Why Sucking at Your Hobby Could Be a Secret Weapon

"Because hobby apps are nicer places to exist, people spend more time on them. On one hand, these apps connect people to their passions - and to other people with similar passions. That's a genuine good. But it's worth asking: what's lost when our hobbies have such a robust digital footprint? Hobby apps can easily slip into the trap of mimetic desire: we begin to see things worth doing because other people consider them worth doing."

"Back in the 1400s, the word "hobi" was a nickname for a small, active horse. As the centuries went by, the word was clumped with horse to form "hobbyhorse," the name for that iconic children's toy: a long stick with a horse's head attached to it. Kids rode these pretend horses for centuries, and the activity became associated with a kind of blissfully pointless diversion. Eventually the first half of the word broke free. Hobby came to describe an "activity that doesn't go anywhere.""

Hobby apps like Strava, Goodreads, Letterboxd, and Duolingo offer gentler alternatives to algorithm-driven social media platforms and successfully connect people with shared interests. However, these apps introduce complications by encouraging mimetic desire—people pursue activities because others value them rather than for intrinsic enjoyment. Users begin tracking, optimizing, and setting goals, transforming hobbies into performance metrics. This shift undermines the original purpose of hobbies, which historically meant purposeless activities that "don't go anywhere." The digital footprint of hobby apps, combined with streak maintenance and social sharing, transforms leisure into obligation, replicating the problematic dynamics of conventional social media while increasing screen time.

Read at InsideHook