Why Have a Hobby?

In this day age of social media, a 24hour day seems not enough for many people. Almost everybody is claiming to have more and more things to do. There’s often not even time to check on oneself – one’s state of health and the necessity of one’s activities.

Especially with today’s young people, a hobby has become an unknown thing. Well, perhaps it is because their whole days are spent on something that is fun and pleasurable for them. In that case, who needs a hobby?

Among grownups, a hobby is forgotten, just the same. Their reason may be different – their hectic economic engagements. There is not time for a hobby anymore. Really?

Nowadays, people claim to be unbearably, painfully, overwhelmingly busy! Between running the kids from piano class to soccer training to math tutoring, keeping a tidy house, and staying on top of a constant influx of emails and phone calls, indeed it looks like there can’t be time for anything fun.

There’s reportedly been a sweeping decline in civic engagement, from PTA meetings to community events. It appears that people have misplaced their free time and are not able to retrieve it. And the reasons for this are varied – these reasons, of course, are mostly perceptions and not truth.

The habit of wasting time can create the illusion of being busy. Social media, email, online movie streaming are like poisons that kill one’s time. An average person’s engagement on social media, for example, starts early in the morning. It is time unaccounted for that could be better spent elsewhere.

For those who have bought into the mindset that they’re super-busy, Jamie L. Kurtz, Ph. D., in an article at www. psychologytoday.com, insists that there is time for a hobby… or two! And hobbies are good to have because these help a person structure his or her time, she writes. Kurtz cites Parkinson’s law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” simplifying it to mean that things take as much time as one has.

Kurtz enumerates several benefits of having a hobby:

Hobbies promote flow. Left to our own devices, we often opt for passive leisure – TV and web surfing are at the top of most people’s lists. And, sure, we all need to veg out from time to time. But we are so much more invigorated by active leisure, the sort of thing psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow” activities. If you’ve ever lost yourself in a sport, art project, or other challenging, absorbing activity, you’ve experienced flow. Time flies, self-consciousness disappears; you are fully immersed in the activity at hand. Hobbies, especially those that stretch our skills, foster this desirable and increasingly elusive state.

Hobbies can foster new social connections. While some hobbies are solitary endeavors, many get us out in our communities, meeting people we otherwise wouldn’t, sharing our passions, and forming new bonds. Many studies have found that social connection is a key component of happiness and a meaningful life, and hobbies have the potential to create precious new ties.

Hobbies make you interesting. Hobbies give you something to talk about at parties and around the water cooler. They add layers to your identity, richness to your self-concept. People want to be around those with passions, with a sense of curiosity, with stories to tell. You not only feel more inspired when you have a rich and active life, but you will inspire others as well.

Hobbies help you cope with stress. Imagine a rough day at the office, where you were harshly criticized by your boss. Coming home and turning on the TV may provide a brief distraction, but it doesn’t directly address your damaged ego. Now imagine that after work you head out to your soccer league or pottery class. These activities are more than merely distracting. They remind you that that are many facets to your selfconcept. Employee, yes, but also athlete or artist. As such, a blow to one aspect of your identity is less damaging. Simply put, your eggs aren’t all in one basket.

And the benefits of having a hobby can spill over into the other aspects of one’s life. If one can designate an hour a day or even a few hours a week for something he or she feels truly inspired and enlivened by, it is not a surprise if some of that newfound zest carries over into his or her work and family life!