People Share The Activities That Look Fun To Do But Actually Aren't

Often times, when we want to try something new, we judge our level of interest in an activity based on how fun it looks when someone else does it. It seems like a good idea, in theory; however, that's usually not the most reliable method. The reality is, everyone has different tastes and experiences, so what one person likes, another might not. That being said, take the following opinions with a grain of salt:

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#1 Body Hair Problems

Shaving my legs. When I was too young to shave, I wanted to so badly. Now I avoid it for as long as possible. This goes for facial hair too. I was so excited and felt like an "adult" when my grandpa gave me my first electric razor. I was around 16. Almost 20 years later and I've shaved to bare skin maybe a dozen times. By the way, freshly shaved legs in clean sheets feel so freaking awesome. I suggest everyone give it a go at least once.

#2 Monkey See...

Those foot vibrating machines at amusement parks, zoos, etc. that are supposed to make you feel better after walking around all day. I saw some kids sitting on the metal plate instead, laughing. I asked my dad for some quarters and tried to do the same thing. The force of the vibration caused me to have a bowel movement immediately.

#3 DnD Chemistry

Playing DnD with strangers. I started this way with my DnD group. When I went to play my first session, I knew nobody except one girl who I met two weeks prior. It was actually really great and we all became good friends, but throughout the course of our game (about a year and a half), there would occasionally be some behind-the-back talk about everyone in the group.

#4 Cast Regrets

When I was a kid, I kept seeing these kids with casts because they broke their arm or their wrist or their ankle, and I was so bummed because I’d never broken a bone. Then third grade came—I broke my wrist in three places and my thumb in two. It turns out, it freaking sucks wrapping your arm up like a loaf of bread to take a shower.

#5 "Team Building"

Captive work outings. For example: "We have organized an afternoon boat tour." That means: "You will be crammed into a small space, blasted with horrible music and expected to be friendly to people you are only around because you are paid to be, for four to five hours. You will accomplish nothing of value, and your bosses think this is a reward."

#6 Office Politics

My social life took a massive hit because I was spending 10-hour days in the office and constantly got sucked into social events. For example, the office provided free dinners every day, and it looked really weird to go home and eat dinner with your actual friends. I also used to play a lot of Smash Bros. with my coworkers, and they looked at me weird for wanting to stop after a while. Apparently, two hours wasn’t enough, even if it was 9 or 10 p.m. I prefer making friends with people outside of work. Things are more genuine because there’s no office politics involved, and it gives you a break from work.

#7 Ulterior Motives

Tech companies will do anything to keep their workers there 24/7. My programmer friend's work campus provides full meals, drinks and snacks, gym and spa, pools and hot tubs, bunk beds, showers and toiletries, on-call barbers, movie theaters, video game rooms with VR, basketball courts, etc. I think the only thing they were missing was a skate park.

#8 Bad Looking Out

I'm a pilot and there are two airline jobs you couldn't pay me enough to work. I could never be a gate agent or flight attendant. Both jobs seem like an endless stream of passengers yelling at you for things that aren't your fault or you don't know the answer to. Also, almost all airlines treat flight attendants like garbage. At my airline, flight attendants can be fired for calling in sick. Almost every time I've had the flu in my life has been because flight attendants I've worked with have come to work nearly dying with the flu to avoid calling in sick for fear of being fired. It's total nonsense.

#9 Just Doing My Job

I'm a gate agent. People think we get the say into when you can board when in reality, it's not down to us and we want you on the plane ASAP so we can go home! Waiting an extra 10 mins for a delay is less fun for us as we have to wait for the plane to take off. I once had someone argue with me that the gate was too small but wouldn't accept that the airport owns the gates and the airport also decides which gates we use. Although I don't mind my job, I swear passengers forget their brains at home when they go on holiday.

#10 It's Not For Me

Anime conventions. I actually had a good time at the comic conventions I've gone to but for some reason, the anime ones have been smelly, overpriced, creepy, and downright disturbing in some aspects. It seemed everyone just was there to take selfies in their cosplay. Nobody really socialized or wanted to talk about anime. The closest to a conversation anyone had was asking others to follow them on Instagram.  I have never had my bum groped so many times in one day (I'm a guy, by the way).

