If we're in a cultural low point it's probably because everything's been recycled via the internet and boomer/gen x nostalgia.
You're describing anhedonia, the result of aging as a depressed loner without any compelling reason to be alive. Distractions can only work for so long. I'm the same, for instance, I've tried replaying old games I was absorbed in decades ago, but they do nothing for me now.
The only game that I am really getting into in the past few years has been Cyberpunk 2077. Very few games have ever come close to how I am obsessing over that game. It makes me afraid of finishing the game because I know that after that, it will be back to the same ol' copes with ever diminishing returns. And yet, I am told that I must be happy being single and enjoying life and that all the couples and singles but with FWBs/rotations all envy me because of my "free time" and disposable income.
Cyberpunk really is the only game that's come out in the last decade that is different. Only issue is it's like all other modern games with too much cinema between gameplay.
Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Baldurs Gate 3 and Elden Ring for me. Those 4 games have been the best games ever to keep me occupied. Everything else is meh. And these days I feel like games are being made for the teenagers of today, not the adults who grew up with them.
Only games that have been engrossing for me are Zelda: Breath of the Wild and more recently it's sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. Anything else outside of that, for years now, I find my interest burns out rather quickly.š
Truth.
It's a combination of being, for the first time, old enough that most content is now being aimed at a younger audience than you, and society becoming so "politically correct" that most content is just objectively not as good as it once was.
My social media usage is basically limited to Reddit and FB for family. I stopped paying attention to social media when Snapchat was the latest thing. I still don't understand TikTok and why it's popular.
I love VHS tapes too, but I'm worried about it in the future. They stopped making VCR players years ago so if anything happens to it, you're kinda fucked.
You can find VCRs at the thrift stores for around $5.
I have an old school VCR that has a knob instead of buttons that works better than my modern Blu-ray player.
I know the feeling. Recently I have been getting into hiking. It's been a good social outlet and good exercise. I love the outdoors and feel more comfortable the further I get away from the noise and bustle of the city. I think I'll probably work my way up to day hikes then maybe some backpacking when I have the free time.
I live right next to the mountains, so it's isn't too far out of the way for me.
I'm kinda in the same boat as you but I still try to keep up with new music because I don't wanna be that guy stating kids these days don't know what good music is blah blah blah. I hated that when I was younger and I won't do it now. Like I don't get Taylor Swift, but love Lana Del Rey.
Lana and Taylor both have some good singles. It's not that I don't like anything but I find most of it very very commercial. You have lots of manufactured stuff. You had that in the 90"s too but you also bands bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains etc etc etc who actually wanted to create something new. But I get what you're saying
As a millenial born in '90 I feel the same way. My copes just aren't the same as they used to. Modern movies, music, and just pop culture in general is less original and more... 'low-frequency' if you will.
Modern entertainment feels so incredibly dead / fake to me. Music is 99% trash. Movies are copy-paste recycles so bad its like it is being written by the same 5 guys that ran out of ideas a decade ago and have been ācopy-paste winging itā so they make their assigned sales mark. The art/originality of both are just goneā¦?
Internet is useless for anything and i feel I literally cannot trust or use anything seen or read.
Then thereās the influencer issue where they infiltrate everywhere and everything, shouting over and over how great a piece of garbage is. Milking it for $$, before ditching and moving on to the next hypeable thing.
Annoyingly, some niche stuff can actually be interesting, but the moment influencers latch on it goes downcliff almost immediatly.
I donāt even know for myself if this is an FA issue or not, because I canāt imagine living a happy life with a partner and suddenly liking the entertainment options open to us.
Either its my jaded FA life with anhedonia, or maybe im just too old for modern fun.
I'm 30 and I don't consume a lot of mainstream media even when I was a kid. Except for tv until I switched to Netflix, but I never saw the latest thing everyone was watching. I barely listen to music, or play games. i do all these things but not excessively like a lot of people do. Just occasionally. Always in my own bubble . So i just think, am i weird? all I do is get on Reddit, YouTube, and Netflix. Til this day I think I've only heard 2 Taylor Swift songs in my entire life. I know she's known for her music but I don't know her music like that. I know Taylor for being pretty, that's it. Lol.
Name any artist and I bet I don't know like 99% of their music.
Name any game and most likely I've never played it.
Movies are different though. I'm more into that. Still need to watch a lot of classics. I don't pay attention to what's in theaters though.
I read a lot of random shit online, like this post. And articles.
Edit: a lot of things, you only want simply because you are aware of them. If you're not aware of it you won't want or desire it. I don't want the lives of others bothering me so I don't even get on social media.
I don't like Netflix. It's mainstream stuff. And there's nothing older than 10 years on there. And then a unique, great show comes on like The Midnight Gospel, which, to be fair, I must give Netflix credit for putting it on in the first place, but I also feel resentful at them for cancelling it after one season.
