My Social Media-less Life

As I’ve recently mentioned, I’ve been going through Annie F. Downs’s book, Chase The Fun and have been learning (or maybe relearning) what “fun” is.

When I recently mentioned some of the things I’ve been doing that are and always have been fun to me (mainly reading and doing puzzles), multiple people decried those things as a “waste of time” or “unproductive.”

And in today’s chapter in Chase The Fun, Annie specifically said that hobbies are things you do in your life that are fun to you and specifically unproductive. That’s it.

The definition of a hobby is:
— “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation”

Hobbies aren’t meant to be “productive.” They’re not meant to be worthwhile or money-making opportunities. Hobbies exist in our lives as a form of fun and relaxation for us. And very few people have the same hobbies because not everyone finds the same satisfaction in the same things.

One thing I’ve recently rediscovered as one of my favorite hobbies is physically reading physical books. Listening to audiobooks has become something I’ve done much more recently in my life because it gives me something other than depressing podcasts to listen to while I’m at work, so I fell out of the habit of actually reading. And somehow that was one of the things that was “poo-pooed” (as the saying goes in my family) as a waste of time because you can’t really do anything else while reading. You have to just… read.

But that’s why I always loved reading. First of all, you’re not doing anything but giving your entire devotion to one thing for a period of time. Second of all, it forces me to sit still. As someone who constantly used social media as a way to keep moving, it was very hard for me to stop moving. So I found books that I was willing to take the risk on and sat down and began reading.

This might sound weird, but I feel less… muddled. Even though I’m technically in the middle of three different books (not including the two audiobooks I’ll be listening to over the next few weeks), my mind is more at ease than it was even since I stopped having withdrawal symptoms from lack of social media. It’s oddly satisfying, but something I’m not mad about… as the saying might go.

Doing puzzles is a more recent hobby, but one I use to catch up on audiobooks that might need to be returned soon (I only get audiobooks from the library app) or on podcasts that I do want to listen to. I used to use puzzles to watch things (I watched most of the first season of Stranger Things while doing a puzzle), but I don’t watch TV by myself all that much these days. I’d rather read a good book. 🙂

So this is my subtle way of asking for some good book recommendations. 😉

Also, go out and get yourself a heckin’ hobby or two! It’s good for your mental health and opens up your creativity in new ways.