#11 B.O. Problems

Yeah, I have a friend who does cosplay. She has a very strict shower policy for pictures because a few years ago her Samus Zero suit was literally ruined by the B.O. that got into it from the hugs. She gets called stuck up for not taking photos with some neckbeards, but she says its worth it for not having to deal with the smell.

#12 Crack The Whip

Bungee jumping. Freefall is always awesome, but the second and a half of free fall is not worth the cracking of the whip that's hard on your body if you do it wrong. In my case, they told me to do like a backward dive off the platform. The problem was that I didn't commit to it enough so I was still kind of parallel to the ground when the rubber band caught. It created a crack-the-whip action that did not feel good.

#13 Upselling A Chore

Man, did my dad upsell mowing the lawn when I was a kid... He made it a thing my brothers and I aspired to do. We knew when we were old enough and responsible enough to mow the lawn we would officially be “big kids.” Turns out, it’s way more fun to sit on the sidelines with a popsicle. Mowing the lawn is literally my least favorite thing to do.

#14 Pass The Barf Bag

Paragliding. My boyfriend and I were on this magnificent trip and we decided to go paragliding in the German Alps. The views were spectacular...but my God, did I have to do everything in my power not to barf all over the views. I didn’t realize that the motion sickness I get in twisty car rides would transfer during this activity... only 100x more intense. The guide I was attached to swiftly handed me a barf bag but thanked me profusely for not using it when we landed because apparently it was full of holes.

#15 Just Like The Office

Bubble soccer. The first time I got laid out I was not amused. Then I accidentally punched myself in the nose after getting hit another time. The second time, we played this as one of our annual work team-building exercises. The teams were Head Office vs. Factory. The factory boys went all out and made sure the people for Head Office knew how we felt about them. But hey, team building eh?

#16 Too Much Of A Hassle

Mountain biking riding, specifically downhill. I had a friend who was crazy about it and took me along a few times. I really wanted to get into it but killing yourself riding uphill for five minutes downhill just wasn’t worth it for me. Plus, you spend ages trying to get all of the mud off you and not all over your car. I nearly spent $2k on a bike before I’d even started as I was so sure I’d like it. Shame as people seem to be obsessed with it.

#17 Queasy Cravings

Fast food. Every time. Yeah, their photography is great, but what you get looks nothing like that. I feel like I've eaten sadness. For example, I think Burger King smells great when I drive by it, but I had a craving for a Whopper when I was pregnant and I almost puked in the parking lot after eating it. Ever since then I haven't had a Burger King craving once.

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#18 That's Behind Me

I personally hated every second of high school and was more than happy to graduate. I didn't even bother with the graduation walk; I received got my diploma (the actual certificate came before the ceremony, they only gave out the holders during the actual walk), and ran for the proverbial hills. Sadly, I ran directly into a storm of drama and college problems, but I still don't miss high school for even a second.

#19 Night At The Museum

Drink nights at museums. Am I the only one who wants to dress up nice, sip classy drinks, and look at stolen relics and dead animals like some kind of hoity-toity toph? It was just a club night in the museum, complete with bad music, club horns, trashy people, and woo girls. They should put on the ticket, "WARNING: there will be more than eight other people in the entire museum and almost none of them will be wearing top hats and monocles."

#20 The Worst Idea

Cheating in a relationship. Yeah at first it seems like a good idea, having more than one person who you can do things with, but then you think about the person you’re with, how much it would hurt them, plus it calls into question your own ethics and honor code, and at least for me, it’s horrible. I have a friend who still constantly cheats on his wife, and will probably never change, and I feel both pity and disgust towards him.

If you’re in a terrible relationship, leave. If you’re happy, don’t cheat. It’s pretty simple. Some of it is maturity, but a lot of times, at least for me, it was because of insecurity, and not truly understanding what a relationship is all about. If you truly love someone, you won’t cheat, because you would never want to do something that would hurt them.

#21 Blood Lions

I wanted to go play with those tiger babies and wolf pups at the zoo until I watched a documentary about how those animals are sold to practice hunting farms when they grow old and aren't cute to play with anymore. These are the places where the tigers and lions are shot within a cage so people can get their trophies easier. These animals have been around humans all their lives and then some person comes in and blasts them away. So depressing.

#22 Waterslides Of Death

This really tall, intense water slide. I won't go into detail, but it was not pleasant. I'm a big roller coaster lover and I'm always seeking new thrills, but these water slides are just straight-up painful. The little ridges where they connect the slide pieces together bump up your back and hit the back of your head at warp speeds.

#23 Riding Pains

#24 Dangerous Diving

Diving. I joined the team in high school as it looked fun. It was not. Most painful sport I’ve ever participated in. My first attempt at a front double wound up being 2 1/4. The water felt like concrete, and my entire front upper body looked like I had a third-degree burn. The dive that got me to quit was a half gainer. Had I not landed to the side, I would have landed in the middle of the board. I collected my stuff and noped the heck out of that sport then and there.

#25 The Big Back Flop

My first dive in a competition was just a straight back dive. Now, this was the first year we had a diving team ever since we had a new pool. Probably 50 kids turned out to watch just because they thought it was funny that I was in a Speedo. In my first ever dive competition for the new school team, I hit the water in an absolutely parallel-perfect back flop from about five meters in the air. I have never again felt pain like that. When I surfaced the entire pool was dead silent and after about 15 seconds that felt like minutes you just hear the PA announcer go “Failed Dive.” Screw that sport. Made sectionals though!

#26 What A Chore

Vacuuming. They give you those vacuum toys as a kid, and you just think it's the coolest thing. Then you grow up and it sucks. I mean, it's not torture, but definitely not as fun as the toys made it seem. Where are my balls that pop around in the vacuum while I move it around the floor?! Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean I still don't have a short attention span—oh look, shiny stuff.

#27 Infomercial Dupe

I've got one! Marvin’s Magic Drawing Board. My sister and I saw the infomercials when we were young. It looked amazing. I think it was like three easy payments of $9.99? The thing was basically a rainbow background with a gap, and then a clear film. So when you press the film, color shows through. But it NEVER worked anything like the infomercial. We literally used it that day only.

#28 Never Again

Exploring caves. It sounded amazing. Then I spent eight hours knee-deep in bat excrement and crawling, or more accurately, jamming my body through tiny passages face down, in the dark, with all types of vermin crawling on me in a 98°F hole in the ground. Then, they were nice enough to tell me the most common cause of death is something called a dead hang. It's when you fall in a hole and get tangled in your climbing ropes and they can't find you or get you out. You just hang there all mangled up until you die.

And that waterfall you can hear but can't see? I bet it's beautiful but it's probably one of those places you could fall into pretty easily. Then, when you're hours away from where you entered this hole and you've been in complete darkness for long enough, you get this feeling of dread they call the rapture. You'd give anything to get the heck out of there and see the sun again but it's not possible. It will a very long time before you get out. It was an experience I'm glad I had but I'd never do it again.

#29 Curiosity Broke Your Foot

Getting my foot run over by a car. For some reason, I thought it wouldn’t hurt and it would be fun, so when my friend's mom drove the car into my driveway, I stuck my foot right under the tire. As it went over my foot, it crushed it and I screamed. I made her feel incredibly guilty for my blatant stupidity. I also had to wear a cast for months, which was not fun.

#30 Not My Scene

Going to large, multiple-day music festivals. Unless you pay for the premium experience, you're going in with the riff-raff known as general admission. Long and hot days, dehydration, lines for the porta-potties, not showering for a few days, and an infinite amount of people. Just a few things off the top of my dome. It's certainly for some people but I've gone to a few festivals to see some of my favorite acts and support, thinking each experience would get better. Nope. I've only come to find I'm not really about music festivals.

#31 Disneyland For Grown-Ups

I was going to say Las Vegas. Everyone raves about it being Disneyland for grown-ups but I think it’s one of the saddest places I’ve ever been. Everything smells, the buffets are overpriced and not that great, and it’s just dirty and crime-ridden. I remember returning to my hotel room one night at midnight and seeing people at the slots who I’d seen four hours earlier when we’d gone out, and then seeing the same people still there at 10 a.m. the next morning! And there were people who brought their kids and were pushing strollers around the casino floors and stuff. It’s just a sad and depressing place.

