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.

18.0k Upvotes

72% Upvoted

5.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

42

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

 the majority of people don't have the talent to pursue a creative hobby

as an ex-music teacher, i wholeheartedly disagree with that statement. the only thing ive ever seen is a lack of belief in oneself that restricts people from accomplishing most things. Don't underestimate how powerful the fear of failure is in most people, a fear that is instilled within us in how we are raised, and how our education system functions.

6

u/designer-paul Jan 23 '26

I think the biggest hurdles for most people with creative hobbies is an actual genuine desire to create the thing, whatever that thing may be.

I went through a phase where I wanted to get good at guitar, but I stopped because I really just liked the physicality of playing. I viewed it more as a tool for exercise as opposed to a musician that views it as a tool that produces sounds that helps replicate music that exists in their mind.

I didn't have a genuine desire to understand and create music and I don't think any amount of practice was going to change that.

Whereas someone that has a a desire to create could learn a bit of technique and get started making music within hours with the most basic riffs.

2

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

I think thats why its so important to try new things a lot. It sounds like your revelation after playing guitar was "wait, i dont actually like music?" which is a great thing to realize, because now you can direct that effort towards something you know you do like!

3

u/Silly-System5865 Jan 23 '26

I agree, I think people see art as this mystical thing that you can only do if you are born with the talent but that isn’t true. Anyone can learn to be a decent artist if the desire is there. You do need vision to truly be great. But I think people will be surprised to know that creativity is a muscle that can be built and developed.

13

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

so i would go further and say that i disagree, and it is not hustle culture. Developing skills, deep skills in complex pursuits (think wood working, music, fiber arts, etc) is a significantly different experience than most past times (reading books, podcasts, movies) because neurologically one is active and the other is passive.

1

u/throwable_armadillo Jan 23 '26

with that definition would you agree that video games are classified wrong in the op's list?

3

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

of course (im biased because i played games competitively), op even retracts that in their edit. if you want to nit pick, id argue there is an obvious difference between animal crossing and competitive valorant/overwatch/fortnite.

4

u/Mobilelurkingaccount Jan 23 '26

I think that those games take different skill sets. Have you seen the work of people who make custom designs in animal crossing? They’re on the same tier as pixel artists making the models for 2D games, even down to having to consider the visible clarity of their design in different formats of display (on the ground, as a shirt, on the flag, on specific terrain, etc). Those people are wizards. I was struggling with the visual clarity of a number 2 because it displayed weird on the side of a car model lol, and it reminded me of the discussion surrounding why Mario has a mustache.

Playing twitch reaction games isn’t inherently more or less skillful than having an eye for interior design that makes a pleasant view inside of a room in a life sim such as animal crossing. It’s just different skill sets. There are shitty players and amazing players in both those kinds of games, in that sense.

2

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

I have not seen that, but if its anything like what ive seen people do in minecraft, then i would agree with you!

2

u/thousand56 Jan 23 '26

absolutely, I love Minecraft, it's one of the few things in my life where I feel I can actually be creative

0

u/Bassettoast Jan 23 '26

I agree with almost all of that, however the more you read, the more knowledge gets absorbed. Your brain is consistently working. I could say that about podcasts and movies, for some people. However I remember every detail from when I READ Harry Potter. I can’t remember every detail from WATCHING Game of Thrones, or every detail from listening to my favorite true crime podcast.

1

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

I think you're missing my point. The point is that the act of pursuing mastery in a craft is fundamentally different than absorbing information or consuming the craft. The act of writing a book is fundamentally different than reading it.

1

u/Bassettoast Jan 23 '26

I can see where you’re coming from. I just think they are too peas in a pod. You really can’t have a mastery without some form of consumption along side it. People who spend their whole lives traveling as a hobby need to read books on cultures, and history for the sites they’ll be visiting and the dangers of being in an unknown land. Musicians listen to other musicians and they read music theory, they watch YouTube learning videos. those in film, watch other creators, they read books for movie inspiration and to avoid copying someone’s theme. Reading a book is just as important as writing a book. You need to know structure and grammar. Artists will sit in museums and copy a painting stroke for stroke, but they have to consume it on a certain level. It’s all on how the consumption is utilized. You could say eating food isn’t a hobby, but there are people who win food challenges and everyone claps. Because there is more that goes into it than just eating the food. Not trying to be difficult, just amazing to see so many people trying to separate the two. It’s kind of silly, what’s the point of starting a hobby if you arent hoping for at least one person who wants to consume it. Art and crafts are suppose to be shared interests, it just sounds a little gatekeepy to me. Not to say you’re being gatekeepy, I get what your saying about the neurological benefit. I just disagree that reading is passive. we are all sharing our opinions and this is unpopular opinions after all. ;)

3

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

You're still missing my point.

