When I was a kid, we had about 5 TV channels to choose from. There were no video games, just the same toys and board games everyone had. Going to the movies was a luxury, and there wasn’t a lot of choice. You were lucky if your local theater had two screens. There was no internet, no streaming music or movie services, not much at all to keep you from being bored. Yet, I was never really that bored.
Today we have an entire world of entertainment at our fingertips. We are bombarded with bright and shiny things 24/7, all meant to seem like it will be everything we need and cure this creeping ennui. Then we get it and realize that it does nothing but make us ache for more distraction.
It’s ironic that more choices and options has somehow just made it more boring and unsatisfying. Somehow we got sold on this idea that life is supposed to be exciting and fun and lived at the red line all the time, but that’s not reality. It leaves our brains confused, thinking we have to fill every waking moment with material happiness and mind blowing experiences. We even have people trying to sell us on spiritual happiness to combat the material desires, but that’s just more empty promises.
It results in us not having any attention span. If something isn’t instantly and constantly delivering endorphins to our pleasure centers, we think something is wrong. The problem is, a lot of things that have depth and lasting impact take time to lead you there. There is a slow build, and that delivers a satisfying return on your effort. Because most of the important things in life require at least a tiny bit of effort. As a result, we end up becoming as shallow as the entertainment we digest.
So many things are disguising themselves as entertainment these days that should not be. News, politics, education, personal growth and spiritual matters, parenting, sex and love. All of it being boiled down to its simplest form, and then marketed back to us as something to play on our fears or emotions, without the work or the thought necessary to process it or do it correctly. Our brains get addicted to being stimulated, and at that level, your brain doesn’t know the difference between what’s good and bad. For it, or the world. It’s just basic chemistry, and if left unchecked it will deliver us at a place where we are devoid of empathy and perseverance, a work ethic or morals. We end up a vapid shell, looking only for the next thing that brings us some sort of jolt. In the meantime, we acclimate ourselves to misery and ignoring the needs of those around us. We are like any other junkie.
A nation of junkies is how we got to where we are now. Selfish, uncaring, ignoring the things that are killing us and our way of life. Refusing to compromise, refusing to bend, refusing anything that isn’t exactly the way we want it, because that’s what we’ve been told life should be. We should have whatever we want whenever we want it, and if we don’t, someone must be to blame. If we just vote one way, or join this side, or give us the power to make those pesky decisions for you, everything will be okay and you can get back to stimulating the parts of your brain that bring you tiny bursts of joy. Joy coupled with dissatisfaction and an empty feeling we are now left to try to silence with even more garbage.
I don’t know how we get back to that lost frame of mind, where simple joys were enough, and we could occupy and entertain ourselves instead of looking for other things to do it for us. I don’t know if we even want to, but all I know is that most things in life are unfulfilling and superficial and don’t live up to the hype, and we are all suffering because of it.
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