#32 Tandem Bike Torture

This literally happened just yesterday. I was on vacation with my in-laws and there were those bicycles that multiple people can ride. Everyone we saw riding them was smiling with rosy cheeks. After 20 minutes of riding one, we realized their smiles were an act of self-preservation to survive the torture that is those bicycles. They are an absolute nightmare to use.

#33 For The Thrills

Riding a motorcycle. It was fun until you hit the highway and realize you are one second, one bad driver away from dying. Most people never ride again once they fall off the first time. I put mine down within months of riding. I was 18. I still ride all the time, but I never go out without my jacket and boots. Also, I don’t mess with wheelies or anything of the sort. I ride to ride, not to die.

#34 Wedding Stress

Wedding planning. The day itself was amazing so no regrets, but the stress and anxiety were insane. I had recurring nightmares about the big day where we’d show up at our venue, which was beautiful and all set up, but there were no guests. Why? Because I had put the wrong date on the invitations. I would wake up and double-check our contracts just to be sure. My mom, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the planning process so I was more than happy to let her take over aspects of it.

#35 Growing Up Sucks

Anything to do with adulting. As a child, I couldn’t wait to be grown up and do these things. Drinking looked fun; in retrospect, it gives a nasty hangover and can leave you embarrassed over stupid stuff you may have done. Really, it’s the adulting that leads to drinking. Checking the mailbox for things addressed to me was exciting. Then, bills started coming, and everyone wants my precious, hard-earned money.

Being a parent looked cool and easy, and powerful. It’s a frickin nightmare sometimes. I thought parents and adults knew what they were doing. Heck, I thought they knew everything. Turns out, everyone is just winging it and pretending they know everything. Please, somebody, give me a box of apple juice, a pudding snack, then send me for a nap!

#36 Too Hyped Up

The Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The pictures are amazing, and mostly devoid of people. But in reality, it's fairly crowded, and the pictures are either taken under ideal conditions or retouched. And it's not even a natural hot spring, it's a run-off from the geothermal powerplant next door. There are natural springs around Iceland, and they're nicer for being natural and less crowded.

#37 Not For The Anxious

Camping on the beach. It’s amazing while the fire is going, the sun is setting, and the drinks are flowing. You think you’re going to hunker down for an amazing slumber under the stars and be lulled to sleep by the waves. The truth, however, is: mosquitoes show up in swarms, crabs crawl around looking for anything you’ve dropped, sand progressively fills every orifice, the air becomes greasy and coats everything with sticky film, you start worrying about who may be lurking in the dark, and occasionally you’ll have predicted the weather or tide wrong and you’ll get battered by a storm or completely overtaken by waves.

#38 Caves And Spiders

Caving. And I don't mean like... walking through a tall cavern. I mean army-crawling-through-tiny-openings spelunking. I thought it would be fun. The first ten minutes were. Then I had a panic attack, learned I was claustrophobic, and still had three hours and 40 minutes left of the trek. Also, there are big spiders in caves. I absolutely hate spiders, for the life of me.

#39 Anything But The Ice

ICE SKATING. God, those skates hurt so freaking bad. My experience with ice skating is that every winter I try it and have no idea what I’m doing. By the time I’ve got the hang of it, skating season’s over, and I forget everything I learned by the time the next one swings around. I’ve just stopped. Not for me.

#40 The World's Smelliest Fruit

I love trying new fruits. Years ago, I found very interesting looking fruit at the Asian market called durian. While researching the fruit, I discovered that orangutan will travel miles and miles to find one in the jungle. Sounds interesting, right? Man, was I wrong... It tasted so bad that not only did I spit it out and throw the whole thing away, but after gargling with mouthwash for five minutes I still couldn’t get the bad taste out of my mouth. Even scraping my tongue barely worked. It was the worst thing I have ever tasted. But to this day I can’t remember what it tasted like because my mind must have blocked it out completely it was so bad.

#41 It's Harder Than It Looks

Paddleboarding. So I just stand on this and paddle? Cool. I'll just head across the lake. Wow... this is easy. Okay... time to turn around. OH. NO. The wind is not at my back anymore. And now I'm stuck on the other side of the lake. I'll just lay down and paddle back. Oh, man. This thing is really wide. My arms barely make it in the water. Raw arms after an hour and a half long paddle back. Screw that. Never again.

