the value of entertainment

Why do humans like entertainment as much as they do? It has become a necessity of life. Something to fill the ticking hours with. Movies, tv shows, music, video games, books, art, eating - basically everything we do revolves around entertainment. Even most jobs probably contribute to the entertainment industry in its various forms. I suppose this is what life is all about - filling the hours. It leaves me very empty at times, sitting around, clicking on my mouse, filling up the hours. It hits even harder when I have no job, no kids, no responsibilities. My only job this entire year is to sit around and "research", learning Japanese, visiting with people and taking care of Craig. This is a wonderful thing, but it leaves many empty hours to be filled with either nothing or entertainment. And entertainment bores and/or frustrates me to death (well at least a good percentage of the current stream of entertainment that the modern West provides me with). It would probably be much more worth my time to just sit and study Japanese or something that has the potential to help others than myself, but my brain just becomes overloaded at 200% capacity. So, then I am driven towards entertainment to try and rest my mind. When I do this, the idea that entertainment pretty much has zero value (perhaps aside from eating to live) makes me feel like I am wasting my time. In search of something more fulfilling, I then continue to overload my mind, once again giving me a headache and driving me to rest. Can we see a pattern forming? Maybe it's not so tough in the States. I've got more people to talk to, more "important" things to do, and less time to spare. I guess this entry really didn't end up discussing the alleged value of entertainment as I titled it, but I do wonder sometimes what it is.

Posted by Kristen at June 28, 2003 05:18 PM | TrackBack