YesSome of us love to go salsa dancing. Others, trekking along mountain trails. And for a certain cohort, passions are fueled by… watching things on Tiktok?
When I recently discovered that one in four of us consider browsing social media a real hobby, I wanted to throw my phone into the sea and throw my laptop into an abandoned quarry. My heart hurt.
one of four. This is according to new research from the National Lottery, which found that 24 per cent of the 4,000 Britons surveyed (representing the equivalent of 12.8 million people) would consider moving their thumb or index finger nonchalantly upward and down on a screen would be a real hobby. One in 10 admitted that they had no other “hobbies.” Four in 10 said they spent most of their free time scrolling and watching TV. A third acknowledged that the amount of time they spend on social media literally prevents them from pursuing other interests.
Now, before you think I'm one of those weirdos who builds an entire personality by not owning a TV, or that I've only used a burner phone since 2013 because “they're watching us,” I'll happily throw my hands up. and say that I am as pathetic an addict as the next millennial or Generation Z. When I wake up, instead of spending the first precious moments of my day meditating, or writing a dream journal, or listening to the birds singing outside the window, I grab my device, eyes still half-closed, and mindlessly watch Taylor Swift videos. fans crying or clips of GB News presenters being embarrassing.
These things provoke neither joy nor anger, but rather a state of mind best described as pure, unadulterated ambivalence. It's just something to do until my brain lights up enough to coordinate the shower; a procrastination tool that I can pass off as “crucial” to make sure I stay up to date with whatever has most recently entered the Internet Things zeitgeist.
Do you know how powerful that addiction is? I stopped writing this article for a full 12 minutes because even mentioning social media made me unlock my phone, open Twitter (I still don't call it X, despite Elon's best efforts), and refresh the timeline. Terribly, I didn't even realize I was doing it. The experience was not unlike Raymond Shaw being “activated” with special code words to assassinate the president in the 2004 film. The Manchurian candidate.
If I'm mad at anyone here, it's me for letting apps take over my attention so easily. But one thing that I am What we know least is that this distracted activity does not constitute a “hobby”. In any case, it is quite the opposite. In my opinion, a hobby suggests some kind of passion and active engagement, whether mental or physical.
The activities I would list as true hobbies (when I manage to gently distance myself from the perpetual siren call of screens) involve some form of doing. Run; practicing yoga; dancing like crazy in Zumba; sing and play the ukulele; swim in the sea and go to the sauna; calling for the occasional ceilidh (you should add at least one truly specific option to the mix, if only to use as an icebreaker during team-building exercises).
No one would refer to “watching television” as a hobby; This open-mouthed, brain-in-the-ashtray activity is usually something we do mindlessly at the end of a long day. And, possibly, scrolling through social media is even worse. There is certainly an argument that doing Content for social media is a legitimate hobby. But, like compulsively staring at a box, scrolling is the antithesis of creating. It's more of a passive consumption of content that other people have created.
Looking at social media can take up hours of time
(Getty)
That's why, when you suddenly “come back” to having spent 20 minutes in a fugue state sitting on the toilet while reading post after post on Instagram, you feel a little… empty. A kind of mental malaise (a cerebral depression, so to speak) has descended; The afternoon has been lost, but you don't know where. This experience of the hours slipping away may be equally applicable to real hobbies, but the resulting feeling is a world away. After doing something I love, I always regret the fact that time went by so quickly, but I leave feeling energized. If I'm lucky, my soul will feel full and my cup will overflow.
The reason we should distinguish between hobbies and ways of passing time is not out of snobbery or to make others feel guilty about what they choose to do with their lives outside of work; it is to emphasize that the former should make existence feel fuller and richer. The latter is more likely to make you feel deprived of some fundamental life force. Like any addiction, it takes more than it gives.
Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one precious life?
It's not all bad news: although one in four of us might currently consider commuting a valid hobby, there is a desire for change. Three in five adults (59 per cent) harbor hidden desires to try something new, according to National Lottery research. Two-fifths (38 percent) want to break the digital habit and are actively trying to reduce the amount of time they spend on Insta, Tiktok, Twitter and others, while a quarter (23 percent) are even considering ditching social networks. media in an attempt to pursue more diverse interests. More power to them.
My favorite line of poetry is found in “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver. “Doesn't everything die in the end and too soon?” she writes. “Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one precious life?”
What is you What do you plan to do with your one precious life? If your answer is “scroll through social media,” it might be time to throw your phone into the sea.
