Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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It isn't, those are just on average more interesting than the one that consume "high culture". If I have to hear from one more person who "went to a really intimate and casual concert where they sat on the floor right by the performers" then just fucking shoot me.
I don't care about what you experienced at the museum or concert or whatever, because you didn't either. People who engage in performative hobbies are boring as hell, regardless of whether that is culture, hiking, wine tasting, marlin fishing, traveling etc. It's not that these are by definition soulless activities it's that they attract empty people like moth to the flame.
Few people play GTA and watch basketball for status (although these people exist, I've met them) which makes it preferable for me to hang out with them rather than the "refined" crowd, even if the latter occasionally pay me to engage in my hobby.
Ultimately of course you want to hang out with nice, interesting people; it's just that I don't find consuming high culture an indicator for any of that, it's a mild red flag.
People hike for status?
Absolutely, not as much for thru-hiking but that happens as well. It's kind of the same as traveling.
A lot of hiking is not for status though and perhaps it shouldn't have been on the list, it feels a bit borderline. I originally included hunting as well and it's similar. There are people (primarily city) people that hunt mostly for status but the majority of hunters just hunt in their area, don't have access to some exclusive hunting lodge and they don't really care to tell anyone about it.
In a sense it's similar to golf. Many people play it for fun but in some circles it's an advantage to socially to do so, which means that some people will do it for social status.
I don't know about hiking in particular but there's a conformity to a lot of these activities that at the most charitable are reflective of status and at the least charitable are indicative of pretense. A reasonable rule of thumb is whether a local could do it cheaply, an outsider couldn't do it without paying, and the modest locals might arbitrage their resource to the wealthy outsiders. The status anxious locals save up to imitate being a wealthy outsider, often somewhere else, and the wealthy outsider is already partially imitating the modest authenticity of a locale. It wasn't a PMC careerist who came up with fishing, horse riding, making wine or any of the other stuff that is typically for toffs and peasants, but PMC careerists do come up with sales plans and can probably demonstrate a level of critical insight into that activity that is potentially more interesting than recycling what they've been told about a wine's terroir.
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