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I've never fully understood the way that some people go about entertaining themselves. I mean, I can't remember the last time I was bored. I'd almost go as far

by kaens 17y ago

I've never fully understood the way that some people go about entertaining themselves. I mean, I can't remember the last time I was bored. I'd almost go as far as to say that if you're ever bored, you're doing life wrong. I can analytically get my head around why people end up in a mental state where they think that buying a television for entertainment is a higher priority than buying food - it has a lot to do with (IMO) the way the brain develops, and how that relates to culture. In other words, pattern recognition in the mind doing what it does best, over the course of someone's entire life. The problem is that everything around you is fascinating. I guess it's not to most people, and I should just consider myself lucky that I never feel the need to buy a bunch of entertainment luxuries to keep myself entertained. When she put it like that, it almost seemed rational. Yeah, it does seem almost rational. Really, I guess it is rational, assuming one puts a really high value on being entertained constantly via external media. Ahh, people's mindsets get me in a bad mood sometimes.

nostrademons 17y ago
I think that's a luxury of coming from a socioeconomic class where your basic needs are taken care, with skills that are both intellectually stimulating and can make a living. When you live in a suburb of Pittsburgh with a median household income of $23,000, where 20% of the population lives below the poverty line, and your day job consists of saying "Would you like fries with that?", and most of your friends are shooting at each other or getting pregnant, then maybe not everything around you is fascinating.
- kaens 17y ago
  Perhaps. In my case, I was part of that socioeconomic class from birth to 16, but from 16-20 I was homeless, and from 20-right now I was very poor, far beneath the poverty line in the states. I kept that sense of fascination, and I've met tons of people who are dirt poor, and have been dirt poor their entire lives, who have that sense of fascination. I've met fewer people with it in the middle and upper classes. That's not to say that there aren't a whole bunch of very poor people who lack it. If I had to honestly guess, I'd say that it's somewhat related to intelligence, and how many different ideas someone gets exposed to while they're young, and that the percentage of folks who are fascinated by the world is approximately the same throughout classes, and that I just haven't met enough middle to upper class people in my adult life to know yet. I really, don't think that it's a luxury of class. It may get affected by class, but I don't think that the effect is as big as you suppose.

by kaens 17y ago

nostrademons 17y ago

I think that's a luxury of coming from a socioeconomic class where your basic needs are taken care, with skills that are both intellectually stimulating and can make a living. When you live in a suburb of Pittsburgh with a median household income of $23,000, where 20% of the population lives below the poverty line, and your day job consists of saying "Would you like fries with that?", and most of your friends are shooting at each other or getting pregnant, then maybe not everything around you is fascinating.

kaens 17y ago
Perhaps. In my case, I was part of that socioeconomic class from birth to 16, but from 16-20 I was homeless, and from 20-right now I was very poor, far beneath the poverty line in the states. I kept that sense of fascination, and I've met tons of people who are dirt poor, and have been dirt poor their entire lives, who have that sense of fascination. I've met fewer people with it in the middle and upper classes. That's not to say that there aren't a whole bunch of very poor people who lack it. If I had to honestly guess, I'd say that it's somewhat related to intelligence, and how many different ideas someone gets exposed to while they're young, and that the percentage of folks who are fascinated by the world is approximately the same throughout classes, and that I just haven't met enough middle to upper class people in my adult life to know yet. I really, don't think that it's a luxury of class. It may get affected by class, but I don't think that the effect is as big as you suppose.