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Stock photo via Deposit Photos / littleny.
I just saw a story on MSN summarizing a woman’s TikTok about how her “hobbies” are essentially lying in bed watching TikTok videos. But it got me thinking — I’ve seen so many things over the years about how you should “choose” your hobbies. One to keep you active! One to keep you social! One to blah blah blah! So here’s today’s question — do you “choose” your hobbies according to some guideline? Do you feel more encouraged to pursue specific hobbies over others? Would you consider “lying in bed” a hobby?
We’ve talked about hobbies before, from the difference between relaxation vs procrastination, to how to find fulfilling hobbies, to how to use hobbies to build your network. We’ve also had discussions on more specific hobbies like hiking, gardening (with plants!!), writing a novel, and more.
For my own $.02, I feel like there’s been a change recently, but maybe it’s just what the algorithm feeds me. It feels like maybe 5-10 years ago meditation and mindfulness were getting a lot of emphasis — and I’m not seeing a lot of it now. I recently saw a coloring book I’d bought for myself a few years ago and couldn’t imagine sitting down to take the time to do it. If I were waiting for something without WiFi then, hey, sure, but actually carving time out of my day to do it seems like a lot.
I’ve seen funny social media posts about how millenials/GenXers are all randomly picking up the same few hobbies, from bird watching to gardening to barre. So maybe that’s why the algorithm has stopped showing me mindfulness posts – I’ve been assigned gardening. (With flowers.) (ONLY on this blog do I have to clarify that, haha.) Much to my surprise, I can spend hours outside without so much as an audiobook to keep me company — I’m not sure it fits as a “mindfulness” exercise but it’s interesting that it’s definitely a time when only one mental tab is open for me. I didn’t choose this hobby with any intentionality — I started seeing Facebook posts about winter sowing, then seed starting, then natives, and I enjoy the consumerist aspects of it (a seed packet is usually under $5 so clearly I need 15 different types!). I also enjoy trying new things, as I’ve been wildly unfamiliar with flowers for most of my life — until recently I could not have told you what flowers were in my wedding bouquet — so seeing flowers I’ve never seen before has a fun discovery aspect for me. Oh, and the spreadsheets — you’d be surprised how many flower friends I have who are as obsessed with spreadsheets as I am, all for our flowers. (When did they germinate? When did they grow their first set of leaves? When did they bloom? How did different varieties of the same flower differ in all of those metrics?) As my husband always jokes, he did not have “Kat turns into a gardener” on his bingo card.
(Again: for plants!!)
Readers, how about you — how do you choose your hobbies? Do you feel pressure to choose hobbies? Are you leaning into ones that feel “healthier” than others, or seeking out hobbies that check certain boxes?