Addicted to Entertainment

[SnakeTrousers]

The entertainment industry is kind of hard to avoid in today's world, assuming you don't live in a tropical forest. When I walk into work in the morning my ears are immediately filled with the sound of mediocre 80's pop culture ballads from the speaker system and it doesn't subside until I leave; then, once I get home, I jump right on the computer and enter that wonderful world of endless distraction that is the internet, unless maybe I feel like playing a video game or watching a movie or reading a book, etc. It's starting to make me wonder what kind of effect all this ceaseless visual/audio stimulation might be doing to my poor brain, and if I'd be able to pull myself away from it all.

Entertainment doesn't exist in some kind of bubble, after all. It is, regardless of intellectual quality, information, and it seems as though we're constantly looking for more of it to eagerly fill our heads with without giving much thought to how that information might be affecting our perspective.

Do you believe society (perhaps more specifically, western society) is obsessed with entertainment? If so, where might this obsession take us and what, if anything, need/can be done about it?

 

[Someone Depressing]

The age of technology is upon us. The age of the internet is coming upon us (hehe[footnote]Proving I'm an immature douchebag[/footnote]) so really, it's just something everyone will have to get used to.

And yes, my tropical jungle treehouse is coming along well. I'm going to have my sloth make crumpets with butter and have it delivered on the back of a waiter tiger.

 

[sanquin]

You can already see it's effects. At parties, how often do you see at least one person busy with their phone? Or maybe multiple people even? And that's just one example.

Not to say that I am immune to this. If I'm not behind my computer at home, I'll be listening to music or be busy on my laptop or tablet. Though I firmly keep myself to one rule. When I'm out to dinner, or visiting someone else, I stay away from entertainment as much as possible. (Except for the times when you just want to chill and watch a movie with a friend/family of course.) I also deprive myself of all electronics a few weekends a year. During my LARP events. Even my phone I leave in the tent. It does wonders for my mind to just be away from everything I normally do for a few days.

 

[username sucks]

Entertainment is definitely effecting people, but I think it is a positive change. In most cases, "addiction to entertainment" is nothing more than humans doing what they enjoy, yet there is a large number of people who shun this, and likely an even larger number who dislike themselves for using the internet too much or watching too much TV. This is from a large number of factors, but most of them are rooted in the fact that people naturally fear things that are different. Eventually it will become normal, as more and more people are born and raised in this age of technology. The idea that entertainment is bad I think will die off.

Not to say that I believe all people should just embrace technology and entertainment if they truly don't like it. I admit that sometimes I do enjoy just sitting in the park with a notebook and just enjoying the scenery as I write what I feel. Technology gives us options, and people will, as they always have, just do whatever they can to enjoy life.

 

[dyre]

I once was (mostly) isolated and (completely) without internet for two weeks. I didn't have any games or movies with me...I burned through my reading backlog in the first few days. The rest of the two weeks were hell...

Yeah, I think I'm addicted to entertainment

 

[Hero of Lime]

I would say I am too, considering every moment not doing school work, driving, sleeping, and exercising, I am probably behind a computer screen or holding a controller/handheld gaming device.

Though I guess I am a bit proud of the fact I don't use a smart phone while walking around. It probably helps that I still don't have one to begin with. As amazing as it is to play video games, or surf the web, I think it is still important to know how to have fun without technology, or at least to turn off the smart phone once in a while, and actually interact with people in public.

 

[Bravo Company]

I look at entertainment in the perspective of "what else would I be doing if I wasn't on the computer right now?" for which most of my answers are either "playing guitar, reading a book, or sleeping." That is how I justify spending so much time on entertainment. As for listening to music or what-have-you in public, I'd prefer to listen to music over the sounds of traffic on my bus ride to wherever I'm going, what else would I be doing? Eavesdropping on other people's conversations?


That's not to say I'll listen to music or sit at the computer when I have friends over or if I get invited to go do something with friends, but isn't causing shenanigans with friends just another form of entertainment?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

The age of the internet is coming upon us

Took me a minute, but I giggled like an idiot.

OT:
Makes about as much sense as saying there's an addiction to having fun.

People enjoy themselves to the extreme. Virtually everything ever done can be traced back to the purpose of enjoying oneself.

We go to school to get jobs. We get jobs to make money to buy things we like.

Even in instances of altruism it has to do with self satisfaction.

Furthermore, the line between entertainment and self improvement is blurry as hell. I come to the internet primarily for entertainment. However, I know I would not be half the person I am today without all the arguing and information that came with it.

