Adriane Alston
Editorial editor
Editorial
When everyone is following the same facades and trends, hobbies help students build real identity beyond campus culture. Walk across any college campus in the United States and the patterns become excruciating obvious. The same Stanley or Owala water bottles. The same clothing brands. The same TikTok trends repeated in slightly different variations (varying on the spectrum of dance skills). Individuality, once a defining feature of college life and the college experience, feels increasingly rare.
People are not becoming more interesting. Instead, many students are becoming carbon copies of one another. Trends themselves are not the problem because college culture has always had trends. What has changed is how quickly and completely people adopt themselves to fit these trends. When a product goes viral, whether it is a Stanley, a fashion aesthetic or a social media personality, it spreads across campus almost overnight.
Suddenly everyone owns the same item. Everyone participates in the same scripted conversations. Everyone follows the same cultural contexts and inventions. As a result, it becomes harder for students to differentiate what they genuinely value from what social media tells them they should value.
That confusion matters more than most people realize. College represents a crucial stage of identity development for an individual. During these years, students begin forming the beliefs, morals and personal values that often guide them through adulthood. But if individuality is disappearing under layers of trends and group based expectations, that process becomes much harder.
How can students solidify an identity if they never have the space to develop one for themselves in the first place? The pressure to conform often intensifies through campus wide involvement. Students join organizations, hold leadership positions and build social circles that shape how they present themselves to the world around them. Those opportunities can be meaningful, but they also encourage students to define themselves by titles rather than personal passion projects.
People start introducing themselves by what they do instead of who they are. It becomes “I’m the president of this club or I’m in this organization,” but outside of that organization people struggle to explain what they actually enjoy and more importantly who they actually are. That gap reveals something important. Many students no longer have hobbies.
And no, relationships do not count as a hobby. Having a boyfriend, girlfriend or partner does not replace the need for an independent interest or ten independent interests. A hobby is something you pursue because you love it, not because it helps your résumé or strengthens your value in the context of a social circle.
A hobby could be something simple, such as reading or journaling. It could also be something more technical in nature, such as repairing electronics, restoring old cars or installing AirPlay systems in older model vehicles. The engagement in an activity itself matters less than the personal connection behind it. Hobbies help students build identity outside of trends and institution–based roles. They create spaces where individuality is valued and therefore can thrive. In our current political and social climate that pushes people to take sides, hobbies also offer a rare sense of balance, allowing you to escape from the hardships of the world around you and not let hard times consume you. College students face enormous pressure to define themselves through ideologies, activism or organizational affiliation. Those conversations matter, but they should not be the only parts of your identity.
A hobby reminds students that they exist beyond debates, deadlines and leadership experiences. It also creates something long-lasting. Campus organizations will eventually fade when students graduate. Leadership positions disappear after a semester or two. But hobbies often follow people throughout the entirety of their lives.
Someone who develops a love for reading in college may continue exploring literature for decades to come. A student who begins learning photography might eventually turn that interest into a creative career where they feel fulfilled. Even hobbies that remain casual still provide lifelong enjoyment.
Most importantly, hobbies encourage intellectual curiosity. They call for patience, experimentation and personal investment. Unlike viral trends, hobbies cannot be replicated or duped instantly by thousands of people online. They develop slowly, shaped by personal taste and experiences.
That process naturally creates individuality. College should be a place where students discover who they are, not where they slowly merge into identical versions of other people they have encountered. Trends will always exist, but they should not define the entirety of your college experience.
Students desire something that is sacred to them. A hobby may seem small compared to internships, leadership roles or academic achievements. Yet those personal interests often become the most authentic expressions of yourself. If college truly represents a time of self-discovery, students should treat hobbies as seriously as their résumé builders.
Because the most interesting people are rarely the ones who follow every trend on Tiktok. They are the ones who spend their free time doing something they genuinely love.
Looks good to me.
