There are some hobbies out there that make us look at people who enjoy them and immediately judge them. But what is one person's “ick” is another's “ahhh.”
Redditor u/LuiShirosagi20 asked r/AskReddit users to answer one question: “What hobby is an immediate red flag?”
Soon, people with fierce opinions took to the comments to share their answers.
1: Endless Social Media Posts
Posting everything, everything, everything on social media is a major red flag.
Redditor u/firecat321 shared this story:
“I had a coworker who texted me at 4am on my only day off, begging me to work for them because they were super sick and I was their only hope. I felt bad, so I agreed to take their shift.They were super appreciative and promised that they would make it up to me.
I ended up having a fucking terrible day, and on my only 10-minute break during my 12 hour shift, I saw that they had posted on Facebook that they were so excited about their “impromptu mental health day” and were pondering whether they should marathon sone Netflix and have a glass of wine or take a bath and have… a glass of wine. ”
Spoiler alert: they never “made it up” to me.”
Ouch!
2: Momfluencers
“I am severely worried about the kids of momfluencers,” wrote u/Trash_Emperor. “I think being so involved with social media from such a young age can cause a ton of developmental issues down the line.”
u/Soggywaffle36 added:
“My boyfriend's SIL posts every waking moment (and many of the sleeping ones) of her kids' lives on social media. Photos, videos, conversations, nothing at all is private for those children.
They're sweet kids, but if they go 5 minutes without attention they will literally scream and put on a show until everyone is paying attention, as though they don't know how to exist without mommy taking their picture and writing cute stories about them for the Internet.”
3: Keeping Old Nail Trimmings
Collecting nail clippings, unfortunately, does have to be mentioned here. Redditor u/HTPC4Life did do this but swears it's just for revenge.
“I started clipping my nails at work and saving them in my drawer for 3 months. When he was on vacation, I took a pop tart and crushed it and sprinkled it in his drawers, cabinet lock cylinder, chair, and sprinkled my nail clippings in his keyboard.
[They were] finding nail clippings and pop tart crumbs for days. DAYS.. He stopped pranking me after that. So sometimes saving your nail clippings can be well worth it.”
4: Humiliating Practical Jokes
u/AavaMeri_247 added, “Anything involving humiliation of other (non-consenting) people or enjoying suffering of other people.”
“Making mean prank videos, for example. Or watching videos like “look at this loser doing something stupid”. It's different if the video creator themselves pokes fun of themselves, because they consent.”
5: Hustle Culture Scams
u/nopurposeflour shared, “Worshippers of hustle culture and fake financial gurus. They seem to just fall into one scam after another like drop-shipping, YouTube automation, then to some crypto scheme.”
6: Child Beauty Pageants
u/ToloxBoi is against parents who enter their children in “Child beauty contests. Those thing are raw degeneracy, egocentrism and leave a f***ing time bomb inside the child's mind.”
u/Flaky_Tumbleweed3598 agreed. “Anybody who looks at their child and thinks “I could turn you into a totstitute and sexualise you for the sake of my own pride” needs help, or a good kick.”
7: Claiming Influencer Status
u/Ambitious_Misfit responded, “As someone who lives in LA, honestly? Any girl that calls herself an influencer.”
u/Crow_eggs said, “Not just LA – I live in Bangkok at the moment and the number of people I meet who say they're influencers when they mean “I'm unemployed but well dressed” is truly startling.”
“I've even had it come up in job interviews. I asked a candidate recently what she'd been doing in the 18 months since leaving university and she said she'd built 80,000 followers as an influencer.”
“I asked her how she'd monetized that and she flat out didn't understand what I meant. She'd just spent a year and a half taking photos of herself in big white hats for likes.”
8: Gambling
u/duktork threw out the idea, “gambling.”
Other Redditors agreed, like u/BlueRaspberrySloth. “I work in a casino. I’ll go ahead and confirm that for ya. People get addicted to pressing the button on slots, they don’t even care about winning or losing. They just wanna feel like they might win.”
u/IcicleNips chimed in. “My friend and I were walking through the slots area of the casino and just happened to be right next to some old guy who hit the jackpot with a payout of something like $40k.”
“We excitedly turn to the guy and start congratulating him. He turns to us, expressionless, and grumbles out “I put more in this thing than I'll ever get out” and goes right back to hitting the button. That was one of the saddest things I've ever witnessed.”
9: Collecting Old Empty Booze Bottles
u/coporate replied, “Collecting alcoholic beverage containers, specially the same one over and over.”
Some Redditors defended the hobby, like u/Burgundy_Man: “What about just collecting the cool shaped bottles or ones with nice label art? Asking for a friend…”
10: Celebrity Worship
u/SquarePegRoundWorld joined the conversation. “Hollywood/celebrity/sports worship. Like, fine if you are a fan but if everything in your life is Starwars themed, Kim Kardashian themed, or NY Yankee themed I don't think we will be compatible.”
What hobbies do you find disgusting, disturbing, or in poor taste?
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Maya (she/they) is a queer entertainment and culture journalist. They cover interviews, reviews, roundups, news, and more. She loves horror, history, and creativity. They hope their writing both entertains readers and inspires them to think critically. Her favorite pastimes include needle felting, gaming, and drawing.