 

[pilouuuu]

I don't think enjoying doing entertaining things is wasting time, especially when our world kind of sucks sometimes. I need entertainment to keep on doing boring things in life like working, using the transportation system and paying bills. If I didn't have entertainment I'd use my time doing other things like getting wasted.

I'd rather keep my entertainment varied and try to no waste time in bad entertainment like reality shows. I try to look for quality stuff and do different things, i.e.: watching TV series like Games of Thrones, watching good movies like the Marvel ones, listening to good music like Nightwish, reading good books like The Count of Monte Cristo or The Hobbit, playing great videogames like Portal 2, etc, etc.

As long as I'm not wasting time in crap and I'm keeping myself entertained it's OK. I'd much rather spend time doing that instead of speaking to some idiotic people in real life. The problem is when your entertainment is something like playing Facebook games. That's a real waste of time, but even then, if you're having fun it's not a real problem.

If anything these times are better because we have plenty of quality entertainment, unlike the past where people only survived, had kids and killed each other for food.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Oh yes I'd say that most of us are addicted to one or more forms of electronic entertainment, myself included. I have recently come to dislike the pointlessness of most of it. I would trade all of it for a nice quiet life on a beach somewhere, I would have a hard time giving up my games & internet & even my cell phone, but driving to work everyday & sitting in traffic & dealing with the general population can fuck right off.

It'll never happen, but a man can dream.

 

[pilouuuu]

Oh yes I'd say that most of us are addicted to one or more forms of electronic entertainment, myself included. I have recently come to dislike the pointlessness of most of it. I would trade all of it for a nice quiet life on a beach somewhere, I would have a hard time giving up my games & internet & even my cell phone, but driving to work everyday & sitting in traffic & dealing with the general population can fuck right off.

It'll never happen, but a man can dream.

But wouldn't driving to trafic and dealing with the general population be even worse without entertainment? It makes life better for those of us who can't live in a paradise island.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Little snip

But wouldn't driving to trafic and dealing with the general population be even worse without entertainment? It makes life better for those of us who can't live in a paradise island.

Yes it would make that worse, I agree with you 100% on that, but the type of place I want to go to wouldn't have any traffic, no cars allowed, & very few people. I'm not talking about jungle survival or anything, I'd have a very hard time living without my collection of music & things like that. I just done with the stress that can come with all these modern "conveniences".

 

[Avaholic03]

Addiction has a very negative connotation. Most entertainment isn't like some drug that will ruin your life and your health. It often times enriches your life (depending on the entertainment of course). So I don't really worry about it.

I mean, in my ideal society, we get to a point where there is 100% unemployment and people spend all their time consuming entertainment or enriching their own life in some way. So if anything, "addiction" to entertainment could be considered a step in the right direction.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

It'll never happen, but a man can dream.

Well, you keep saying that and it won't. You see, the people that made their dreams happen did just that. They MADE them happen.

You know, I don't think people try hard enough for their dreams sometimes. Me included.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Every one is, cos entertainment is fun. Before i guess we were spent farming and came home to songs and stories. This we had music and now film. We have always like entertainment, its just evolved from people singing songs round a camp fire to movies.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Every one is, cos entertainment is fun.

Not at all. What if I'm at a rave party and happen to hate techno? Watching Big Brother and hate reality shows? And also, elevator music was designed to entertain but is there anyone who doesn't find it annoying and stupid?

Entertainment is certainly becoming a forced activity for the masses, and it's becoming accepted that it's the only thing worth doing when one is not engaged in the other thing - "work". Whether you're on an airplane or sitting in a hospital waiting room there's always a tv screen or radio babbling at you or shiny magazines to entertain. The idea that you might want to do something else - like learn something or meditate in silence - is not even considered.

What can be done? For the individual, go camping or anywhere away from people. Go alone, not with a group because you'll just end up talking the whole time. For the ideological change in society towards 24/7 "fun" - not much. Wait until we're tired of it all, perhaps.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Every one is, cos entertainment is fun.

Not at all. What if I'm at a rave party and happen to hate techno? Watching Big Brother and hate reality shows? And also, elevator music was designed to entertain but is there anyone who doesn't find it annoying and stupid?

Entertainment is certainly becoming a forced activity for the masses, and it's becoming accepted that it's the only thing worth doing when one is not engaged in the other thing - "work". Whether you're on an airplane or sitting in a hospital waiting room there's always a tv screen or radio babbling at you or shiny magazines to entertain. The idea that you might want to do something else - like learn something or meditate in silence - is not even considered.

