Sometime around the 2020 era, we lost the right to be mediocre at things we love.

No longer can you just bake bread...you must start a sourdough side hustle lol. Wanna stay fit and go jogging or running? Nah, you gotta optimize your biometrics for a marathon. What my point is that every hobby has been enshittified and gentrified into a brand opportunity.

This strange infatuation with optimization culture is killing the human spirit.

So this new year, starting tomorrow, one of my resolutions is to do something bad but fun. Maybe I write a terrible poem. I like to draw and paint, so perhaps I will draw a horse that looks like a table or sing off-key in the showers or in front of my loved ones. The algorithm driving the mainstream social media wants me to be a polished product, but my humanity lives in these messy, unoptimized, cringe-inducing joyful failures.

I will try to reclaim the right to be an amateur. Will you join me?

#creativity #hobbies #art #depression #socialmedia #newyear #resolution #happynewyear #MentalHealth #Culture #enshittification #creative #design #writing #reading #books #drawing #music #gardening #nature #running #fitness

@pheonix

I’m starting art classes in a few weeks. My goal is to learn a few things I can then use to enjoy myself. I might be better than mediocre. I might not. I really don’t care.

@Susan60 @pheonix Don't worry, I've been drawing and sketching for about 20 years - I steadfastly refuse to consider it to be Art but I enjoy doing it, and I really don't care if anyone else likes it because it's for me and it's mine.
@MikeFromLFE @Susan60 Engaging in art is all time favorite activity of mine and I never really cared because that's besides the point, I love doing it for the art itself 😎