5 ms·

Do you feel that entertainment serves a purpose? Do you enjoy or admire any specific forms of entertainment?

randallsquared 16y ago
Of course I enjoy various forms of entertainment. I feel like everyone is trying to drill down into why I feel that having fun is bad or wrong or why I don't enjoy it, when I've repeatedly said I don't feel that way. kiba: I think building is still a lot better than watching though. The original point to which I was replying, lest we forget, was that building something (even something which is explicitly ephemeral) was "better than" mere entertainment like watching TV. The commenter didn't say that he liked it more, or that he was more entertained by pretending to build than by watching TV. He said he thought it was better to pretend to build than to watch TV. I merely asked why, but no one has actually offered an explanation. Why should I regard building this ALU, or building a full-scale mockup of the Enterprise D to pick another Minecraft example I saw yesterday, as a better form of entertainment (presuming the same entertainment utility, I guess) than watching TV? What reasons are there to say, "Playing Minecraft for X hours is a better use of your time than regularly watching television"? It seems to me that they're basically equivalent (leaving aside the learning component as the original commenter did when he spoke of building), and I'm confused that there seem to be a bunch of people who feel that it's more morally upstanding or something about playing Minecraft than watching TV.
- awakeasleep 16y ago
  Hm, I see your point now. So if we can both assume that things are only better or worse in context, maybe we can look for ideas there. My attempt: If we looked at a mincraft player and a television watcher's brains under an MRI, I can imagine people exercising more decision making and critical thinking areas of their brain while planning buildings and playing in minecraft. I assume in the hacker context people value those forms of mental play more than passive television staring.

Of course I enjoy various forms of entertainment. I feel like everyone is trying to drill down into why I feel that having fun is bad or wrong or why I don't enjoy it, when I've repeatedly said I don't feel that way. kiba: I think building is still a lot better than watching though. The original point to which I was replying, lest we forget, was that building something (even something which is explicitly ephemeral) was "better than" mere entertainment like watching TV. The commenter didn't say that he liked it more, or that he was more entertained by pretending to build than by watching TV. He said he thought it was better to pretend to build than to watch TV. I merely asked why, but no one has actually offered an explanation. Why should I regard building this ALU, or building a full-scale mockup of the Enterprise D to pick another Minecraft example I saw yesterday, as a better form of entertainment (presuming the same entertainment utility, I guess) than watching TV? What reasons are there to say, "Playing Minecraft for X hours is a better use of your time than regularly watching television"? It seems to me that they're basically equivalent (leaving aside the learning component as the original commenter did when he spoke of building), and I'm confused that there seem to be a bunch of people who feel that it's more morally upstanding or something about playing Minecraft than watching TV.

awakeasleep 16y ago
Hm, I see your point now. So if we can both assume that things are only better or worse in context, maybe we can look for ideas there. My attempt: If we looked at a mincraft player and a television watcher's brains under an MRI, I can imagine people exercising more decision making and critical thinking areas of their brain while planning buildings and playing in minecraft. I assume in the hacker context people value those forms of mental play more than passive television staring.