Ever since I found myself enjoying things as an adult, I came to the simple and slightly dreadful
realization: I hate content about what I like. Which always sounded a bit counterintuitive to me, you like
X, so surely, you spend a lot of time reading about it or interacting with people who also enjoy it, right?
But no, I mean, kind of, but not the way a lot of people would expect.
First off, I need to classify things. There is content that is historical, purely informative, and there is
content that is subjective, the person's own views on the subject. Technically, the barriers are a little
foggy; after all, we all bring some bias to what we write. But let me use a videogame as an example: I
played Genshin Impact for years, since its release. I checked guides, fan art, maybe even leaks, but I was
never interested in the community in general, content creators, subreddits; it all felt icky to me. It felt
like people were telling me how to enjoy my hobbies. This character is amazing, you need her in your team!
15 things you need to know to finish the Abyss! Etc, etc.
Things are not different with sneakers. I enjoy books, documentaries, and actual analysis of history. I,
unfortunately, follow some Instagram accounts to get news on the subject, so I can know what is happening.
But I do not follow sneakerheads. I don't watch videos, unboxings, "first tries", little stupid guides on
Instagram, etc. I hate it, again, it sounds to me like people teaching me how to enjoy the hobby. I don't
need a random account to tell me "How to build a rotation", I'll figure it out myself, and struggle a bit in
the process.
In a way, this is the problem of modern social media; it pains me to know that all the stores and news
accounts are only on Instagram. I force myself to be there, just to check the stories of the ones I care
about, even if Instagram insists on serving me more with their algorithm. So was the case on that one about
rotations; it is hard to separate news content from the rest, it seems.
It is fun to do things your own way; it is how I came to enjoy fashion. I like a few brands and a particular
style, but I do not have anyone telling me what I should or should not bother with. I want to use my
imagination to try seeing how to piece things together. I want to buy something and experiment. I want to
search and see if it sparks joy in me, if it's worth spending my money on. Maybe it will be a new favorite,
maybe a very specific shoe I almost never wear, but I want it to be me who did it.
I have, in the past and present, used Gemini to deal with this. It feels way less personal; it's not a
person telling me things, it's sand generating text based on a few Google searches. I am absolutely not
proud of it, per my February post on AI, but I am not going to pretend it hasn't helped me, even if now I
find most of it bullshit, it seems I developed "too much" taste on my own to rely on the silly machine.
In any case, my point is that sometimes, hobbies are more fun when you figure them out as you go instead of
following a set of rules a big account made up. So, enjoy your hobbies, make mistakes, speak about it or
don't, but at the end of the day: have fun, on your own terms.
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