Productivity or Passion?

Hobbies are some of the best representations of a person’s personality and values. A hobby is something that you truly care about and enjoy doing. However, recently, I have observed a trend among students. Increasingly, students are adopting a hobby just for the sake of pursuing a future career, improving their grades, or earning extra money.

Initially, the existence of hobbies is for people to do the activities that they truly relish. Spending time on their hobbies is a way that many teenagers use to temporarily escape the demanding and competitive environment around them. The purpose of participation in this case is to enjoy the process itself and take a brain break from their busy lives. Nonetheless, the involvement of external motivations not only changes the purpose of people’s participation in leisure activities, but also their benefits to mental health. Now, social media and intense competition among peers have convinced many students that even their free time will have to be used for self-improvement and mastering skills. This has also led to hobbies becoming increasingly performative, with teens having the urge to seek validation from the public’s view and constantly evaluating if their performance is good enough. The phenomenon of using leisure time for productivity is widely known as “hobbymaxxing”. Hobbymaxxing doesn’t provide the relaxing time your brain needs and instead elevates anxiety. An article by The Washington Post describes hobbymaxxing as the main cause of students viewing their passions through lenses of profitability and productivity. This pressures teenagers to measure whether a passion is worth pursuing rather than simply being comfortable with what they are doing.

Now when talking about the involvement of external and internal factors in the reasoning for doing a hobby, we will have to touch on extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Extrinsic motivation focuses on external aspects outside the individual as inspiration to participate in a hobby. It focuses on the benefits derived from participation in an activity, which in our case is academics, career pursuit, and social recognition. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is devoted to the internal reasons of a person rather than from separate outside influences. When people are intrinsically motivated, they often participate not for reward but simply because of the enjoyment in the process itself. When comparing the two, people observe that tasks with intrinsic motivations are more likely to last longer than extrinsic ones. Presently, extrinsic motivations are becoming more and more widespread, and the main cause for this phenomenon is competition. Competing for better opportunities, fighting for social recognition, and the trend of academic involution are some of the many reasons for the decrease of genuine interest as well as intrinsic motivation.

Well, after all of the information on passion and productivity, many students might be wondering, “What if I genuinely take interest in my hobby and wish to pursue a career related to that field? Should I simply give up?” What I want to say is that it is true that pursuing the right hobbies can bring you closer to your goals or careers and also earn you extra income. In 2022, a study showed that around 38% of Americans had a side job of some kind related to their hobbies to provide some form of extra income. An article from U.S. News & World Report related to high school extracurriculars also states that colleges do assess a candidate’s personal interests to understand their qualitative skills. However, as more students join in on profiting from interest, it leaves less space for casual participation.

Coming back to my main point, while pursuing hobbies might bring you many gains both socially and academically, my point is that students shouldn’t lose sight of the benefits that don't come with college offers, social popularity, or job opportunities. Hobbies are the main aspects that shape everyone’s personal identities. Voluntary participation in hobbies allows people to explore their values and change how they define themselves. Instead of simply being students, teens can also identify based on their personal interests. Another benefit mentioned before is the positive effects that participating in hobbies brings to mental health. Eleventh grade student Caymus Maxson made the following comments on her extracurricular activity: “Swimming is really relaxing for me, and it is what puts me in a good mood after a long day.” Many similar cases also show signs of hobbies being able to reduce anxiety and stress while supporting good mental well-being.

In a world that emphasizes efficiency and promotes competition, it is easy to lose sight of your initial purpose for committing to an activity. Even though keeping up with the trend of society is important, it is always essential to remember that there are some things that simply can’t be defined by public views, and passion is one of them.