It's brutal. All the cool stuff we grew up with in the 80s, 90s and 2000s doesn't exist anymore. I'm also a big fan of rock and have been listening to 80s/90s to mid 2000s stuff a lot lately.
I understand where you're coming from, and I think it's inevitable when the highlights of your days used to come exactly from entertainment for a long time. Anhedonia also might explain part of your feelings as someone else mentioned. I'm a few years younger, but I still despise everything you mentioned, aside from youtube. I think you can still find fun content creators on there. I never grew out of anime either and sometimes I still watch tv series, albeit I find myself recovering the good old ones I missed more than the new stuff lately.
Despite all of that, yeah, entertainment was more exciting when I was younger in general. In the end if you don't have a balanced life, it's all a big cope.
The more technologically advanced we get, the worse everything is. Remember back when YouTube allowed custom designs on profiles, movies and games tried to be unique and not some shitty nostalgia bait or annual recycles, social media was not the decadence that we have now? It seems we have regressed to a point.
Everything is too safe and too politically correct, innovation and risks are rare today. Itās why I still I try to support smaller projects with my money whenever possible, because everything is a monopoly now. Big companies play it too greedy and too safe, and in exchange for consuming their products they grab us all by the balls.
The way I look at things is that modern content is woke garbage and has been for a while. However, they havenāt erased the past yet, and so thereās a massive amount of high quality and fun older content out there.
Sure, half of it has aged terribly, but the other half hasnāt. Itās just all do much more wholesome, positive and genuine. Usually more intelligent too.
Sure, capitalism is sucking the soul out of many things, but something survives even today. We're just getting old and unable to enjoy the present because the past always feels more comfortable and better than it actually was. It's a cycle that repeats itself over and over.
As we age we do become less adaptable to new pop culture and innovation, but even outside of that, I feel the post-social media/smartphone era is a low point for the vast majority of popular media and the internet.
Sadly it's probably only going to get worse. As more and more content is created by AI that simply regurgitates what was created before. Eventually, it may become almost impossible to find genuine content. Even now, most subreddits/social media are so devoid of original thought or critical thinking that you could replace 99% of the user posts with AI-generated content and it would be impossible to tell the difference.
The problem is there isn't any diversity of content anymore, creators all want to be woke/progressive or whatever word they use this week. They are all terrified of offending the internet mob and being cancelled. So they all produce the same stories, with the same cliche characters and the progressive viewpoint is never challenged.
That is beginning to change, with some standups now going f\*ck it, I want to make fun of this woke sh\*t but for the most part we are stuck in a rut.
A lot of things have changed since then due to censorship from our government and elite powers out there. So youāre right about a lot of the internet and entertainment available now a days. But dude. I promise you 42 is not old šš
This is me. I was able to cope with video games in my 20s but I enjoy them at all anymore. I saw what it was like to have a girlfriend and it was everything I ever wanted. We got together because of crazy coincidences and I just donāt see it happening again. I lost my one shot at love in life and Iām ready to die now
If we're in a cultural low point it's probably because everything's been recycled via the internet and boomer/gen x nostalgia. You're describing anhedonia, the result of aging as a depressed loner without any compelling reason to be alive. Distractions can only work for so long. I'm the same, for instance, I've tried replaying old games I was absorbed in decades ago, but they do nothing for me now.
The only game that I am really getting into in the past few years has been Cyberpunk 2077. Very few games have ever come close to how I am obsessing over that game. It makes me afraid of finishing the game because I know that after that, it will be back to the same ol' copes with ever diminishing returns. And yet, I am told that I must be happy being single and enjoying life and that all the couples and singles but with FWBs/rotations all envy me because of my "free time" and disposable income.
Cyberpunk really is the only game that's come out in the last decade that is different. Only issue is it's like all other modern games with too much cinema between gameplay.
Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Baldurs Gate 3 and Elden Ring for me. Those 4 games have been the best games ever to keep me occupied. Everything else is meh. And these days I feel like games are being made for the teenagers of today, not the adults who grew up with them.
Only games that have been engrossing for me are Zelda: Breath of the Wild and more recently it's sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. Anything else outside of that, for years now, I find my interest burns out rather quickly.š
Truth. It's a combination of being, for the first time, old enough that most content is now being aimed at a younger audience than you, and society becoming so "politically correct" that most content is just objectively not as good as it once was.
I play old school stuff. New games and media are too frustrating for me. I still have my VCR. lol
My social media usage is basically limited to Reddit and FB for family. I stopped paying attention to social media when Snapchat was the latest thing. I still don't understand TikTok and why it's popular.
I can see why social media is popular but I still don't understand it.
