How important is entertainment to you?

To me, the things that matter most on this earth (or could be regarded to have intrinsic worth at all), are things that make someone happy, smile or laugh.

I went to a screenwriters’ seminar earlier this year, and the woman who ran it said something that struck a chord with me: movies and TV are this era’s versions of the Bible, meaning that as the ancients had the Bible to pass on their stories and cultural mores, we use TV, movies, novels and music today in the same way. Entertainment shows what we in our various cultures find to be of greatest importance to us, for better or worse.

Entertainment is never, ever just something to take your mind off your troubles or to have fun for a while. There’s always subtext that reflects us back to ourselves.

I am not a big entertainments needs type.

I watch a few DVD’s on occasion, checked out of all primetime TV and media about 8–9 yrs. ago.

Enjoy music in outdoor venues, and catching a movie once in awhile…maybe 3–4 times a year which is about on par with the number of high quality movies produced. lol

As with everything from food to the homes we live in there is some quality to be found but…a whole lot of crap to be sorted through first.

My greatest source of ‘entertainment’ is just hanging out in nature and enjoying being alive, I don’t require much entertainment stimulation from ‘out there.’

@Coloma :))))

About my only entertainment is hitting the golf ball! Oh, and attending lots of sporting events!

@BoBo1946

I guess Fluther counts as entertainment too. lol

Lately my thing is making a fire out on my patio at night and relaxing on my very comfy futon being entertained by the night sounds.

@Coloma yes…that is what I’m talking about!

what is the impact of entertainment compared to the impact of, say, building a house?

I can’t really relate to building a house, but I study computer science. So I suppose we’ll take writing a program as the example that applies to me. I find that entertainment can mostly be shortlived in the media sense. I go to see movies in the cinema and enjoy them, but it doesn’t last. When I write a program I am challenged to think differently and ultimately I’m entertained. I guess its like playing sudoku or minesweeper or something. At the end I have a program, something I can see and experience. I get a sense of accomplishment. I don’t feel that I have accomplished something every time I watch a movie. They are fulfilling in different ways. I personally prefer the sense of accomplishment.

Entertainment fills a significant need in society. To be distracted, transported, educated, have one’s brain stimulated, to make one think, amongst other things. I could probably exist pretty well with books alone (as opposed to TV, films, video games, etc.), but one could argue that that, too, is entertainment. Not having entertainment would leave a serious void in human culture.

I think we, as humans, have a need for entertainment. Those in the developed world rely heavily on television and movies, but the need is the same wherever you go.

In history, you had your bards, your poets, your writers, your philosophers.. we just have shifted where we find our entertainment.

My work is my entertainment, for the most part. I enjoy building things, fixing things and watching things grow. Add reading and listening to classical music, I’m about as contented as reasonably possible. Parties and crowds bother me.

Simply put, it makes me feel alive.

Music often taps into emotions I enjoy experiencing.

Dance often leaves me in tears at the sheer beauty of it.

Good Food makes me feel like I’m living the best time of my life.

Great Movies remind me of the interconnectivity of the human experience.

Hell, I recently played frisbee for the first time in years and felt more connected to my body than I have in ages.

Entertainment has been important since the first story told around a fire, assuming there was fire then. It’s part of what makes us human, transmits our culture and life lessons to the next generation, and passes the time. Heck, without entertainment to think about, we probably wouldn’t have as complex of a society not as many neural connections in the brain.

It’s also important to me because I work in the entertainment field. When people stop watching movies and listening to music, I’m out of a job.

It’s the reason I go to work every day, the entertainment value is priceless!! :-/

@laureth – Right? Me too.

There’s what I want and what I must. Entertainment is the only real escape I have. I’d kill myself but that’s just silly, everyone’s gonna die anyway and it would just make this world suck a little more if I decided to off myself, which is sorta a plus I guess. Getting off topic. Some of the things people call entertainment I call evil, but I live for stuff I experience as poetry, which is rarely in real life.

1) I think it’s a little unfair to define something like entertainment with textbook definitions; it’s really much more than that and I dont think any definition does what it actually is justice. That said, I think it deserves a very loose definition.

2) Coming from someone who has a mild addiction to video games, entertainment means a lot to me! Not to mention, videos/movies, music, shows, comedy, etc. I couldn’t picture it any other way, or all of it taken away from me at once.

I could probably write a 20 page paper about what entertainment has done and still does for me. I’ll simplify it by saying it adds color to my imagination and takes me away to a special place in my heart, mind and soul. Without it, I dont know what or who I would be.

@Disc2021: ”...adds color to my imagination”

I like that.

It’s big. I’m a sponge for living and doing so when I look around then mind goes to what all I can be doing with such and such thing/place. I look at the hillsides of trees or rock and want to be climbing, hiking or swimming in ponds and lakes, picnicing in meadows, digging for rocks and fossils, etc. Manufactured ET like movies, games, cuisine, galleries, museums, ride parks and art are my interests too. I work to be able to experience “stuff”.

@cprevite Thanks =D. That’s about the extent of my poetic ability, lol.

If you define entertainment as information, then entertainment is really important! I think part of what makes us human is our undying curiosity, and entertainment is our means of satiating that urge to explore. Be it through Planet Earth on TV, or climbing up the Smoky Mountains on foot, entertainment is everything we do. Jobs, money, and working are all social constructs, dating back to ancient humanity. There’s always been a need for work, which satisfies the collective necessities, and entertainment, which satisfies personal boredome, (hopefully) fosters social interaction, and overall just puts a smile on your face.

EXTREMELY important. I could not live without it. Besides, then the world would be boring….....

Life-long work productivity depends on being able to unwind.