Living With B

I speak loudly about the rise of social media and the fall of things being kept to ones self quiet often. Millennials, Taylor Swift, and the Addiction to Being in Love (or Being the Victim) was one that I really reflected on monetizing positive and negative emotions.

But something we haven’t really touched on is how social media has increased the want to monetize hobbies. Every time I think about starting one or when I jump back into a hobby, I find myself wondering, “How can I make money from this?”

I recently gave a friend of mine a drawing that I made during a staff meeting and she immediately said, “How cute! Have you thought about making cards?“

When I started creative writing again, my brain instantly went to “Could I get this to the point where I could publish?”

Even with Living With B, I’ve wondered if I can monetize the blog as a whole.

Reading itself has even become some sort of side hustle, especially for BookTubers, BookTokers, and Bookstagramers. There are paid partnerships, affiliate links, and paid reviews which aren’t inherently bad. But somewhere along the way, it started to feel like every hobby needed a business plan that was ready to be executed.

not everything has to be productive

It’s okay to enjoy something simply because it makes us happy. I think we’ve forgotten that. With the price of gas and grocieres, it’s easy to think about how to make something that makes us happy into a side hustle.

But it’s not about building a portfolio, making money or growing an audience. Rather, it’s about having fun.

And it’s incredibly freeing to know that you can just do something for fun and not for money.

i love writing

Those who have known me since middle school, know that I have always loved writing. Inspiration comes from everything, and words are my preferred form of creativity.

Like many people, I grew up writing stories. Fantasy worlds and bad romance plots with just a sprinkle of angst (or a whole lot) filled my free time after school. 100% of the time it revolved around TV and movie characters I was fully invested in and some of them never saw the light of day.

I’m content with that. Not every story needs to become a novel and not every idea needs to become content. Sometimes writing is just how I get an idea onto paper and sometimes it’s how I process something I don’t quite understand yet. Sometimes it’s how I process an idea that has been stuck in my head and just needs to be written down.

And that’s enough for me.

the pressure to turn joy into income

I understand why people monetize their hobbies. As I already said, this current economy is anything but forgiving. And if you can make money doing somethng you love, that’s incredible! I won’t ever judge someone for profiting off of something they love.

All I’m saying is that the pressure of turning something I love like creative writing or drawing into a business scares me. The pressure of making things perfect. The fear that I will evenutally fall out of love with it. The pressure of turning my hobbies into profit in order not to waste my potential.

Hustle culture (and the economy) as started to make hobbies feel like enjoying them isn’t enough. If you’re not monetizing, you’re not reaching your full potential. Enjoyment alone isn’t enough of a reason to keep doing what you’re doing.

i want to protect the things i love

One of the reasons Living With B came to fruition was because I wanted a place where I could review. It’s not necessarily made for creative writing, but it gave me a space, without social media, where I could review movies and books I had consumed. It’s grown into a place where yes, I still review things, but I also do more posts like this. I’m able to post my random thoughts that just bounce around in my head.

Of course I want people to read it and I want it to grow. But that hasn’t ever been the point. I don’t want my blog to be purely based on the algorithm. Sure, I have a few of those posts, but it’s not my purpose.

I don’t want to review a book because it’s simply popular.

I don’t want to write an opinion piece that makes everyone love me.

I don’t want to recommend something based purely off commission.

Rather, I want to keep doing the things I love without the worry of having a brands eyes on me.

success doesn’t always look like a paycheck

We’ve started measuring success in a narrow way.

Followers, views, subscribers, income, and brand deals. None of this is bad, but they aren’t the only way to find value.

Success can be finishing a painting, even if you don’t like it. It’s learning a new crochet stitch. It’s finishing writing fifty pages of a story no one will read. It’s publishing a blog post that resonates even with one person.

This is enough for me, personally.

maybe some things are better left unmonetized

There are many parts of my life I want to keep just for me.

Stories tucked away in my Google Drive. Sketches that’ll never leave my notebook. Recipes I love that won’t see the light. Ideas that simply exist because creating them made me happy.

The likely hood of them making a dollar is slim to none. People seeing them is unlikely. They still hold value though. Not because they’re making me money, but they remind me that creating doesn’t always need an audiance.

Sometimes the reward is that you made something and in a world that’s constantly asking for passions to be turned into products, I think it’s worth protecting.

let’s chat!

Do you think social media has made us feel like every hobby has to be productive?