“Are you not entertained?” ~ from the movie Gladiator
We're an entertainment-addicted society. We need to be entertained at every waking moment and who knows, maybe even our dreams are next. Four hours of TV per night is no longer enough: we need to be able to watch TV on our cell phones, have TV monitors in elevators to be entertained on the fifteen-second ride to our floor, and even in cabs--heaven forbid we look out the window and observe the world as we cross town. We even view thought-provoking video commercials while standing in line at the grocery store--the possibility of boredom while waiting to buy things is unacceptable!
Restaurants now have TV’s positioned around the dining rooms so every guest can enjoy the pleasure of moronic television shows and avoid talking to the people in front of them. Thanks to cell phones, we enjoy eavesdropping on intellectually stimulating conversations of strangers around us as they get input from friends and family on important decisions such as whether they ought to get Cocoa Puffs or Fruit Loops at the grocery store. Forget using cell phones for emergencies, use them all day long and exploit as many meaningless conversations as your plan allows!
It's a good thing we have computers and the Internet at work: faking working has gotten so much easier this way. You no longer have to be bored at work, i.e., actually doing your job, now you can spend the workday day on idiotic message boards talking to people that you'll never meet in real life. When that gets boring, you can spend the rest of the day watching home video clips on YouTube. Once another "productive" day at work closes, it's time to go home and spend the evening entertaining yourself further with such stimulating TV shows as The Moment of Truth and The Flavor Of Love.
No need to think about what you'd actually want to do with your life nor what line of work you'd enjoy. Work isn't supposed to be fun and a job is supposed to be, well, a job! That's the bill of goods you've bought--hook and sinker--and why shouldn't you follow the masses? Just keep distracting yourself with entertainment outlets...and when you're on your deathbed you won't have the regret of inadequate entertainment during your fulfilling lifetime.
It seems many movie and TV production companies are all-to-aware aware of our addiction to entertainment and her fat cousin, spectacle. Thus they no longer bore us with neither complex plots nor dialogue in movies and shows. Why bother with character or story development when we can watch things blowing up and otherwise getting tossed around for ninety minutes? Ah yes, it's fun being part of the MTV generation! Forget about movies which might inspire people to live more fully. Nah! Living vicariously is the in-thing...and the masses are skilled at it. In fact, if the sport of living vicariously-though-entertainment ever becomes an Olympic event, we'll win, hands down!
You'd think that with our addiction to entertainment and our access to information we'd no longer accept boring jobs, only doing what genuinely interests. Yet that's not the case. Many people accept a bill of goods that jobs are boring you'll have to put up with forty-plus hours of boredom per week, then get in as much entertainment as possible during off-hours and weekends to make up for it. Hell, if you can get in as much entertainment as possible when you're at work, via the Internet, who says you can't have it all?
Unfortunately, our entertainment-addiction hasn't carried over to the places where it really matters. It's used instead as a coping mechanism to accept our lives as they are without bothering to change. After all, why bother taking risks and doing the hard work that it takes to make the changes necessary to living a fulfilling life? Far easier is vicarious living though others, via entertainment sources. But entertainment rarely inspires us to make our own lives better, merely substituting for deeper experiences of life. When we disassociate the entertainment from our experience of living, we don't see the obvious connection of how one, when used properly, can improve the other.
In addition to being an entertainment-addicted society, we're also a society which no longer understands the concept of delayed gratification. After all, not having what we want--right now--is boring! Working hard and sacrificing are unacceptable options; we want things now and if we can't afford those things, there are friendly--and generous--companies willing to lend us the money it takes to make all our material dreams come true.
These lenders, of course, have our best interests in mind, only charging a reasonable 20% plus APR to borrow money, so we can buy the mountains of things that we need to fill up our garages. Want a big screen TV but can't afford it? No problem! Just sign up for the monthly installment plan and spend the rest of your life paying it off. Who cares if the $4000 TV ultimately costs you $20,000 in interest fees, when--and if--you ever pay it off? You must live fully in the moment and refuse to sacrifice the now! After all, that's the secret to enjoying life, right? If you cannot afford something, get it anyway and worry not about the consequences--maybe you'll get lucky and die, sparing yourself the worry about paying back the money.
A result of our entertainment addiction and hatred of delayed gratification is that saving money is now an outdated concept. Money is for spending, in order to be entertained now. Putting away money is boring and doesn't at all support our present entertainment. As for the future, I'm sure things will just work out fine--right? I hope so.
It's no wonder that moronic sayings, such as fake it until you make it, are so popular today. Our society has become very good at faking it: we fake liking jobs we hate; we fake enjoying lives that we detest; we fake being happy when we're miserable inside. We fake being who we aren't and yes, we even fake financial wealth when we're living month to month. Well, you can't fake success or happiness, no matter how hard you try, so don't bother. Further, if you work hard, and pay the price of success, you'll never have to "fake it". If you do some self-reflection, and determine what makes you happy, you don't have to fake it.
I don't think there's anything wrong with watching TV or a good movie. In fact, while 99% of TV is garbage, the few quality shows are better than all the campy shows that used to be on many years ago. The Shield, 24, The Tudors and Sleeper Cell are all well-made shows, with good acting and engaging plots. Shows like these, in addition to being engaging, can actually provoke independent thought. Addiction to entertainment, and using it as a substitute for living a genuine life, is a slippery slope for some--and an avalanche for most. People are better than that and should expect more of themselves.
So where do we go from here? One, stop playing the distraction game. Stop distracting yourself from living your life fully and try spending an hour alone with your thoughts each day. This means no music, TV, reading, no conversations--nothing for that hour. Don’t worry, you can go back to your four hours of TV after the hour is up! You may find this painfully boring, which says a lot about your lack of imagination. The more dialogues you have with yourself, the better you'll know yourself, giving you the impetus to make some changes in your life. A more aggressive approach is to unplug the TV for an entire week, turn off the cell phone except for emergencies, and check email just once per day. You'll learn a lot about yourself in a week of unplugging...and you may not like what you find. Brutal reality may be unpleasant but clarity is necessary for growth. Otherwise, keep distracting yourself as the years go by and changes occur, though, most likely, they won't be the changes you want
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