I’ve spent a lot of time on social media over the past couple of years, maybe even a bit too much. But there’s something I started to notice this year. We all have our own favorite hobbies. I like to read, and sometimes I color just for fun. But this year, I started seeing more and more content about these hobbies, I noticed something concerning: we’re turning our hobbies into competitions. And that’s not great. Hobbies are supposed to be relaxing.
Stop Turning Your Hobbies Into Competitions
Hobbies are supposed to be fun and relaxing
Growing up, I had a lot of hobbies. The internet already existed, but it wasn’t as big as it is now. My parents allowed me to spend a little time on the computer, usually about an hour, and I mostly used it to play The Sims. So in my free time, I spent most of it on my hobbies. I loved playing outside, but I also loved reading and being creative. I wasn’t trying to read more than other people or color better than anyone else. I was just trying to have fun.
Hobbies are meant for relaxing. Imagine spending an entire day at school or work, you probably just want to unwind afterward. That’s why people look for hobbies in the first place. Hobbies help you take your mind off other things. When you’re focused on a hobby, you don’t have to think about your problems or responsibilities for a while. Having hobbies is simply about enjoying yourself and having fun.
People are turning hobbies into competitions
Sometimes I see content where people are bragging about how many books they’ve read in a year. I even saw a post from someone saying she was going to read 1,000 books in a single year. I’m all for reading more books, I love reading, but reading 1,000 books a year doesn’t feel like a fun hobby anymore. That’s about three books a day! That sounds stressful to me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that’s a bit extreme. Some people even look down on others who “only” read one to ten books a year.
Because I love coloring, I also started seeing more content about that hobby. Some people in the coloring community seem to think you have to use Ohuhu markers, which cost hundreds of euros or dollars—to be good at it. If you don’t use those markers, you’re apparently not good enough. I use cheap markers. I bought around 80 alcohol markers for €15 at a Dutch discount store called Action, and they work just fine for me.
But it gets even crazier. People are telling others exactly how they should color and which techniques they should use to make their pages look “perfect.” Honestly, I don’t think about techniques at all when I color. I just color. I don’t even blend. And that’s okay. It’s wild that people feel the need to police how others enjoy a simple hobby. At the end of the day, it’s just a hobby.
I really think turning hobbies into competitions is a bad thing. Hobbies are meant to be relaxing, but when people turn them into contests, it makes them way less fun. I can’t imagine setting an extremely high reading goal just to fit in or impress others. It sounds so stressful. Imagine coming home from work and feeling like you have to read 100 pages immediately, otherwise you won’t reach your reading goal. If work or school is already stressful, the last thing you want is to add even more pressure—especially because Karen on social media told you how to color the “right” way.
Just have fun with your hobby
Can we please leave this behind us in 2026. Pick a hobby because it is fun and not because to impress other people on social media. I personally started to ignore all of those posts on TikTok about coloring. It was too exhausting. I am keeping my hobbies to myself for now. I even decided to set my GoodReads challenge for 2026 on 1 book. I will probably read more than that. But I am not going to put pressure onto my hobbies anymore.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash