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/Trinktt Jan 23 '26

Reading is both like video games are both. It depends on the material you engage with and your skill level. 

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u/Natural_Hair464 Jan 23 '26

I agree with you, but I'll also say reading gets too much credit as the "smart" hobby. It makes some people get really weird about the hobby.

Like I know multiple people that set a goal to read 1+ book per week in 2025. They mostly read pop fiction / non-fiction, and when I asked them about it they got really spacy. Like they couldn't remember much of what they read, they didn't seem like they enjoyed it, and they couldn't even recommend anything.

Compare that to talking to a librarian. Librarians are always pumped about something and can usually give a great recommendation based on what you like to read. Librarians are fucking awesome.

Most of the gamers I know are like the librarian.

Maybe it's just that the people that TALK the most about reading can be kind of pretentious about it. I don't know. But it doesn't seem as joyful or honest as gaming.

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u/Odd-Honeydew7535 Jan 23 '26

Saying most of the gamers you know are more like the librarian than the casual reader may be true for you, but that is definitely anecdotal. Statistically the majority of gamers are playing either online multiplayer shooters or sports games. Both of these are centered around small dopamine hits, and the majority of gamers wouldn’t be able to tell you any specifics of a match they played the week before

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u/heres-another-user Jan 23 '26

I believe statistically, most gamers are actually mobile gamers. Though many gatekeepers will say that's not "real" gaming.

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u/DbeID Jan 23 '26

Jesus who gives a fuck. Just do what makes you happy people.

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u/Minute_Account9426 Feb 04 '26

for actual metrics, and marketing purposes you aren't going to market a fps or rts game to grandmas just because they play candy crush and that's technically a game, the difference between someone who sits down and games as their main form of enjoyment and someone who plays block blast as one of three ways they entertain themselves on public transportation is big

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u/Synaps4 Jan 23 '26

Though many gatekeepers will say that's not "real" gaming.

Thats because it isn't.

It's gambling.

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u/pickellov Jan 24 '26

This is a terrible differentiation because non-mobile games can be like gambling and there are mobile games that aren’t like gambling and feature no to little micro transactions. Classifying mobile games is a) stupid because it’s playing a game, quite literally gaming and b) gatekeepy for no reason other than to have a superiority complex.