What is the real COST of entertainment? Do we think it's an entitlement?

[1still_waters]

It just dawned on me, how much money, energy, time, effort, brain power, is spent by our culture to simply entertain ourselves. Almost as if entertainment is an entitlement. A necessity. A lifestyle.

How much time do you spend simply seeking to be entertained? is this good? Is this bad? Are we so used to trying to be entertained that we think nothing of it? Should we think anything of it?

Should our money, time effort, brain power and such be spent trying to do or fund other things? What if all that was invested in something else? What should our culture invest all that in, if it shouldn't be invested in the unending quest to entertain ourselves?

I think it's something WE all need to think seriously about. Is it really a right and/or normal thing for a culture to seek to be entertained THIS much? Billions are spent on movies, tv, sports, music, games, whatever, simply so we can be 'entertained'.

 

[rainacorn]

The entitlement aspect is an interesting one and we see more and more of this with illegal downloading. People think they deserve to own entertainment they never paid for. If you call them out on it, they scoff...like you're the weird one for thinking they don't actually NEED their own personal copy of ______, especially when they can't afford it.

Recently my sister tried to justify her illegal downloading of a movie by explaining she doesn't have internet at her house and she can't go to the movies and there is nowhere to rent it and she doesn't have money anyway. So, clearly, she MUST see this movie (or she will surely die), and illegal downloading was simply her only option. Illegal downloading may have saved her life. lol

Entertainment has value. I'm not going to bash it. I make my living off it and it supports my family.

However, I think, if I'm reading this correctly, the problem isn't that there is so much entertainment, but rather that we've lost all will power and have become addicted to consuming flashy garbage. It IS worshiping false gods, no doubt. But it's hard to make people see it that way. It always has been.

Remember when Gideon is talking to God and he's like 'what did we doooo? If you are truly with us, why would you curse us like this?!'

Dude has an altar to Baal IN HIS BACKYARD and he still wonders why God isn't taking care of them. He's blind to the fact that he's worshiping false gods even though, to the reader, it is blatantly obvious.

Would it be blatantly obvious to someone looking at your life?

 

[Stuey]

I think entertainment is great, I think the amount of money that is spent on it can be an issue though. I don't have a problem spending hours being entertained, we need to relax, some of us more than others.

Like all gifts, good and great, but can be abused.

 

[Ritter]

I'm always entertained. One of the benefits of having a vivid imagination.

 

[Stuey]

And being crazy. Helps me.

 

[1still_waters]

The entitlement aspect is an interesting one and we see more and more of this with illegal downloading. People think they deserve to own entertainment they never paid for. If you call them out on it, they scoff...like you're the weird one for thinking they don't actually NEED their own personal copy of ______, especially when they can't afford it.

Recently my sister tried to justify her illegal downloading of a movie by explaining she doesn't have internet at her house and she can't go to the movies and there is nowhere to rent it and she doesn't have money anyway. So, clearly, she MUST see this movie (or she will surely die), and illegal downloading was simply her only option. Illegal downloading may have saved her life. lol

Entertainment has value. I'm not going to bash it. I make my living off it and it supports my family.

However, I think, if I'm reading this correctly, the problem isn't that there is so much entertainment, but rather that we've lost all will power and have become addicted to consuming flashy garbage. It IS worshiping false gods, no doubt. But it's hard to make people see it that way. It always has been.

Remember when Gideon is talking to God and he's like 'what did we doooo? If you are truly with us, why would you curse us like this?!'

Dude has an altar to Baal IN HIS BACKYARD and he still wonders why God isn't taking care of them. He's blind to the fact that he's worshiping false gods even though, to the reader, it is blatantly obvious.

Would it be blatantly obvious to someone looking at your life?

Yeah I'm not really talkin about the clean vs unclean aspect of it.

It's the sheer amount of effort/energy/time/money spent by our culture, in their quest to produce this vast array of things to entertain us.

I think some of us are so used to it, that the concept of too much entertainment doesn't register on our radar. Being entertained is second nature to our culture. It's an unending quest, involving tv, movies, books, music, games, apps, articles, sports and other things.

It seems like this machine we don't know we're in, until we step out of it. A fish probably doesn't think much about being wet, and I don't think our culture really thinks about how much there is this endless quest to simply be entertained.

 

[AsifinPassing]

It just dawned on me, how much money, energy, time, effort, brain power, is spent by our culture to simply entertain ourselves. Almost as if entertainment is an entitlement. A necessity. A lifestyle.

How much time do you spend simply seeking to be entertained? is this good? Is this bad? Are we so used to trying to be entertained that we think nothing of it? Should we think anything of it?

Should our money, time effort, brain power and such be spent trying to do or fund other things? What if all that was invested in something else? What should our culture invest all that in, if it shouldn't be invested in the unending quest to entertain ourselves?

I think it's something WE all need to think seriously about. Is it really a right and/or normal thing for a culture to seek to be entertained THIS much? Billions are spent on movies, tv, sports, music, games, whatever, simply so we can be 'entertained'.

Actually, we're into the trillions when you add all those different businesses together. Entertainment is (more or less our sole) our vastly largest export. More or less, most other things are imported or kept local.

So, is it right? I suppose that's a subjective question, but when you think about it ethically and objectively, probably not.

Why do we seek so much to be entertained? I'm not sure. I've been asking that of myself lately.

I feel that it largely contributes to a type of what I'll call 'escapeism'. In this, you 'sort of' vicariously live through movies, games, books, ext. People enter into fantastic worlds where anything can happen, love is poetic, the hero always wins, and life is constantly adventures, interesting, and often touching.

Now, not to say that reality is not this way, but most people don't live like or know people who live like this, so they (consciously or subconsciously) prefer the 'dream world'. (Is this the Matrix? )

I know it's sad, but I see it largely in myself and many of those around me. I've broken free (long ago) of slavery to TV, but I still drain years of my life on movies, games, and often largely irrelevant ways of distracting myself.

Actually, in a fashion, it can be another form of addiction. I believe, personally, that most addictions spur from something wrong, painful, troubling, ext... in reality, and our means/en devours to 'feel good' and 'escape' the realities we wish not to face, don't know how to deal with, or blatantly just try to ignore.

Now, as most things, it's entirely more intricately complicated than that, and specific to every individuals background, make-up, circumstances, ext. I think, though, that when you analyse it in yourself and others, you'll come to a similar realization.

Now, what do we do to fix it? I'm not sure. Conviction? An act of God (which is usually what it takes to break addiction)? Some sort of social reform/action? I'm not sure. For now, as with a large majority of issues, all we can do is heighten awareness of it; study it's make-up, behaviors, ext; and try to find a solution that others are wiling to adopt if change is even desired.

Sad to say, a lot of the time, most people have to learn things the hard way.

 

[Jullianna]

With my schedule I barely have time to sleep/eat, so ..what's entertainment?

One of the most annoying things ever is to hear someone whine about being bored. Read a book. Learn something new. VOLUNTEER at your church/a local hospital or nursing home. Go donate blood. Mow an elderly neighbor's grass.

 

[zeroturbulence]

Entertainment is the only thing that's been keeping me from going insane.