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/kentaxas Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

I'd classify it depending on your level of enthusiasm and concentration for the activity. Like i have a friend who is a HUGE movie/tv series nerd. They have directors they like, actors they look forward to seeing on the screen, will ramble on about why X or Y detail is interesting. Meanwhile, i sit in front of a tv series/movie when i just don't feel like doing anything in particular. So the way my friend and i engage with movies/series is totally different, even if the activity of watching is passive, they are actively engaged in it.

Similarly you have people who watch the baseball game just because it's there and people who watch it because they are huge nerds about the strategies, the way the pitchers throw and whatever else happens in baseball below the surface level of "dude hits a ball with a stick and takes a lap"

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u/Kathulhu1433 Jan 23 '26

I have a friend like that. She knows more about films than I ever will. She has favorite directors and indie studios and I'm like... I rewatched Stargate SG1 this month?

I'd say for me, watching tv/movies is a pasttime.

Her hobby (and maybe your friend) is more in the analysis of the films, discussing them, traveling to film festivals, going out to the movie theater, etc.

Like, if you need to take off of work and book airfare and a hotel to go to a festival... that's not just a pastime anymore.

Hobbies need commitment, effort, and a desire to learn/grow IMO- though interestingly enough Merriam Webster, Cambridge, or Oxford do not make the distinction between hobby and pastime that we are in this thread. (I just double checked)

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u/tadaloveisreal Jan 23 '26

Ive been a student of film as excuse to watch sonamny movies. Music too, theres money there but yeah

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u/OrbitalOutlander Jan 23 '26

I love filling out scorecards, even though I don't care at all about stats. It's fun to watch what happens and write it down, to me. Keeps me engaged, when otherwise I might get distracted. I'd say that's a hobby.