Man Wonders What Happened To Simply Having Hobbies & Interests — ‘This Is What Capitalism Has Done To You’
“It’s like every single bit of activity in your life has to be monetized.”
My Ocean Production | Shutterstock If you have ever considered turning your crocheting hobby into an Etsy shop or your Saturday paintings into an additional stream of income, consider this your capitalist wake-up call — it’s OK to keep some things for yourself.
As content creator and singer Josh Tenor expressed on TikTok, your hobbies don’t have to make you money — they can just be for you.
The man blamed capitalism for ruining simple hobbies and interests.
"The worst kind of people are the ones that insist on every single bit of activity that you do in your life has to be monetized," Tenor stated.
"You could be doing an innocent thing, like cooking, for example," he said, insisting that there will always be someone encouraging you to turn the hobby into a business or make bank by selling your product.
“It hasn’t got to be a business every single time. Sometimes, I just want to cook!” he exclaimed.
The culprit for this money-first mindset, according to Tenor, is capitalism.
With almost everyone struggling financially today, it's tempting to want to turn anything you enjoy or excel at into a way to make money and diversify your income. You can’t truly unwind because the option for monetization is almost always present — and it feels shameful to disregard those ideas and spend your limited free time on something just for fun.
Do you like reading? Make a social media account dedicated to it. If you have a passion for cooking, consider opening a restaurant. You're an artist — that's e-commerce galore. Truly, any hobby can become a side hustle, but should it?
Jacob Lund | Shutterstock.com
It’s important to have hobbies outside of your career.
Capitalism can easily turn a stress-relieving activity into a new source of anxiety. When your hobby becomes a business, it no longer serves as a care-free way to relax or have fun. Now, you're worried about making money and keeping up with demands.
“This is what capitalism has done to you. It has corrupted your mindset into thinking that every single thing has to be about profit,” he explained. “People just wanna have hobbies and interests for the sake of having hobbies and interests."
You deserve to feel the joy of painting, drawing, or playing pickleball without the nagging guilt that you could sell your work or go professional. Crocheting can just be crocheting. Cooking can just be cooking. You're allowed to do something just because you enjoy it — you don't even have to be good at it!
Research shows hobbies are beneficial to your mental health and have the power to decrease stress, anxiety, and depression. Yet, when turned into a business, the hobbies that once offered fulfillment can quickly turn toxic.
“The biggest problem is when people turn hobbies into their business,” content creator and marketing strategist Travis Chambers claimed. “It ruins the hobby, and it also ruins the business."
Chambers advised keeping work separate from fun, because turning your hobby, which was once a means for escape, into a job, often ruins the hobby altogether. It's also rarely a sound business model and ultimately adds money stress, and complication to a once simple activity.
So, in case you need the reminder again, it’s OK to have personal hobbies and interests that don’t earn you money. Just because you could monetize them doesn't mean you need to.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories