Boring entertainment

It sounds pretty counterintuitive.

“Boring entertainment.”

To be entertained, by definition, is to be in a state of enjoyment. How then can one be bored by entertainment?

Let me explain.

TV shows, YouTube videos, videogames, instagram and Facebook. All are forms of entertainment. Despite being labeled as such, I went through all of these today, and yet I can hardly call today a day that I truly enjoyed. I was bored. It felt mindless; I was scrolling without purpose, killing time until the next meal I’d have to cook. Heck, cooking and washing the dishes felt more enjoyable than watching TV, because at least then I was actually doing something.

Social media and a lot of things on the internet that occupy time in general sometimes feel as if they are designed not to entertain, but to entrap. Scrolling through instagram is not genuinely enjoyable, but it feels just a little bit better than doing nothing at all, which is why I did it for half an hour. The same happened with episodes of the Big Bang Theory, a couple games of Brawlhalla and a rewatch of The Interview. I went through the motions, but that was it. Time passed slowly. I quietly seethed with frustration at times, not knowing why I couldn’t will myself to do something I actually enjoyed.

I didn’t feel like opening my textbooks, or starting my group assignment or even going to do the groceries. Maybe this sounds strange after being compared to things like video games, but haven’t you ever felt enjoyably immersed in work? Writing thought provoking essays, reading through interesting new content for a class and even solving math problems gives me a rush sometimes. It doesn’t always feel like fun, but when it does, picking up the pen to write feels not like an obligation, but like something I want to be doing. For the past couple of days, however, anything school related has felt like a chore more than anything else. Because of this, I’ve tried to immerse myself in entertainment, and subsequently got bored by it.

True, unbridled entertainment can’t be found in activities that you don’t put 100% in. If you play video games, play them with a friend. Watch movies, but don’t do it because you have nothing else to do; do it because you want to. Put off studying, but don’t replace it with social media. Find entertainment by loving what you’re doing.

Anything else doesn’t deserve to be called entertainment.

Entertain