ISSUE 14: F*CK, DO I HAVE HOBBIES?
What destroyed them, why we need them, and the new skill I'm learning (for fun!)
hey all!!!
how’s everyone’s January going? Whenever a month tips over into the 17th and beyond, I’m like, that’s it. It’s over. It’s the next month. Anyone else? Today is the 24th so that basically means the month was over a week ago.
Let’s get into IT!
And hey, please don’t forget to leave a comment to let me know how you’re liking the newsletter. And send to a friend who you think might love it, too!
WHAT HAPPENED TO HOBBIES?
When was the last time you picked up a new hobby or learned a new skill? Not because you had to for work, or school, or felt like it would advance your standing in the world in some way, but just because…you wanted to?
I posed this question to myself the past week, and I realized that I could not remember the last time I learned a new skill that wasn’t related to my job or professional aspirations.
The most recent skill I could remember learning for funzies was making friendship bracelets when I was 7. This makes me recall a meme I saw once but cannot find now, so I shall recreate it below with the text in caption.
Again, I didn’t come up with that, but politically, I identify with it.
OUR MILLENNIAL ASSES MEET ETSY CULTURE
Gone are the days of headlines with the format: “HOW MILLENNIALS DESTROYED _________.” However, as a Millennial, we kinda did destroy hobbies. I mean, sure, it may have been the state of the economy that caused us to forego hobbies for money-making ventures, but nonetheless, hobbies were destroyed quite a bit with our generation.
I feel like anyone who had a skill or hobby unrelated to their work post-2005 decided “hey, why do this for fun…when I could do this for MONEY?” hehehehe. I say 2005 because that is the year Etsy was founded. Couple that with the economic recession of 2008 and you got hella people selling homemade jewelry to make ends meet for the foreseeable future.
OH SHIT I JUST DID ETSY’S ASTROLOGY CHART
As a complete and utter side note, I just looked up Etsy’s birthchart because, well, I don’t know I felt like it! Etsy was founded June 18, 2005, which makes it a Gemini. I find this super interesting, since the sign of Gemini rules the hands. And what does Etsy specialize in? Selling handmade goods and crafts. INTERESTING. Gemini is also a connector. What does Etsy do? Connects people to other people selling crafts. Cool.
FURTHERMORE, Etsy also has a Cancer stellium (meaning lots of planets, in this case: Mercury, Venus, and Saturn in Cancer for Etsy). Venus represents values/love/money and Mercury represents communication and how you process information.
The reason this is utterly wild is because recent ad campaigns for Etsy really have it positioned as a feel-good brand to remind “people to find joy in their every day and not to wait for special occasions to buy that gift or make a space a home,” said creative director from 72andSunny on this project. The sign of Cancer rules the home, and it’s also a very nurturing, emotional, and compassionate sign, often associated with feminine and maternal archetypes. So, Etsy is totally aligned with its astro chart.
WE LOVE WHEN ASTROLOGY MAKES SENSE.
Anyway, back to Millennials selling their souls to pay rent.
HOW WELLNESS CULTURE FILLED OUR EMPTY HOBBY HOLES
It’s not that we ever stopped doing things for “fun” outside of work, but it’s more so that the Girlboss era of the 2010s led our identities to embracing “wellness” and “fitness” and “beauty” as our “hobbies.”
(I’m totally calling myself out here. For crying out loud, I write a newsletter about wellness.)
But as the pressure to grind harder at work mounted for Millennials, a lot of us turned to boutique fitness classes as an after-work activity. Cue Soul Cycle founded in 2006 and then sold to Equinox in 2010 which led to its expansion beyond the New York area.
Just a few years later, in 2014, Sophia Amoruso tagged the term Girlboss, and if we’d be damned if we weren’t doing everything in our power to become one!! And that includes hitting your boutique fitness studio of choice after leaving the office. Which wasn’t/isn’t a hobby, but rather a little slurp of self-care you could fit in while climbing the corporate ladder and trying to stay in shape (mentally and physically) after sitting at the office all day. It also offered a sense of community that hobbies once did for some.
Hobbies? We don’t know her. We work and workout and then oh yeah, in the last few years, we learned that we can also take way too much of an interest in skincare so like how on Earth can we have a legitimate hobby? THERE IS NO TIME!
