Is your hobby cosy enough?
Is your hobby more show & tell than you think?
I’m fascinated by the sheer volume of cosy hobbies that have overtaken my social media feeds. Somewhere, as always, I think we’ve forgotten what that word means because tell me why someone suggested ‘creative writing’ as a cosy hobby?
Okay, before I get too salty, I know that creative writing can very much be a hobby. And that’s great because I know it was previously considered a frivolous waste of time for a myriad of reasons I don’t care enough to shine a spotlight on.
No, what’s properly fascinating is the emergence of cosy hobbies1. They gained traction during the worst of the pandemic when we were all locked down and could only make Dalgona coffees and bang utensils for no actual reason.
Today? They’re a proper trend, with everyone vying to get one or try something new. My point of contention isn’t that cosy hobbies have gone mainstream, it’s that they’ve become a trend. And when something turns into a trend, it becomes more performative than anything else and somewhere, we lose the whole ‘why’ of the reason we began doing something for fun.
Take junk journaling, for example. Me? Absolutely love it. I’ve been doing it for a decade — diaries and notebooks and journals full of random scraps that were definitely going to the trash or nearly so. But now you get those handy dandy palm-sized printers to take photos of whatever’s caught your fancy to stick in your journal.
Except, that defeats the point of “junk” journaling. Something meant to be an exercise in creativity and creative expression has turned into something that can be photographed, reeled, and shared on TikTok. Cop out, if you ask me.
I do think that it’s nice that the barrier to entry has been eliminated for most of these cosy hobbies. People are helpfully posting tips on how to start crocheting, or how to start junk journaling, and I’m all for people trying out new things and even exploring them in an easy way (like with the camera) when they start. But then, if you’re just picking up cosy hobbies in an effort to be caught up with the latest one — I just have to wonder, have we forgotten what a hobby’s meant to be?
The trendification of hobbies is another in a long line of our continuing overconsumption trends. It’s nice that we’ve expanded from fashion and makeup to include hobbies in the mix, you know? /s
“Millennials and Gen Z are drawn to active hobbies with an extrinsic value that they can use to ‘define’ who they are and show it to the world via social media. It’s all about crafting an image.” — How Hobbies Have Become The Ultimate Humblebrag
There’s a clear instinct to show a hobby rather than engage and enjoy it lately. That’s where the disillusionment with the whole cosy hobby idea stems from. Am I doing it because I want to try it? Or because I enjoy it? Or because it’ll be great to share on Insta/Snap/wherever else?
Anyway, overall, I’m glad cosy hobbies are trending. Because even if I don’t agree with some of the commodification and commercialisation aspects of it all, they’re making hobbies relevant again. In a culture where rest and relaxation are radical and hustle culture reigns supreme, making time for something cosy, relaxing, fun, and mostly not monetised is actually a step in the right direction.
After all,
“Hobbies give people a sense of purpose and enrichment. Research even shows that engagement in hobbies for personal pleasure is associated with higher levels of psychological and physical health.” — The rise and fall of genuine hobbies
How to figure out if something is the right hobby for you? Here’s a handy tip: try it! And it’s okay if you fuck it up the first time or the tenth time as long as you’re enjoying it2.
No conversation about hobbies is complete without touching on two major forces at play: gender, and money.
So, presenting some mandatory reading:
And some optional but encouraged reading:
On monetizing hobbies — Many cosy hobbies involve making or consuming art. Golfing is notoriously not one of them. So that’s why there’s definitely an angle to consider about paying creators who may want to make money off their hobbies.
A lil’ note about me: Turns out I wasn’t (and still am not) ready to be back to weekly newsletter writing. I’m more than a bit burnt out and also questioning where this is going a bit (even if it goes nowhere, that’s fine — I just need to know? I just don’t have the brainwidth to figure it out right now). Anyway, this is just a note to say that there’s no schedule for Not Controversial going forward (at least until I feel like I’m a bit better), so I’ll write and share things whenever I can.
Thanks for reading, and if the mood-writing schedule doesn’t work for you, thank you for reading until now!
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On my radar lately
Books I’ve read & loved:
The Thursday Murder Club series (the audiobooks for the first two books are glorious — the second book is also infinitely better)
Britt-Marie was Here (I’ll read anything Fredrik Bachman writes tbh)
Sunrise on the Reaping (I’ve always been a fandom girl and THG was one of my OG ones — I’m very much back in my hunger games era) The commentary on propaganda & AI is very much needed in today’s times.
Stuff I’ve watched & loved:
Not a long list here because I’ve only watched one show and two movies in the last 5 months but:
When Life Gives You Tangerines (keep some tissues handy)
To Scale: Time (Our lives are not even full moments to the universe, Jesus).
Things I’ve found interesting:
Apparently, we are very, very dependent on helium, and we’re running low on it. And we can’t make more of it.
We live like royalty, and we don’t even know it. (h/t Shreya)
Create your life in weeks.
Teenage girls are always ahead of the curve. No, really: they make superstars.
Cool, see you whenever I feel like writing next! Feel free to hit the heart if you liked this and drop a comment below with your thoughts:
And all this before the markets went down last week, so we weren’t even prepping for a recession or anything.
However, if you tell me cryptocurrency is your hobby, I reserve the right to laugh in your face.
I've never heard of 'cosy hobbies' before now, but I have seen 'attractive hobbies' recommended to me sometime on YouTube. These lists can be useful for exploration, but are dangerous as guiding principles of what to explore. Getting lost in performative hobbies where your goal is how you look while doing it rather than how it connects with part of you is a slippery slope to living a life that 'should' make you happy. Thanks for sharing Nia!