We are supposed to be living in the golden age of hobbies. Great thinkers of the 20th century believed that innovations in technology would make work so efficient that leisure would eclipse labor. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted 15-hour workweeks by 2030. This would leave people the opportunity to "cultivate into a fuller perfection, the art of life itself."

This would include hobbies, activities that Benjamin Hunnicutt, an emeritus professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Iowa, calls "pursuits that are their own reward." The opportunity to pursue joyful and meaningful activities was once "sort of the definition of human progress," Hunnicutt said.

The odds are stacked against hobbies. "Work has been supercharged with meaning and purpose and identity, a charge that it never had, at least for the majority of people," Hunnicutt said. The seamlessness of streaming and the narcotic effects of scrolling make every other activity feel effortful. To pay the bills, huge swaths of Americans take on "side hustles" during hours that earlier generations might have spent building model trains or singing in a choir.

These cultural conditions mean that hobbies can feel like a kind of class signifier for those who have the time and resources to cultivate them - Instagram influencers do Pilates and pottery, while the rest of us try to decide if meal prep counts as personal enrichment. For many, hobbies can seem like another chore, an opportunity to fail at well-roundedness.

All of this obscures the delight and exhilaration of having hobbies. "Hobbies are something that you invest your time and energy into without that expectation of financial return," said Jasmine Cho, author of the 2024 book "Get A Hobby." Cho defines "hobby" expansively: "any sort of activity that grounds you in joy, can help you cope with sorrow, and can help you escape from life's burdens." (Cho's hobbies include journaling, doodling, boxing, taekwondo, Legos, Gundam models and puzzles.) "It's just a practice of flow and getting lost, or even hyper-focused," she said. "That, in and of itself, is the reward."

And if you monetize your hobby, it's not a hobby anymore. "Once it flips into something that generates income, it becomes work," she said.

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We should be living in the golden age of hobbies. What happened?(https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2025/03/20/who-has-time-for-a-hobby/)