hobbies, remember them?
how hobbies brighten your life and, honestly, make you more interesting
My partner came home one night with a terribly sad story.
He had recently moved to a different office for work and was getting to know his new colleagues. Naturally, he asked one of them what they like to do in their spare time, you know, those 3.5 hours you have when you’re not working or sleeping or cooking or exercising or
“What do you mean?” they replied to him.
“You know, how do you fill your time? Do you have any hobbies?”
“I don’t think so, I just go on TikTok really.”
We can’t really blame this person. Phone addictions are a well-known phenomenon, some even have no choice but to succumb to “phone rehab”, but I think we all know now, especially those of us who grew up to the jarring tones of dial-up, that all this screen time can’t be good for us.
I know there are plenty of people who think (tirelessly) about giving up social media and picking up their paintbrush or their biro or their gardening gloves instead. Those who have a laundry list of things they’d rather be doing other than another dreaded thumb workout.
Introducing (again): Hobbies!
Remember them? Those things you can pick up and put down and not worry that you’ve missed anything in the meantime. Things that don’t Ping!! at you if you have forgotten about it for a while.
Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game, says you should spend 20% of your time on hobbies. And there are no excuses! No one is too busy to make their lives more enjoyable. She details more in her book but what she’s basically getting at is that hobbies will make you an interesting person (instead of maybe our friend at my partner’s office. No shade to her but that conversation ended pretty quickly after her response).
Hobbies remind us that we are humans with quirks and personalities, that we all have things that make us unique. They enrich our lives and give us the ability to go to the quiet places in our minds and achieve flow.
This is very, very different to coming up for air after hours on TikTok and feeling bad that you just wasted so much time.
I recently crocheted a little purse that I was so proud of when I finished it. The amount of joy I felt looking at this cute thing I made out of a ball of yarn was indescribable. I made that! With my hands!
Engaging in hobbies is the ultimate form of finding a job you love, and one of the best things about them is that no one is over your shoulder hounding you to do them. You just love it so much that it’s work that you actually want to do. Crocheting takes time and patience, as does writing a book, making a vase from scratch, nailing a complicated yoga pose—all of these things have something beautiful waiting at the end, a sense of accomplishment, of pride, of joy.
How I broke up with Instagram
I’ll be honest with you, the break up was long and messy. I’ve only just got him to stop calling me every time I take a photo of a cute sunset or accidentally arrange my desk to look aesthetically pleasing. I’ve kept a piece of him in a shoe box under my bed (a finsta account) and rarely get it out but it’s there.
1. Make your feed incredibly boring
Time to unfollow pretty much everything apart from your friends, a couple of news sites that will eventually irritate you (The Cut, I’m looking at you) and maybe a cat account or two.
When I did this a year or two back, Instagram would tell me “You’re all caught up!” rendering the app done with. I could close it and get on with my life. My feed became so short and never lead to anything interesting that I just stopped bothering with it altogether.
Unfortunately for you, Instagram has now injected “suggested” posts into your feed so you could essentially scroll for hours looking at accounts you have never even heard of. You can turn these off but only for 30 days at a time. Hopefully, if you’re serious about your detox, you’ll have completely deleted the app from your phone in that time anyway!
2. Write down how you feel after scrolling
If you know me or have subscribed for a minute, you’ll know just how much I love journaling. Journalling reveals so much that’s going on inside your head like things you may have missed in the moment or things that if you stopped to think about for a minute could change so much in your life.
Writing these feelings down can help you recognise the impact social media is having on you and help you pinpoint the things you’d rather do instead. Then you can take action and do them! But first, you have to know what those things are, and journaling can lead you straight to the answer you’re looking for.
3. For the love of god, get a hobby
Maybe even a fun one. Not only is this a great conversational piece but your mind will thank you for it as well. Instead of trudging through the grease and mud to every so often find something shiny in your Reels feed, you could pick up this thing that you love doing and that will never make you roll your eyes so far back you get a glimpse of your brain.
I crochet now. How fun. People at work are mesmerised.
