I wonder what's the ratio of people who genuinely expect to be able to live off their hobbies vs people who don't even get to enjoy a hobby due to The Fear forcing them into "The Hustle" in a world where success and even survival are not defaults?
> a world where success and survival are not defaults?
Success is never a default in any world. Even in the most utopian Star Trek universe, not everybody gets to be a starship captain.
I actually have thought about recording videos of my hobbies and sharing them, just to share, but I'm discouraged by the high production value expectations that people have now and it's not worth the hassle. But I would never expect to turn it into a career. I respect and support several content creators, but they are handful among tens of thousands. The majority of creators simply aren't generating $5/mo in value.
On YouTube. I watch a lot of other content creators and anytime anybody makes something that wouldn't pass muster as a Netflix Original there are detractors in the comments. Putting yourself out there on the Internet invites criticism and at least for me, I have no desire to allow my hobbies to be invaded by outside criticism so it's not worth the effort to produce content about them if I know I can't meet the bar required to avoid the most obvious criticisms.
There's definitely some people for whom these are legitimately just hobbies and if they make some money for it then great, sure. But for those people it's not really a problem if they don't get paid, they'll almost certainly continue to create anyway.
I think one of the worst(?) parts is when someone turns a hobby that their friends and family enjoy them doing/sharing in to a business. Suddenly it's this all consuming thing. Their instagram/SNS posts turn in to nothing but a stream of what amounts to advertisements for their fledgling business/hustle.
It's inherently no longer a hobby once you have to do it every day to pay your rent.
I think finding something you get paid for that you can get some sort of enjoyment out of is way easier than monetizing a hobby and keeping what you enjoy about that hobby alive.
