What is the point of a hobby? To enjoy yourself, to sound more interesting to others or to serve as a side hustle to keep you afloat in this economy? The first question people ask when they find out you have a creative hobby is, “Cool, do you sell it?” It doesn’t matter if you sew, knit, make jewelry, paint or write; people immediately assume you monetize the items you create. This adds to people’s guilt about having hobbies just for themselves and perpetuates the hustle culture mindset that you must spend every waking moment on a productive activity. People should not let others pressure them into succumbing to the capitalist “grindset” and force them to monetize their hobbies.
In the current job market, where the gig economy has taken over, and remote work has become commonplace, more people than ever have flexible working hours and locations. This creates a blurring of the lines between one’s personal life and their work life. This change in how we work has shifted the cultural view of what part work plays in one’s overall life. When a job is confined to specific hours and a specific location, a person can disconnect completely after work. Conversely, when one works at home or sets their own working hours, that separation is blurred to the point that it is almost nonexistent.
Simultaneously, the concept of hustle culture has also grown to become a pervasive mindset in the way one should approach both work, and life as a whole. It boils down to the idea that you should constantly work so hard that you are exhausted, linking your self-worth to how hard people perceive you to be working. In conjunction with the constant pressure to conform to hustle culture, the now inseparable nature of personal and work life makes it more challenging than ever to draw a rigid boundary that sets aside your hobbies as that alone: a hobby.
For those who grew up and became of working age within this culture, there has been an unending pressure to be constantly working in some way, or others will see you as lazy. When you are working on something personal, especially a hobby that creates a final product that could then be sold, there is a constant voice at the back of your head asking why you are doing this for fun instead of selling it.
Similarly, when you share information about your hobbies with those around you, the first thing they seem to ask about is if you sell your creations at Etsy or at local craft markets. This not only makes you feel guilty about not doing so, but it makes the voice telling you to monetize your craft even louder.
With the current global economic outlook negative, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the overall feeling that inflation is slowly suffocating the average American, the pressure to monetize any and every hobby simply to stay afloat economically has become worse than ever before. As the demands of our capitalist system force us to turn to the activities we love out of pure enjoyment and turn them into products, it is clear we have lost sight of what actually has value in life.
It is not selfish or frivolous to have a hobby that is for you and only you. It is, in fact, an extremely important thing for your mental health and personal contentment.
Having a hobby that you genuinely enjoy regardless of the quality of the outcome is a particularly important type of hobby, as you have something that is purely for your enjoyment and is not beholden to any sort of deadlines or expectations of others. This way, you have time dedicated to yourself and your leisure, with a clear boundary from work and other obligations.
It is so important to have time dedicated to purely your own enjoyment and completely separate from work. By having a hobby that you do not monetize, you are creating this space for yourself.
Instead of asking someone who sews or crochets if they sell their work on Etsy, I would instead encourage you to ask them what they are currently making or what their favorite project is. If you are the crafter, embrace the time you spend doing something you love. Remember that every time you do so, you resist the claws of capitalism, actively trying to infiltrate every facet of your life. Allow yourself to use your craft to resist hustle culture and the toxic side of capitalism, one stitch at a time.