I came to the conclusion today that most entertainment we consume is actually just a form of escapism. We’re no longer watching artistic films or reading deep novels to try to gleam some deeper understanding of life or truly improve ourselves and our lives.
We’re just trying to escape.
From what, exactly? That’s the question!
I think most of the time it’s a feeling. It’s anxiety, stress, worry, or just an unsettling feeling of meaninglessness.
And it might work for a bit, but doesn’t do anything long term to actually resolve the underlying issues.
And I just feel like it’s kind of sad when you take a step back. We’re escaping from our lives when we could be living them. We could be making them better or working on something meaningful in our own lives. But instead, on average, supposedly people spend something like 8 hours per day on entertainment. Most of which, it seems to me, is pretty much meaningless.
That is, of course, not to say that all entertainment is bad or even that meaningless entertainment should never be consumed.
But I do think they need to be greatly limited in the modern context.
We live in a time period when people are totally disconnected from the output of their work. They don’t feel their jobs have meaning.
Add on to that the fact that most people have no real hobbies, and you end with a culture that really lacks any meaning.
And of course, this compounds on itself. You feel anxious about the lack of purpose, you seek to quiet that part of your mind, you scroll social media or throw on Netflix, you don’t connect with others or work on your hobby. The cycle continues.
I’m not sure what to do about this other than try to greatly limit my consumption of media, particularly empty, meaningless media and entertainment.
I can’t control the culture or other people but I can at least try to limit my own consumption.