More recently, it seems like the things that we’d consider “hobbies” are actually just things that help us feel sane in a chaotic world. From my POV, this includes:
self-help and esoteric modalities like astrology (again I call myself out)
wellness trends (from fitness classes to cold plunging)
skincare and beauty
going to the Container Store.
We replaced hobbies with self-care as a means of self-preservation.
And it’s only getting bigger. McKinsey notes that “82% percent of US consumers now consider wellness [a $1.8 trillion industry] a top or important priority in their everyday lives.”
OH and this also includes making a Reel or TikTok about any of the above things. Or honestly making a TikTok/Reel of anything. WAIT! This is an important addition to the timeline: Instagram was founded in 2010 and TikTok was founded in 2016.
From that point on, we were sharing our lives online in a new ~aesthetic~ way, and now, for some ~creators~ those apps are a way of life (and a way to make a living). Hobbies = gone. Followers = yummy! Brand deals = I can pay rent because I showed the world that I love making bird feeders.
You follow me?
No literally, do you follow me on Instagram? Please follow me!!!!! I need a brand deal!
Haha, little joke. But my handle is @ljsayshey.
WHY WE NEED ACTUAL HOBBIES (SCIENCE)
When we all get tired of identifying with our fitness routine or skincare, what will be left of us? What will we tell our grandkids when they ask what we did for fun in our 20s and 30s?
“Well, sonny, your grandma used to do a little something called gua sha to make sure her cheek bones looked absolutely snatched for the ‘gram. And now, I am going to pass my gua sha onto you. Also we’re white, so this is a wild thing for me to be passing down to you, but you know. Wellness and beauty trends of the early 2020s!”
^That’s how I envision that going.
Upon researching more about hobbies for this article, I found some pretty interesting research that hobbies are legitimately good for us.
On Jan 1. 2024, Harvard dropped a new article on a study showing that people with hobbies are typically healthier, happier, and have a better mood. Here’s an excerpt:
The study is observational and doesn't prove that hobbies caused people to be healthy and happy. But the researchers say hobbies — such as arts and crafts, games, gardening, volunteering, or participating in clubs — involve creativity, sensory engagement, self-expression, relaxation, and cognitive stimulation, which are linked to good mental health and well-being. Plus, taking part in hobby groups keeps you socially connected, which helps reduce loneliness and isolation.
I also love to see this because if you read my INs and OUTs of 2024, you know that I predict and uptick in people with similar hobbies gathering IRL. How apropos that Harvard released this Day 1 of 2024. An astrological side note, we are just now in the “Age of Aquarius” and Aquarius is all about the COLLECTIVE. Doing things in GROUPS.
A group hobby for fun is wild for a sea of former Girlbosses.
MY NEW HOBBY!
Alas, I did not pull this issue topic out of my ass. My personal experience got me a-thinkin’.
I have a new hobby/skill that I’m learning, and that is (drumroll please….)
DRUMMING!
(see what I did there)
For a lot of my life, but loudly last year, I have been quite vocal about the fact that I wanted learn how to play the drums. I’ve always just thought it seemed really fun, kind of cathartic, and appealing for someone who considers themselves to have good rhythm (me).
Well, to my surprise, my music industry boyfriend enlisted one of his friends who is a professional touring drummer to give me drum lessons!! (Thank you, Anna!!!!) Also, this is the best gift ever so shoutout to my boyfriend who is probably reading this in the bathroom right now!
I’ve only had one lesson at the time of writing, but I’m really excited to keep learning and maybe be able to one day play Since U Been Gone which is one of the best songs of all time in my opinion.
One thing that kind of occurred to me (and I might not be alone on this) is that I haven’t done something in a while where I’m a total beginner and am not good at it. I’m a recovering perfectionist (raise your hands if you’re out there), so it’s kind of therapeutic to be like, hehe I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m gonna try. For fun!
Do you have any hobbies? Is there anything you’ve been wanting to try? Any hobbies you dropped for something else you thought was more worth your while? Let me know in the comments!!
See you next week and don’t forget to tell your friends about Oh, That’s Good. ;)
LJ
Is creating a fragrance tiktok a hobby or nah…asking for a friend