The Cost of Boredom (or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb)
I am having a very boring evening. (I KNOW, I know. A very exciting topic for a blog post, but trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.) My plans all fell through, no new ones presented themselves, and my various friends were busy or indisposed. "So what?" I thought. "I have plenty here to keep me occupied. I have books, I have movies, I have television. I am set. I am mighty in my entertainment options."
And, oddly enough, I was wrong.
I am an entertainment junkie. I freely admit this, in fact, I proclaim it as a boon, most times. A culture's entertainment says a lot about the culture itself, and I revel in analyzing the hell out of everything I take in. As I've grown older (and maybe [but probably not] wiser), my intake has grown more and more refined. I see less movies than I used to, and watch much less television. Much of this is due to the aforementioned refining, some due to lowering standards in entertainment presentation (but that's another entry I think. . .) The point is, I have a lot of experience in media. I have cable, I have dvds of both films and television series, I have a couple video game systems (all older ones though, nothing newer than the N64), I have music, I have books and comics and magazines, hell, I have my guitar. And yet, tonight, when I had time aplenty to use/abuse any of these things, nothing was satisfying my ennui. And this bothers me.
This bothers me not because of what it implies about my habits or my psyche, but because it struck home to me how much I actually have spent on these various entertainment strategies. I have dropped sums of cash on dvds, books, instruments, etc., and yet none of these could fill my void (so to speak.) The current American culture of leisure demands that we be pacified at all times by the opiates we choose, and MY DRUGS WERE EXPENSIVE BUT DIDN'T WORK. The money spent on these things could have been used on more utilitarian things (with the exception of the guitar, since that is used in my "line of work"), but I decided to put it towards pacifying my inner nerd. And what do I have to show for it? An overdeveloped analytical streak, a large education in pop culture, and really, very little else. So, that's a little sobering.
The main thing that occurs to me is how much I depend on inter-personal relationships now. In years past, I was very much a solitary person. I had friends, lovers, all sorts of acquaintances, but I was perfectly happy being alone and doing things by myself. And I do still on occasion enjoy it, as I use that time to write. (I apparently never actually FINISH anything I start writing, but I do start them!) But I spend much more time with my friends and significant other, just. . . being, I suppose. And to tell you the truth, I think I'm happier that way. An interesting self-discovery, I think.
Anyway, thanks for the indulgence. Hopefully, I'll have something involving cartoons or film up here soon.
And now for something completely different. . .
Number one: the Larch. The. Larch.
And, oddly enough, I was wrong.
I am an entertainment junkie. I freely admit this, in fact, I proclaim it as a boon, most times. A culture's entertainment says a lot about the culture itself, and I revel in analyzing the hell out of everything I take in. As I've grown older (and maybe [but probably not] wiser), my intake has grown more and more refined. I see less movies than I used to, and watch much less television. Much of this is due to the aforementioned refining, some due to lowering standards in entertainment presentation (but that's another entry I think. . .) The point is, I have a lot of experience in media. I have cable, I have dvds of both films and television series, I have a couple video game systems (all older ones though, nothing newer than the N64), I have music, I have books and comics and magazines, hell, I have my guitar. And yet, tonight, when I had time aplenty to use/abuse any of these things, nothing was satisfying my ennui. And this bothers me.
This bothers me not because of what it implies about my habits or my psyche, but because it struck home to me how much I actually have spent on these various entertainment strategies. I have dropped sums of cash on dvds, books, instruments, etc., and yet none of these could fill my void (so to speak.) The current American culture of leisure demands that we be pacified at all times by the opiates we choose, and MY DRUGS WERE EXPENSIVE BUT DIDN'T WORK. The money spent on these things could have been used on more utilitarian things (with the exception of the guitar, since that is used in my "line of work"), but I decided to put it towards pacifying my inner nerd. And what do I have to show for it? An overdeveloped analytical streak, a large education in pop culture, and really, very little else. So, that's a little sobering.
The main thing that occurs to me is how much I depend on inter-personal relationships now. In years past, I was very much a solitary person. I had friends, lovers, all sorts of acquaintances, but I was perfectly happy being alone and doing things by myself. And I do still on occasion enjoy it, as I use that time to write. (I apparently never actually FINISH anything I start writing, but I do start them!) But I spend much more time with my friends and significant other, just. . . being, I suppose. And to tell you the truth, I think I'm happier that way. An interesting self-discovery, I think.
Anyway, thanks for the indulgence. Hopefully, I'll have something involving cartoons or film up here soon.
And now for something completely different. . .
Number one: the Larch. The. Larch.Labels: media, pop culture, randomness, writing
posted by nicholas reed at 11:58 PM
1 Comments:
yay
cartoons
Post a Comment
<< Home