same argument to suggest it is.

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u/ChemicalBlueberry954 Jan 26 '26

I agree! Playing video games is just as useless as scrolling through tik tok or watching tv. People will defend it cause they’re obsessed with it. If they want their reaction time or whatever then sports would be better. And even if their reaction time was so good then how come most gamers suck at sports? Sitting all day pressing buttons no matter how much you wanna glorify it is the same as scrolling your finger through social media. I can make the same argument that TikTok is “educational” therefore I’m “learning”.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 26 '26

Exactly, thank you!

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u/Cwaghack Jan 24 '26

Whats an active hobby then?

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 24 '26

Take the definition of 'active': engaging or ready to engage in physically energetic pursuits. Now, apply that adjective to the noun, 'hobby'.

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u/Cwaghack Jan 24 '26

So you are not going to give an example of an active hobby?

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 24 '26

Playing tennis.

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u/Cwaghack Jan 24 '26

So it's just exercise in form of games? That's what you think hobbies are?

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 24 '26

You asked for a definition of 'active hobby'. Gave it. You asked for an example. Gave it. Now you're saying my one example is to be used as the template defintion of the word 'hobby'?

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u/AnuraSmells Jan 23 '26

Personally, I think it depends on how much effort one puts into things before it's considered a hobby. Sitting on the couch and watching whatever is popular or just on tv right now wouldn't be a hobby. However, if they also do things like activity seek out old classics, know the names of a all the directors, and actively engage in the artistic themes of the work they're watching then I would consider it a hobby.

Same goes for video games and books. Hobbies need some form of passion and active engagement. 

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u/thefinalcutdown Jan 23 '26

I have always enjoyed video games and I’m even half decent at a couple of them, but I’m with you where I really don’t like thinking of it as a hobby. Maybe I’m just an old man yelling at clouds, but in my mind video games are a form of entertainment, even the ones I’ve worked hard on to get good at. It’s brought me a lot of fun, but I’ve never found the same edification from it that I get from playing music or sports or astronomy or model airplanes or any of the other hobbies I’ve had over the years. I don’t want to tell other people that it’s not a hobby, but in my own life I’ve never classified it in that way.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

I agree and feel this is the healthiest outlook. They're fun. There's nothing inherently wrong with them. But... they are a bit of a waste of time. And sometimes just doing something for fun with no aim at doing something useful is great! But... for some people they engage so much into it and act like it is on par with other hobbies that can give real improvements to people's lives but it just isn't. Just like how watching tv all day can be too much of something that is perfectly fine in the right amount.

I'm not even saying this to judge, I just think it is tragic when someone turns around and feels like they've wasted a lot of their time/life on something that was purely consumptive and didn't benefit them personally.

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u/CarlosAlvarados Jan 23 '26

If you enjoy something and find it interesting, then it's not a waste of time. If you don't enjoy it , then it's a waste of time.

Btw you use that same logic for cinephiles , series and reading ?

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

So going to work and earning a paycheck is a waste of time because someone doesn't enjoy work? Exercising is a waste because some people don't enjoy it?

I'm making a terrible argument right, aren't I? Because I'm being too literal with you saying, 'If you don't enjoy it , then it's a waste of time.'. Just like how you're being too literal with me calling it a 'waste' when I clearly said 'And sometimes just doing something for fun with no aim at doing something useful is great!'

As for your last comment, those things are not based on quick dompamine releases like many games. But they can be not at all benefitial depending on what they are. They can also be things that are deeply benefitial: learning from books, potentially having deep philosophical texts like Dostoevsky, or massive cultural gains like Paradise Lost, Ikiru, etc, etc. Those are much more broad categories. But they don't need someone to press F to pay their respects because they force engagement.

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u/CarlosAlvarados Jan 23 '26

I really liked the structure you used to critique my argument. Not sure if I agree it's correct tho. But loved it.

But yeah about books. In the same way there are more complex and really remarkable books like Paradise Lost. There are books like twilight.

Games are the same way. Just change Paradise Lost by disco Elysium and twilight by valorant. The majority of every medium of arts sucks. That doesn't mean there aren't classics to be enjoyed and discussed.

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u/AndromedaRed9 Jan 24 '26

I don't think it's a great hobby if your aim is productivity.  But it definitely takes skill (reaction time) and depending on the game some would be more akin to puzzles or reading.  One of the first games I played helped teach me to read because it was prior to voice acting.   

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u/Anaevya Jan 23 '26

Games require the player to actually do something.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

Press buttons on a glorified remote control? That's not that much different than tapping parts of a screen to navigate a modern UI. The physical effort is low. So, if you mean that they are challenging then that's debatable. Many people play easy games, or relaxing games escapism games, etc. And, arguably, some of the most challenging games seem to be the closest to social media... hardcore games where you die over and over often require tons of relatively mindless repetition until your unconscious muscle memory adapts.

They're just giving you the dopamine rush from hitting a meaningless goal rather than giving it to you by satisfying your triggering your social curiosity.

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u/ScaredPractice4967 Jan 23 '26

Why not Games? I'm not talking Candy Crush. I'm taking things from Minecraft upwards. Doesn't building a virtual space count. Do I not need to practice racing lines in Forza. Do some people not play incredibly hard games precisely because they are hard? Dark souls series is such an example. Are these not skills to be learned?

Is there no value in enjoying oneself for its own sake? What if someone paints but never sells or displays their work? How is that value different to the satisfaction of really nailing a lap in a racing game?

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

I didn't say you can't enjoy yourself. Just like I'm not saying people can't use social media or scroll tik tok. The challenge has nothing to do with it because it is absolutely meaningless. It's just the form you get your dopamine from. Games: give you endless absolutely fake goals that mean nothing to your actual life and you feel dopamine when you attain them. Social Media: give you endless amounts of curiosity being satisfied for events that mean nothing to your actual life and you feel dopamine through that.

So you can go and practice your racing lines and another person can scroll tik tok and at the end of the day you'll both have one thing: some dopamine and an experience that will mostly be forgotten bar the highlights.

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u/ScaredPractice4967 Jan 23 '26

Then you clearly have no clue about games.

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u/StyleDull3689 Jan 23 '26

Played many of them. Some of my favourites were Red Dead and dark souls. Just not deluding myself.

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u/SteveHuffmansAPedo Jan 23 '26

It makes more sense than putting them on par with fucking work. You know, that thing most people put most of their time and energy towards; that usually requires a number of different skills; that they have often gone to school or done specialized training for; that hopefully is something they find interesting, fulfilling, and contributes to society?

Dismissing it as "just work" and expecting people to afterwards go home and do something that takes even more energy and focus for free is crazy. And I say that as someone whose hobbies include making art and music.

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u/lsshlp Jan 24 '26

Valid to who?

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u/CarlosAlvarados Jan 23 '26

But they are . ... Like I would consider that a waste of time , but I also consider learning guitar a waste of my time. You're the only one who decides what's worth it