Here’s a thought for you:
Activities can exist in their own right and maintain solidarity without an “other” activity to oppose and destroy. You can read books for the sake of it, without stressing that you’re reading because you want to get off the computer. You don’t have to pre-emptively justify everything under the guise of a debate against an opposite thing.
This sort of thought-process seems to spawn from insecurity (and maybe how we view time as money?). Get some self-esteem, provide zero justification for your harmless activities! When an activity is undermined by pervasive justification or self-righteousness or chest-thumping of sorts, it’s impossible to enjoy. Creating comparisons suddenly shifts us into an arena of performance and judgment – and maintaining this viewpoint sours the activity itself.
Tangentially related: Doothi: ‘congrats! you have no personality’
Cheers,
Daniel