Week 10: Learning to not monetize my hobbies
Taking the capitalism out of my crafts
I had way too much with “lemonade stands” as a kid.
Honestly, I wasn’t exclusive to lemonade stands at all, I also sold friendship bracelets, lanyards, and beaded jewelry. You name it and I was probably hustling it on a blanket in the sun next to my brother’s little league baseball game.
As an adult, I have struggled with finding fulfilling hobbies that don’t involve spending all my money (shopping, traveling, dining out, getting fancy cocktails…you get it). I am now so desperate to find a hobby that I can enjoy that doesn’t cause such a strain on my finances- but does such a thing even exist?
Aren’t all hobbies an invention of capitalism and the expansion of leisure time to keep us spending money and keep the economy spinning?
As I began writing this piece a few weeks ago I was both excited and discouraged to see Anne Helen Petersen musing over the same topic.
It was exciting to know that this is a shared experience and sentiment, but discouraging that this work wouldn’t be the original thought it was hoping it would be.
Nevertheless, she persists (she is me, of course, Petersen persists unaffected by me and my musings).
Instead of ignoring her work on this topic, I thought I would build off of it. Read her piece on Millennial Hobby Energy HERE.
D- Doing
I have been beading.
Everything comes back in style, that is what I have always been told anyway. Trends are cyclical. If you're smart you’ll hold on to the right pieces in your wardrobe and one day your kid will be begging to take them off your hands.
Like clockwork Havaianas are cool again, having announced Gigi Hadid as their global ambassador.
Gap is the hottest place to shop, and everyone seems to know it (I thought it was just me).
Yesterday, I wore a two-piece set (fit with a skort) from Gap and Havaiana thong sandals, and I beaded. If you went back 13 years you could probably find me in the same state. Everything comes back into style.
Beading is a good start on my journey to find adult hobbies because it keeps idle hands from scrolling.
Like a cigarette smoker who becomes addicted to chewing gum for an oral fixation, I find that my hands crave the fixation of scrolling, more than my mind craves the content I am consuming.
Why do I need to scroll on my small screen (phone) when I am watching a bigger screen (TV)? Because I am an addict, consumed with the desire to repeat the mechanical movements that have rewarded me before with surges of dopamine.
As Petersen approached hobby energy from the millennial perspective, I am approaching it from that line between gen-z and millennial (very technically speaking, I am gen-z, but I also feel like I am a part of those ghost generations that get caught in between two drastically different generations of which they feel they have on foot in both).
Petersen’s desire to find a hobby came as a consequence of losing her sense of self from work, for me and my gen-z counterparts, we are looking for a sense of self outside of our phones.
I- Interested In
In my quest to find hobbies that do not cost a fortune, I tried running. This time last year I was training to run my first 5k.
Yes, I had to train to run 3.1 miles. Even at my peak athleticism, I dreaded the yearly gym class mile. Running was never for me, so why did I think I could become a runner?
My post-race recovery turned into me going another whole year without running.
Movement for me is less of a hobby and more of a daily vitamin. And I prefer to take my doses in the form of low-impact pilates.
Unable to maximize and achieve as a runner, I had to drop it (I didn’t literally have to, but mentally, I felt I must).
G- Getting
Burnt out on the hobbies I once had because I monetized them.
One of the characteristics of “Millennial Hobby Energy” that Petersen describes is “big and ambitious… it’s barely keeping the impulse to optimize or monetize at bay”.
I became so addicted to thrifting, and the rush of finding something of value at Goodwill or the local antique market that I had no choice but to start re-selling.
This is a trap for all vintage hobbyists.
The work of managing a vintage resale was just that, work, and going to the thrift store looking for the next item that I could flip, started to feel like going to place a bet on black on the blackjack table.
I still believe in buying your clothes second-hand, and reselling them when they’ve come to the end of their lifecycle in your closet, but I can no longer claim this as a hobby.
The alternative to monetizing your hobby Petersen describes is, “chant[ing] loudly to anyone who will listen about how we’re refusing to monetize the hobby we are actually really good at”, that sums up this week’s digs.
S-Suggesting
More like looking for suggestions. What are your favorite hobbies that don’t break the bank?
I am in a reading slump so deep that I think nothing but a lounge chair on the beach can break me out of it. Not even Wedding People was able to break me free (although I did finish it, 3.5 stars, sorry).
I just want a hobby that makes me excited to finish work at the end of the day so that I can pick up where I left off like a little kid getting home from school and running to my basement craft table.
I don’t want to make money from my hobby, because in my opinion, it is no longer a hobby once it is monetized. I want to stick it to capitalism and prove that there is something I can do with my leisure time that does not benefit the economy.