I was asked if I would be able to type up something I wrote for a youtube video I posted a few weeks ago, the video was titled 'the value of hobbies and the pressure to be productive' so this is just what I wrote and reflected on while thinking about these topics. Let me know if you found this interesting!
Hobbies surely should be worlds away from work. They should be a solace from the constant drive of productivity that keeps a capitalist society afloat. They can be enjoyed without concern for things like skill level, output or usefulness. Hobbies are some of the rare activities that prioritise our own interests and enjoyment over productivity, money or some kind of progress. Hobbies often bring us closer to our genuine selves, (for many this may not be true of work which often may not be aligned with them) and so hobbies can also be great gateways to community and friendship as people connect on more honest common ground.
Unfortunately hobbies are not always immune to being effected by the pressure of productivity that dominates a lot of society. Or really it's that we often struggle to escape that pressure or allow ourselves and others even small amounts of freedom from it. My friend tells me how she feels like she has failed somehow when she loses interest in a hobby or how she feels proud and better when she's spent a day off knitting and cooking but like she's wasted a day when she simply watches TV or reads a romance novel. I again mention my slight frustration that while I enjoy and engage with watching TV in the same way many hobbyists do it's often written off as a wasteful activity that I will look back on my life and regret having spent much time on.
From the pressure to sustain a hobby and engage with them in the so called 'right' ways to worries that our leisure activities and hobbies are not valuable enough, productive enough or don't contribute clearly to self improvement somehow, even the time that should be a break from the productivity obsession can still be soured by it.
That's before we even consider how hobbies are commodified as they try to convince us hobbies would surely be best enjoyed with the right equipment, the right clothing and so on.
Time spent on things you enjoy with no concern for a material gain or outcome goes against what capitalism stands for and against the messaging that work and how well we can work, if at all, dictates a large part of our value as human beings. When we engage in hobbies we are hopefully reminded instead of our own intrinsic value and of everyone elses. Perhaps many people seem particularily alive and content when engaging with hobbies because they are able to grow closer with themselves, know themselves better and uncover strengths that a work place may never value.
In the face of an often uncaring and competitive world we are also reminded of the valued places we can all take in a community that can be adapted to our strengths and differences and the importance of time for recuperation, rest, self discovery, mental wellbeing and much more.
Perhaps activities like this are even a way to visit or even start to build a warmer world where time and energy spent on things like hobbies, our own interests and enjoyment, without any need for a typical productive outcome would never be seen as a useless indulgence of time better spent on work but a vital part of a more fulfilling life.
The end.
The sketch that featured in this youtube video of my friend knitting, it had been such a long time since I'd just drawn for the fun of it. - March 2025.