Happiness & The vicious cycle of Entertainment

Life has become much easier with invention of so much technology and entertainment options. Your favourite movies, songs, novels, games at your fingertips. Indeed life has become easy. But mind begs a question if life has become that much easier then why the rates of depression, anxiety, stress and other mental problems are rising drastically!!? 

Does entertainment really make life easy? A question to think about. So let's find out. 

Entertainment is usually associated with happiness which is also true upto some extent. But is it all we need to have? Is entertainment equal to happiness or peace? 

Although entertainment can create happiness. But this entertainment dependent happiness doesn't last long. You crave to get it more and more unless you become its slave. You get obsessed with the next movie, the next novel, the next episode. When somehow you fail to get that you become anxious and stressful. Then to escape that anxiety you need to get another entertainment. 

The reason why you seek entertainment so much is because you're bored with life. You don't know what to do, you don't know why are you here. You don't know your purpose. You don't have any goal and even if you have a goal then you don't know why that is your goal. This lack of purpose and goal directed-ness create great inner boredom. And to escape this boredom you need something that distract you from this mental abyss. 

As soon as the entertainment ends, the boredom returns again. Then you again need entertainment. This is a vicious cycle. The solution to boredom is not entertainment nor money but it is to discover the purpose of your life.

However seeking entertainment is normal as long as it does not become your goal. But if all of your efforts can merely reduced to entertainment then there's a serious problem. If you work with an extrinsic motivation that once you have more money you can entertain in a better way then it's problematic. Do work because it brings you closer to your purpose not because it can help you getting more entertained. Ludwig Wittgenstein rightly said, "I don't know why are we here on earth. But it's definitely not to enjoy ourselves unconditionally". Makes sense. Entertainment cannot be the purpose of life.

Man is created in such a way that he soon gets bore with life if he fails to recognise his true purpose in the creation. When he gets bore he tries to escape it by indulging in entertainment which helps him getting distracted from his boredom. Unless he puts efforts to understand his purpose in the scheme of creation he cannot find long lasting peace. 

It's the 'true purpose' that makes the life interesting. Without purpose, a man is just prone to indulge in entertainment to escape from his great inner boredom.

The increment in entertainment seeking all around is not the sign of happier life but it only means that we now have something to distract ourselves from boredom of life. 

Entertainment is a way to escape from boredom. Indulgence in entertainment is a sign of great inner boredom. This is the result of purposeless life. The key of living a free, independent and happy life is to dedicate it to the one who have created it. To discover your own self with faith, knowledge and sincere efforts. To do what you were made to do.