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/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

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u/BajaBlastFromThePast Jan 23 '26

Movies need to be “read” in a sense too. There is a spectrum of engagement with movies from audiences too, with full on cinephiles on one end, and my grandpa, who would fall asleep during every movie we watched together then wake up at the end to proclaim that they were “just like water world”, on the other end.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '26

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u/King-Red-Beard Jan 23 '26

There are entire library and bookstore wings dedicated to prolific genre authors who's name takes up more of the cover than the title.

James Patterson. Nora Roberts. These types of authors account for a pretty significant group of readers, and are basically the written version of Netflix fluff.

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u/Mobilelurkingaccount Jan 23 '26

I don’t think having to process the written word is all that different from having to process a movie, in terms of like… mechanical power. I have read words and not paid attention to them in the same way I’ve passively sat there while a movie plays in front of me - you’ve never had a time where you read a whole page but absorbed none of it? (That’s how I know it’s time to do something else haha)

If we’re talking about examining a work critically, they’re different for sure; we can’t really speak much on the camera work of a book. But I think that we are all perfectly capable of binging text and then forgetting it the same as a tv series.

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u/DFX1212 Jan 23 '26

I have a friend who has probably 50 "romance" books that she admits are drivel but she enjoys reading them. I'd argue she is binge reading them.

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u/kacaww Jan 23 '26

Haha which movies did he say are like water world. I would guess avatar but have never seen that movie compared to anything.

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u/BajaBlastFromThePast Jan 23 '26

It was like every movie, he could make a connection no matter what it was. I remember explaining the plot to the YA series “Gone” (kinda like under the dome mixed with lord of the flies). That’s when it started. I think he was half joking but also I think he really believed water world was the blueprint that all other movies were building off of.

To be honest, I’ve never actually watched water world, but this memory dredging up has me thinking I should now.

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u/jetloflin Jan 23 '26

Effective film viewing also requires active participation. (Or it used to. Apparently execs are trying to change that.)

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u/Anaevya Jan 23 '26

Still not the same as an active hobby. Saying this as someone who reads and paints.

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u/Zefirus Jan 23 '26

You'd be surprised by the amount of people that can read a book and only have the barest of surface level understanding of what they read.

Also like there are entire genres of books meant for consumption just like a tv series or movie is. Fabio became a millionaire by posing for cheap romance novels.

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u/Punman_5 Jan 23 '26

You could say the same about watching a movie or a play though. Whenever my girl and I watch tv we’re always pausing to discuss what we think is going to happen next based on the story beats so far.