#42 Limping Away Smarter

My friend’s dad used to build all sorts of fun stuff when we were kids. The zip line was the best. We wanted to improve upon it, but we were 10 years old and weren’t engineers like he was. We found a laundry basket and tied it using some jump ropes. It worked very well... until the end. It hit and turned the basket into a swing which we rolled out of and onto the ground. A ground covered in acorns and stickers. Her dad was actually impressed the basket didn’t fall off and the ropes didn’t snap. He loved when we did things like that because he was able to turn it into physics lessons. We always limped away a bit smarter.

#43 Scary Jumps

My older brother was a pole vaulter in high school when I was younger. My parents noticed I loved watching the sport because of how fun it looked, so they put me in a local track team to learn. I instead learned how much I feared the pole bending and was terrified every jump. This didn’t stop me from competing for years to make my parents happy. Every jump I took I thought I was going to die.

#44 Cheap Ride Boycott

Cheap fair rides at 46 years old. Granted, it was a super janky fair during a heatwave but I'd never had an issue with rides my entire life. My daughter and I were the only ones on the octopus (spiny tilty ride) and the jerks running it thought it'd be funny to make the old lady barf. Too fast, but too long but I managed to not vomit until I got off the ride. Even my daughter wanted to go home. We'll stick to theme parks from now on.

#45 Always On The Move

Having a job that makes you travel a lot. Nice hotels, decent meals, nice rental cars, big cities, frequent flyer miles, hotel rewards, rental car rewards... It was fun for about four months. The last five years, two months and three days have not been fun. At all. You miss your family, friends, pets and your own bed. When you are home, you are trying to cram in a week of chores into two days, then you have to leave again.

#46 Comic-Con Chaos

Comic-con. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but it wasn't anything spectacular either. Most of the space is WAY too crowded to the point where you can barely even walk. Also, most of the "secret" announcements that studios make regarding movies, TV, etc. are usually leaked on the internet anyway. Getting the news early is really not a good reason to go.

#47 Once Is Good Enough

Surfing. It was a Girl Scout event I went to with my whole troop. I spent the majority of my time just trying to stand up on the board. I only managed to successfully stand up once (which was super exciting), then I promptly got knocked off and fell off the board. My legs and whole body were jello for about a week afterward. Once is good enough for me.

#48 The Toxic Mud Puddle

Swimming in the Dead Sea. Massive buoyancy, you float like a cork in the water! Then, and this is the fun part, your skin starts burning like you soaked it in kerosene and gave yourself a blowtorch wedgie. Moments after that, you realize that you probably cured your athlete's foot, because nothing can survive in this toxic mud puddle.

It makes sense when you think about it. There's no outlet. Of course, it's stagnant. Every motor oil spill, or chemical usage, or just pile of goat waste in the surrounding area has just washed down into this literal sinkhole, and become so salinated it's sterile... And putrid. You run for the showers, but it doesn't matter, because you can't strip in public in the middle east, so your only option is to waddle towards the hotel, 1/2 a mile away, desperately trying not to chafe anything else. Enjoy your resort stay!

#49 How Does Tarzan Do It?

Treetop adventure parks. The kind with walkways and swinging rope bridges and ziplines. I'm so embarrassed to remember myself at 30 years old, hugging a tree trunk, trying not to cry as little eight-year-old kids went skipping by, prancing over wobbly swinging slats and piping at me: "You can do it!"

I had no idea I was going to have that kind of reaction, as soon as my weight went onto a skeevy walkway my whole body just screamed NOPE and I got wicked bad vertigo. Some park staff swung me a rope so I could be lowered off the tree and I spontaneously burst into tears.

#50 Pancreas Punishers

Not exactly what the question is asking but Twinkies. Specifically, I blame Zombieland, but in general, the US media made Twinkies seem like these delightful wee cakes filled with delicate cream. Turns out, they're basically massive bars of sugar, filled with even more sugar. I couldn't eat more than two bites before I felt like I was punishing my pancreas, and I still feel sick when I think about it.