The point is, you’re going to replace all that useless scrolling with something productive. Not in the wake up at 5 am, read 50 pages of the bible, make a three-course breakfast and climb a mountain before noon productive, the healthy, keeping yourself busy with something that will feed your soul type.
Here’s a video of zero skill hobbies if you are looking for a place to get started. Spoiler: beading is on this list! How cute! Engaging with hobbies even has the power to connect you with your inner child and temporarily give you child-like joy again. Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that much better than comparing yourself to others, slowly hating your body, wasting whole days watching things you won’t remember 15 minutes later?
Our eyes aren’t the only things that are suffering because of our excessive screen time, our friendships are losing out too. 7 out of 10 18–24-year-olds reported feelings of loneliness with some people holding social media accountable.
“My point is that society is built to be anti-social; media, phones, internet—they are meant to keep us connected but they do the opposite.” — Focus Group Participant, Zink.
Everyone is so caught up in online life that our real lives are starting to become a little dull. But hobbies can be the perfect way to brighten your world up again. Once I started reading more and expanded my crochet skills, kept an eye out for cute and cosy Nintendo Switch games (if you haven’t jumped on Kamaeru yet, you’re missing out) and dusted off my notebooks, my life suddenly felt so much fuller, a fullness that can never be replicated with many social media accounts.
You can even share one of your hobbies with a friend or take a class together. Don’t fall into the trap of meeting once every three months to rehash what we’ve probably already seen on social media, deepen your connection through engaging with each other’s hobbies. I went to a collage-making class with a friend and learned that she’s really good at pairing colours together! What a fun little fact I never knew about my friend of over six years. Online communities are great but how connected can you really be through a screen?
Remember that time is your most valued currency. If you don’t have time, you have nothing, you’re dead. Spend this currency wisely. Think of the hours you spend on TikTok as real money that you’re giving away to something that will give you nothing in return.
Spend your time on experiences, on core memories, on hobbies. You will always get the best deal when you spend time on these things.
References
Borges, Anna. "Why Having a Little Hobby Is So Good for You, According to Science." Glamour Magazine (February 2024)
Campaign to End Loneliness. “Younger Brits Report Higher Levels of Loneliness” (2023)
Centre for Social Justice. Lonely Nation: Part 1: How Family Can Help to End the Loneliness Crisis (May 2024)
Conti, Allie. "Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a ‘Third Place’ (April 2022)
Moore, Catherine. "What Is Flow in Positive Psychology? (Incl. 10+ Activities)." Positive Psychology (January 2019)
Sugar, Anne. "20% of Your Time Should Be Spent on Hobbies, Says Dorie Clark in Her Latest Book." Forbes (November 2021)
Tam, Sophie. "Life without Hobbies: A Path to Monotony?" The Boar (June 2024)
Hello lovelies! Thank you so much for reading this extra long post from me today. I haven’t written a reference list since university but I felt so studious putting this essay together, I had a great time!
I hope I have convinced you to take up a hobby and/or start to shave off some minutes of screen time (unless its mostly Substack, go wild). Tell me about your hobbies! I want to hear all about them!
Also just a quick thank you to you! For reading, subscribing, and leaving lovely comments. I am over the moon that you are here :’) I’m currently in my luteal phase so I’ll stop now before I start actually crying.
Have a lovely day, I’ll pop by again soon <3
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Amazing! As expected. When you said “I made that! With my hands!” This is literally how I feel after every crochet project haha. The zero skills hobbies video you recommended is so cool, it wasn’t the usual list of hobbies. I also loved what you said about how it’s much better to spend your time doing things that bring you joy than being on social media comparing yourself to others or just feeling horrible inside. Thank you for this <3
Yes!!! I'm literally never bored. There's always something to read, make, or do. It boggles my mind when someone says they're bored. I don't think of boredom as something terrible, I think of it as 'great, what fun thing can I find to do now?' I will literally hunt around the house for things to do. I once found an old-fashioned flower fairy colouring book and decided to draw the outlines in black pen - the results were quite stunning. I also pick up interesting things at charity shops... a puzzle, a card-making kit and a soap-making kit are some of my latest finds!