What’s Your Guilty Pleasure?
“I decided to ask the community about their own guilty pleasures, to encourage others to enjoy what they like, especially if it doesn’t harm anyone, and to feel more comfortable sharing those interests.”
Guilty Pleasure: something, such as a movie, television program, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.
This is what the Oxford Dictionary describes as a guilty pleasure. Something that we don’t feel particularly comfortable with sharing with others. And yet, we still engage in them anyway. I decided to ask the community about their own guilty pleasures, to encourage others to enjoy what they like, especially if it doesn’t harm anyone, and to feel more comfortable sharing those interests.
For me, drawing became my guilty pleasure in middle school. My classmates did not view it similarly to how I felt before they had seen it, and it made me more resistant to being creative while at school. In 2020 I began to feel comfortable with art again, but I am still learning to reach out of my comfort zone again.
When I asked the community what their guilty pleasures were, both past and present ones, there were two people who said their guilty pleasure was playing video games.
“I used to play video games, but now I don’t anymore.” - Anonymous
“I would say gaming is a guilty pleasure of mine because sometimes it may distract me from the things I have to do. Also potato chips because I think they’re amazing.” - Anonymous
Both individuals have different reasons for describing this as a guilty pleasure. One had been discouraged from enjoying video games as much as they had years ago. The other one has encountered people who didn’t fully understand how they manage both their responsibilities and this interest. When asked if they enjoyed this interest more in the past, the first interviewee stated, “I used to play them every day out of a week. I used to like playing video games, it was fun. I enjoyed playing games like Fortnite and COD, even if I wasn’t the best player. I don’t have the same enthusiasm because I was discouraged when I failed against my brothers and others. The hype just wasn’t there anymore.”
Other members of our community, Mr. Mosley and Ms. Elle, both shared that watching a TV show was a guilty pleasure for them. However, their experiences with this interest differ from each other.
Mr. Mosely said: “When I was in high school, one of my guilty pleasures was watching The O.C. Basically a white soap opera. For me it was like I had no business watching this show, especially with me not being white.”
Ms. Elle said that “watching a tv show from when I was younger (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)” is a guilty pleasure for her.
When asked if they enjoyed this interest more in the past, they both said that they did.
“Yeah,” Mr. Mosley said, “I didn’t finish the show, and there was a time where there was a big meme about going on that reconnected me to it, but only for a little while.”
“Yes,” Ms. Elle said, “because I watched it as a child with my mom. But that’s why I like to watch it because it invokes good memories from my childhood.”
Other shared guilty pleasures from the community were:
“Shopping, being on the internet a lot, drawing that S & playing with glue on my hands in middle school, spoon fight in high school” - Coach Johnson
“Being on social media very often” - Anonymous
Most people chose to remain anonymous for their interviews, which is understandable when you consider how personal this subject may be to them. If I was in their place, I would’ve preferred to stay anonymous too. It’s one thing to openly choose to write about your own experiences in an article, and it’s another thing to trust someone with experiences that may still affect you on a personal level. This may not be the case for everyone, but it is important to protect your own peace of mind, whether you share your guilty pleasures or not. I encourage anyone who reads this article to share their interests with others, but on their own time. Being open about what we enjoy to those who will listen can be healthier for you than expected.