Teachers nationwide are flummoxed by students’ newfound chess obsession (opens in new tab)

You most definitely can, it'd just take more time since you have to rediscover a lot of things that could be given to you as advice.

>I play against computer

Don't play against the computer if you're a beginner and want to improve, bots play in an exotic way and that won't help you.

>I have 0 time I can invest into learning the moves

I don't spend time learning opening theory either (I am just 1800 on Lichess), I just play and use the engine to see where I screwed up and what was the better move (I advise you to use Lichess (https://lichess.org/) over chess.com because open source + don't have to pay for engine analysis and puzzles). Talking about puzzles, play a lot of them, they'll train you to spot tactics. Finally, don't forget to have fun :)

I gave up trying to police people’s choice for fun. Let people watch baseball or ferret racing or whatnot.

Comically, I remember as a kid people telling me that reading a book was a waste of time. And asking why I would ever read something not assigned.

Someone will always think my thing is dumb. Someone is always smarter. Someone is always dumber.

So what. If it’s not harming themself or others, then I let it be.

I've never really put a lot of time into chess, but maybe learning to play better with my kids might be fun, and a "fad" /s is a good enough reason.