Videos vs. Nature
When our lives have purpose, our lives are a good story.
Stories shape and define us. We might like to think otherwise, but most of what we think we know isn’t based on thorough understanding; it’s based on seemingly coherent stories. This is why one person’s logical decision can be completely illogical to another.
When our life story is a good one, we go to sleep thinking about it, and we wake up thinking about it too, full of ideas and inspiration for where we might go or what we might do next. This often happens when we’re travelling somewhere new or when we’re in the midst of an ambitious project.
Similarly, when we read a good book, or watch a good movie, we go to sleep and wake up thinking about it too. Most of us really enjoy this feeling, and so it’s no wonder that, when our lives lack purpose, we’re more likely to seek out stories.
Dr Meg Wheatley speaks and writes at length about the widespread lack of purpose in the world as people forgo service to others in favour of inevitably hollow individualism.
It’s perhaps no surprise that, in the UK, people now spend an average of 5 hours and 40 minutes every day watching television.
A good personal life story, based on purpose and service to others, is without doubt what makes us all happiest in the long term. However, it is now much easier to get compelling stories from video entertainment.
Video entertainment doesn’t take any effort on our parts. It’s like trying to stay healthy by eating loads of bad food with a few vitamins. It’s a sharp contrast to the healthy diet and regular exercise of living a purposeful life or at least reading a book and putting our imaginations to work.
I wonder whether immersive, interactive VR experiences will be better or worse. At least they are less passive!
Either way, it’s really interesting how many smart families don’t let their kids watch TV, or at least limit it significantly, and don’t watch it much themselves either.
In a longer-term sense, I worry that video entertainment will make it increasingly easy for people to detach from nature, as nature is replaced with more immediately compelling stories on Netflix.
It’s a small thing, but next time a movie night is suggested, perhaps suggest a microadventure instead.
