What Use Is Freetime?

At the end of the day, I always come back to my room, exhausted, only to lie on my bed. The things I do next are pretty passive: watch youtube videos, Netflix, TV series. I don’t think there is anything wrong with these passive activities, but I often question myself whether I should stick to these passive activities. Movies and TV shows can teach you a lot, but just passively watching it makes me feel like I’m missing something. The justification I give myself for these activities is that I am rewarding myself with this passive free time for all the toil and labor during the day. But is that enough of a justification?

My passivity brought me upon a YouTube video that highlights how passivity leads to mediocrity in life. The author acknowledges that people can enjoy passivity because passivity can alleviate mental stress that accumulates during the day. But in the long run, he argues, passivity can actually lead to us feeling nothingness. Because life goes on like a cycle with no changes, we will feel worthless once we become old. Using Eastern Philosophy, passivity can be justified in that the joys in everyday life can give us meaning, but I imagine the author would argue back that these sources are external and thus cannot be found in ourselves. The main arguments he brought up for active creation are two-fold: it gives you self worth (and thus self-love) and it sets you special from everyone else (and thus to become truly human). 

Because you can do something that is unique and that you enjoy, you no longer depend on external sources for self-validation and pleasure. When everything falls apart, you can always depend on yourself. The second argument is that while people can have equal rights, they do not necessarily have equal values. It is evident that we are not born equal in our abilities, and if we cultivate abilities that we love or are good at, we will distinguish ourselves from others.

I used to be convinced by Eastern Philosophy’s idea of enjoying passivity, especially in observing life as it is. I think there is merit to observation and that it can also make you feel human. However, I am also compelled by the claim that there is an inner desire to improve and to exercise creative will over something. In fact, that can make my life more meaningful than it is now. I have to say that I am enjoying life as it is, but I am afraid that in the future I will be stuck in an endless loop of repeating the same tasks every day. Perhaps the days will converge into each other, and I will not be able to tell the difference between each day that I have to live through. A way to differentiate the days is to paint each day so that they have different colors. I hope to do so with a hobby.