What is "Political Hobbyism" and How Is It Affecting Public Affairs?

Although most college-educated people follow political updates by reading articles online, they mostly consume political information only as a way of satisfying their own emotional and intellectual needs. They are practising what researchers call "political hobbyism;" what they are doing is no closer to engaging in politics than watching SportsCenter is to playing football.

Political hobbyists learn and talk about big, important things, and debate the issues on their abstract merits, as opposed to engaging in politics via being a memeber of a union, belonging to an organization, or attending political meetings. In other words, college-educated American people are not using politics as a methodical pursuit of power to influence how the government operates. Instead, politics is simply a parlor game for them.