What can be done? For the individual, go camping or anywhere away from people. Go alone, not with a group because you'll just end up talking the whole time. For the ideological change in society towards 24/7 "fun" - not much. Wait until we're tired of it all, perhaps.

You hate rave. But if you watch something you enjoy then you are addicted to it. I am addicted to Red Dwarf, some hate it, doesnt matter, i love that show. What you see as entertainment is dependent on what you like. Im sure you like stuff i think is shit.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Every one is, cos entertainment is fun.

Not at all. What if I'm at a rave party and happen to hate techno? Watching Big Brother and hate reality shows? And also, elevator music was designed to entertain but is there anyone who doesn't find it annoying and stupid?

Entertainment is certainly becoming a forced activity for the masses, and it's becoming accepted that it's the only thing worth doing when one is not engaged in the other thing - "work". Whether you're on an airplane or sitting in a hospital waiting room there's always a tv screen or radio babbling at you or shiny magazines to entertain. The idea that you might want to do something else - like learn something or meditate in silence - is not even considered.

What can be done? For the individual, go camping or anywhere away from people. Go alone, not with a group because you'll just end up talking the whole time. For the ideological change in society towards 24/7 "fun" - not much. Wait until we're tired of it all, perhaps.

You hate rave. But if you watch something you enjoy then you are addicted to it. I am addicted to Red Dwarf, some hate it, doesnt matter, i love that show. What you see as entertainment is dependent on what you like. Im sure you like stuff i think is shit.

I'm not sure. I think the word entertainment pre-supposes a specific function of the thing - to entertain. Is a science journal "entertainment"? Most would say no and yet some people like reading them. Hell, some people like being tortured - is torture then entertainment? If you think about it, anything could be if you define entertainment as simply an activity that you like.

Entertainment is a new phenomenon - life has only recently (last century or two) been oriented around it where it is knowingly the goal of the majority, replacing subsistence or the worship of a higher power. You could say that it has become a new god in that our activities (work, etc) are done to serve the goal of entertaining ourselves with the assumption that such a thing is good for us.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Every one is, cos entertainment is fun.

Not at all. What if I'm at a rave party and happen to hate techno? Watching Big Brother and hate reality shows? And also, elevator music was designed to entertain but is there anyone who doesn't find it annoying and stupid?

Entertainment is certainly becoming a forced activity for the masses, and it's becoming accepted that it's the only thing worth doing when one is not engaged in the other thing - "work". Whether you're on an airplane or sitting in a hospital waiting room there's always a tv screen or radio babbling at you or shiny magazines to entertain. The idea that you might want to do something else - like learn something or meditate in silence - is not even considered.

What can be done? For the individual, go camping or anywhere away from people. Go alone, not with a group because you'll just end up talking the whole time. For the ideological change in society towards 24/7 "fun" - not much. Wait until we're tired of it all, perhaps.

You hate rave. But if you watch something you enjoy then you are addicted to it. I am addicted to Red Dwarf, some hate it, doesnt matter, i love that show. What you see as entertainment is dependent on what you like. Im sure you like stuff i think is shit.

I'm not sure. I think the word entertainment pre-supposes a specific function of the thing - to entertain. Is a science journal "entertainment"? Most would say no and yet some people like reading them. Hell, some people like being tortured - is torture then entertainment? If you think about it, anything could be if you define entertainment as simply an activity that you like.

Entertainment is a new phenomenon - life has only recently (last century or two) been oriented around it where it is knowingly the goal of the majority, replacing subsistence or the worship of a higher power. You could say that it has become a new god in that our activities (work, etc) are done to serve the goal of entertaining ourselves with the assumption that such a thing is good for us.

No. We are entertained by different things. What you see as entertainment is different to what others think. People in Rome liked seeing gladiators killing each other. Cock fighting? Drugs? Killing? Rape? People are entertained by different things, even if those things are horrible. Anything is entertainment, just depends if you love that thing.

 

[SnakeTrousers]

Addiction has a very negative connotation. Most entertainment isn't like some drug that will ruin your life and your health. It often times enriches your life (depending on the entertainment of course). So I don't really worry about it.

I mean, in my ideal society, we get to a point where there is 100% unemployment and people spend all their time consuming entertainment or enriching their own life in some way. So if anything, "addiction" to entertainment could be considered a step in the right direction.

I'd say you're somewhat over-optimistic regarding entertainment's possible positive effects. I wouldn't say that there aren't any but what I'm concerned about, more than people wasting away in front of tv's or computer screens, is what the endless barrage of fiction is doing to our expectations of reality.