The Joy of Doing Things Just for Fun
Do you recall the time when learning the guitar involved jamming in your bedroom over summer breaks? Or painting a canvas just to see what colours came to life under your strokes? Hobbies used to be sacred havens, spaces where you could try, fail, and have fun without anyone critiquing your performance. Now, liberty feels on the verge of extinction.
The Pressure to Monetise Everything into Content
Swipe through Instagram or TikTok for a minute or two, and you will find it: any hobby has now become content. Dancing? Create a dance page. Cooking? Create reels. Painting? Post it on the internet. Journaling, which is something so personal, has an algorithm-friendly variant today. The message is clear: if you like something, monetise it. If it cannot be shared, it does not matter. All of a sudden, mediocrity has no place. Learning a new skill is not enough, and you need to be exceptional, shareable, and a content generator. And when comparison creeps in, most people unobtrusively abandon it. That summer hour of guitar practice? Overtaken by inadequacy. The lazy doodling? Wiped out because it won’t get likes.
Reclaiming the Freedom to Just Be
Perhaps it’s time to take back that space to just be. To dance poorly in your room. To make weird shaped cakes nobody will ever see. To take up a brush and paint something ugly but yours. Creativity, remember, flourishes in imperfection. Skills are important, but curiosity, play, and experimentation are just as, if not more, valuable. Hobbies shouldn’t have an agenda; they’re about practicing living freely.
So, the next time you are hit with pressure to monetize your hobby, take a moment. Ask yourself – Am I learning this to become a better person, or to entertain a crowd? Somewhere in between the constant reels and challenge-viral clips, the pure joy of doing something because you enjoy it still lingers. And it’s okay to suck. It’s okay to just be.