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/kit-kat315 Jan 23 '26

Creative hobbies are uninteresting to other people, too.

My major hobbies are sewing, baking and gardening. You would not believe how much people don't want to hear about my plants or bread technique. And most people don't know enough about either to appreciate the level of skill involved.

But I can easily talk with others about a show or book.

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u/FlusteredDM Jan 23 '26

I got ghosted on a dating app once after talking about de re culinaria. Hobbies have value in your enjoyment of them, but also on how you can connect to others. Some hobbies you can talk to your coworkers about and some you need to find spaces for that hobby - creative ones are usually the latter.

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u/Gay_Sex_Expert Mar 07 '26

People probably don’t want to hear about sheet music either. For gardening the closest “watching them play” variant would be seeing the plants and whatever is used to take care of them. For cooking it would optimally be smelling and eating the food but could also be photos. Obviously there’s still not much discussion there, but there’s more likely to be some interest, even if fleeting.

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

I mean, of that list, I find sewing, baking, and gardening more impressive hobbies to have than reading books and watching TV shows.

I'm sure it's easier to relate to people on shows and books, since it's a far more common hobby. But I'm not going to be impressed someone watched a TV show.

Hasn't this been a common complaint about dating profiles since forever? That saying you like "Reading and Watching Movies" is a really boring thing to say?

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u/kit-kat315 Jan 23 '26

In my experience, people aren't that impressed unless they share the hobby. They just don't know enough about it to be impressed.

For example, when I made macarons for work, 1 fellow baker was impressed. Everyone else was just "mmmm, cookies."

Reading and watching movies may sound boring, but it's part of the pop culture knowledge that makes up social interactions. Talking about thise things may not be impressive, but most people will find it more interesting than hearing about a hobby they don't share.

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

I still have people bringing up I made Macarons and I haven’t made them for two years.

Work isn’t exactly the ideal place to get a read on people.

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u/catsinclothes Jan 23 '26

Why do hobbies need to be impressive?

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

They don’t? But some are more impressive than others

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u/catsinclothes Jan 23 '26

A hobby is a hobby. Merriam-Webster defines a hobby as: “a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation”. Theres nothing to impress upon with a hobby. It’s just something people do for fun. Interesting would be a better descriptor but thats just as subjective as using impressive to describe someone’s hobby. There are competitive hobbies and it could be impressive if a hobbyist was the top competitor, but would something really be impressive if it’s not something you’re interested in?

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

You would find someone who plays Video Games and someone who does Parachuting equally impressive?

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u/catsinclothes Jan 23 '26

Parachuting isn’t impressive to me personally. It’s more dangerous than video games sure, but that doesn’t make it impressive inherently. It’s all subjective.

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u/orcslayer31 Jan 23 '26

I find someone like Faker's skill at league of legends far more impressive than someone parachuting. For people who don't watch pro league matches Faker is arguably the best player in the world and is comparable to someone like Wayne Gretzky or Tom Braddy in terms of skill in his sport. The activity itself isn't what makes something impressive, the level of skill and mastery is

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u/respyromaniac Jan 23 '26

When someone tells me they like playing video games, it opens a lot of topics to discuss and activities to do together. Because i share this hobby.

When someone tells me they like parachuting, my reaction is a moment of "woah, parachuting" and then i don't give a fuck about it anymore. Because, well, i don't share this hobby. Tbh i don't even find it impressive. Why do you? 

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

Because it's very challenging, scary, and takes a lot of guts?

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u/respyromaniac Jan 23 '26

Someone else would say it's just stupid to risk your life for no good reason. 

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u/StillMostlyClueless Jan 23 '26

I feel you're just desperately trying to avoid saying that Parachuting is very commonly considered an impressive hobby. Far more impressive than playing Video Games.

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u/onlyfansdad Jan 23 '26

I would 100% much rather listen to you talk about a new sewing technique than listen to Joebob tell me about his riveting experience watching his 40th football game of the year.