Thoughtful Daily Post: On Being “Entertained Into Oblivion"

Most people — or so it would seem — really enjoy being entertained.

I say this, because I watch a world in which more and more of life's routine everyday activities and events seem to get converted into various forms of ”entertainment.”

Whatever Happened to the News Being Actual NEWS?

I am not exactly sure where it started, but my own earliest recollections of this trend would be the evening TV news, where the traditional image of a newscaster simply reading the latest news headlines was gradually usurped by the infotainment dog-and-pony show known as "the news," today.

Consider how often the lead stories on the Evening TV News seem to revolve more around keeping people glued to their seats, than about actually providing useful information that might help an individual navigate the world more effectively.

To get a "cleaner" perspective, try to think of a context other than the current Covid shitshow, and it still holds true.

Would You Like an "Entertaining" Dinner?

Another place I noticed this happen, quite a long time ago, has to do with food.

Originally it only applied to food "while being eaten out," but gradually the idea of ”being entertained” seems to have crept into all areas of the food industry.

I remember sitting in a restaurant many years ago — late 1980's perhaps — and thinking to myself that I just wanted to be left alone to have a delicious meal but instead I was being entertained by some clown who insisted on telling a story about how my dinner was going to be exciting.

I don't want exciting food, I want tasty food; good food!

In time this trend seems to have moved on to also include most packaged foods, perhaps in a subtler way through which the product in the box is now actually more of lifestyle product than it is a food product.

I suppose that what gives me pause for thought in all this is pondering whether we have been increasingly trained to become bored more and more easily?

Is this trend fundamentally a marketing ploy designed to keep people in a state of restlessness where they're always seeking out the next thing to entertain them? Are we gradually becoming less and less tolerant of facing the ordinariness of life... which actually represents most of it?

One ”clue” in this mixture is the fact that the constant onslaught of ”entertaining things” effectively makes it more and more difficult for people to be alone with their thoughts. Let's face it, if reading the newspaper is a ”song and dance routine” it can be challenging to shut out the dancing colors on the screen and actually think about what you're reading.

As I reflect on that, I find it mildly alarming how much this trend seems to mimic early stages of the reality portrayed in the movie ”Idiocracy” from some years back... like everything around us is carefully engineered to turn humanity into a bunch of mindless morons whose sum total of productive living can be summarized by pressing a few buttons.

And yet? Many would look at that possible outcome (or at least ASPECTS of it) and characterize it as some form of utopia, in which they didn't have to work and they didn't have to think and they didn't have to take action and they didn't have to be accountable and they didn't have to ever face anything unpleasant.

Perhaps I'm very old fashioned — I am old after all! — but it strikes me as a possible reality that limits the extremely broad possibilities the exist within the spectrum of human experience and condenses it into a handful of very narrow and primarily artificial points.

I'm sure lots of people would argue the point that it represents progress in some fashion, but I'm not so sure I can get behind that line of thinking. After all, if we are made to deliberately forget the struggles that got us to where we are now, how can we possibly appreciate what we have?

Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your week!

What do you think? Is part of the human experience being "stolen" by a growing need to have everything turned into "entertainment?" Are we less able to handle boredom than we once were? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

---

Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!

Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20220127 14:08 PST
0482/1726