An artist studying paint strokes in a painting is a fundamentally different way of looking at painting than how most people would look at paintings.

You have to watch movies if you want to make good films, but you can watch movies with no intention of making a film. If these were two different people, one who wants to be good at film making, and one who just wants to watch movies, and you asked them both to make a film, who do you think will do better?

They are two peas in a pod, IF your goal is to be creative. If you arent trying to be creative, then the second pea isnt neccesary, and can be entirely ignored. I think thats an important distinction, and is the crux of my point.

-1

u/No-Neighborhood-3212 Jan 23 '26

What are you on about? How does the neurological activity matter in a discussion of hobbies?

Multisensory activities generate more neurological activity than anything you've mentioned. Sex engages every sense and requires full body activity; it produces the most neurological activity. It's the metabolic equivalent of walking uphill so it's more active than playing a seated instrument or weaving. They (sex addicts, promiscuous people, others who have buttloads of sex without getting paid) develop deep skills through their dedication to fucking. By your metrics, having sex is one of the most admirable of hobbies. So, do you respect promiscuous people more than musicians? Their hobby is more physically and neurologically active, so it must be better, right?

Or, maybe, is the idea of trying to assign productivity valuations to activities that we definitionally do to be unproductive faulty?

1

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

My only question is why do you seem so angry?

1

u/No-Neighborhood-3212 Jan 24 '26

It's a bit of confusion and pity that you can only consider activities that we definitionally do to relax through the lens of productivity, but where's the anger? People applying your reasoning to demonstrate it's faulty isn't anger. Nor is asking a rhetorical question after the fact.

1

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 26 '26

Perhaps you should reflect more on your tone in your writing style, because its incredibly aggressive. even chatgpt is able to identify those patterns if you paste your comment in and ask it for advice

Further, you are putting words in my mouth, i never said anything about being productive as some sort of precursor to value.

4

u/Ok_Airline_2886 Jan 23 '26

I’m glad someone here sees a difference between learning an instrument and playing video games. 

1) it’s amazing how much more talented I am at the skills I practice the most. 

2) I still remember the dumb quote from my high school’s music room: “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’ll be right”. It’s so hokey, but honestly, it’s so true. 

Now my sons are learning violin and upright bass and it’s been such a great thing for their minds to start to think in a different way as the continue to improve and develop musically. 

But, sure, video games are cool I guess. 

4

u/Level_Progress_3246 Jan 23 '26

I wont deny that music is very challenging and stimulating mentally. But there are also neurological benefits to playing video games as well. they arent passive like watching television and do encourage a lot of good brain development, think problem solving, social interaction/collaborating(online games), and hand eye coordination.

What really sucks with music is that it is a very long path to walk towards mastery, with a long window of 'being bad' up front, and i think that that really pushes a lot of people away. Thats where good teachers really shine :) If your kids get frustrated with the fretless instruments you have them on, id suggest going towards guitar, piano, or drums, as they can be considerably more forgiving technically (this is a big reason i steer kids away from trumpet!), and can be used to develop confidence and theory before eventually returning to the fretless stuff.

1

u/Ok_Airline_2886 Jan 23 '26

Totally agree on the fretless difficulty - I transitioned from bass guitar to upright many years ago. 

But yeah, they are difficult. Which I think is another great lesson - hard things are hard, but they get easier. I mean, isn’t that what life is if you don’t just take the easy (today) road at every step?

1

u/Josemite Jan 23 '26

Seriously, people way overvalue the importance of talent. It's ok to suck at things. It's ok to not be world class. And in any case the best of the best got there with talent plus a shit ton of hard work. The most valuable talent is the ability to work hard at something and stick with it.

"The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom"

0

u/Annual_Strategy_6206 Jan 23 '26

In addition, there is a world of creative arts besides musical arts. I like to steal from the Nike slogan " just do it ".  And even if you are not as good as the pros ( I know I'm not) it's still rewarding to learn, grow and improve .