I love VHS tapes too, but I'm worried about it in the future. They stopped making VCR players years ago so if anything happens to it, you're kinda fucked.
I don't like the picture degradation over time, but I dig the analogy of how life is like that.
I have VHS tapes that last longer than a DVD.
You can find VCRs at the thrift stores for around $5. I have an old school VCR that has a knob instead of buttons that works better than my modern Blu-ray player.
I know the feeling. Recently I have been getting into hiking. It's been a good social outlet and good exercise. I love the outdoors and feel more comfortable the further I get away from the noise and bustle of the city. I think I'll probably work my way up to day hikes then maybe some backpacking when I have the free time. I live right next to the mountains, so it's isn't too far out of the way for me.
You identify more with the 90s/2000s because you were born in 1982.
I'm kinda in the same boat as you but I still try to keep up with new music because I don't wanna be that guy stating kids these days don't know what good music is blah blah blah. I hated that when I was younger and I won't do it now. Like I don't get Taylor Swift, but love Lana Del Rey.
Lana and Taylor both have some good singles. It's not that I don't like anything but I find most of it very very commercial. You have lots of manufactured stuff. You had that in the 90"s too but you also bands bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains etc etc etc who actually wanted to create something new. But I get what you're saying
As a millenial born in '90 I feel the same way. My copes just aren't the same as they used to. Modern movies, music, and just pop culture in general is less original and more... 'low-frequency' if you will.
Modern entertainment feels so incredibly dead / fake to me. Music is 99% trash. Movies are copy-paste recycles so bad its like it is being written by the same 5 guys that ran out of ideas a decade ago and have been ācopy-paste winging itā so they make their assigned sales mark. The art/originality of both are just goneā¦? Internet is useless for anything and i feel I literally cannot trust or use anything seen or read. Then thereās the influencer issue where they infiltrate everywhere and everything, shouting over and over how great a piece of garbage is. Milking it for $$, before ditching and moving on to the next hypeable thing. Annoyingly, some niche stuff can actually be interesting, but the moment influencers latch on it goes downcliff almost immediatly. I donāt even know for myself if this is an FA issue or not, because I canāt imagine living a happy life with a partner and suddenly liking the entertainment options open to us. Either its my jaded FA life with anhedonia, or maybe im just too old for modern fun.
I'm 30 and I don't consume a lot of mainstream media even when I was a kid. Except for tv until I switched to Netflix, but I never saw the latest thing everyone was watching. I barely listen to music, or play games. i do all these things but not excessively like a lot of people do. Just occasionally. Always in my own bubble . So i just think, am i weird? all I do is get on Reddit, YouTube, and Netflix. Til this day I think I've only heard 2 Taylor Swift songs in my entire life. I know she's known for her music but I don't know her music like that. I know Taylor for being pretty, that's it. Lol. Name any artist and I bet I don't know like 99% of their music. Name any game and most likely I've never played it. Movies are different though. I'm more into that. Still need to watch a lot of classics. I don't pay attention to what's in theaters though. I read a lot of random shit online, like this post. And articles. Edit: a lot of things, you only want simply because you are aware of them. If you're not aware of it you won't want or desire it. I don't want the lives of others bothering me so I don't even get on social media.
I don't like Netflix. It's mainstream stuff. And there's nothing older than 10 years on there. And then a unique, great show comes on like The Midnight Gospel, which, to be fair, I must give Netflix credit for putting it on in the first place, but I also feel resentful at them for cancelling it after one season.
It's brutal. All the cool stuff we grew up with in the 80s, 90s and 2000s doesn't exist anymore. I'm also a big fan of rock and have been listening to 80s/90s to mid 2000s stuff a lot lately.
I understand where you're coming from, and I think it's inevitable when the highlights of your days used to come exactly from entertainment for a long time. Anhedonia also might explain part of your feelings as someone else mentioned. I'm a few years younger, but I still despise everything you mentioned, aside from youtube. I think you can still find fun content creators on there. I never grew out of anime either and sometimes I still watch tv series, albeit I find myself recovering the good old ones I missed more than the new stuff lately. Despite all of that, yeah, entertainment was more exciting when I was younger in general. In the end if you don't have a balanced life, it's all a big cope.
Yeah, Iām closing in on 40 myself, and I find that I canāt enjoy music and gaming like I used to, either.
The 90s were truly the best time. You felt you were living a modern lifestyle but technology wasn't overwhelming and in your face the way it is now.
The more technologically advanced we get, the worse everything is. Remember back when YouTube allowed custom designs on profiles, movies and games tried to be unique and not some shitty nostalgia bait or annual recycles, social media was not the decadence that we have now? It seems we have regressed to a point. Everything is too safe and too politically correct, innovation and risks are rare today. Itās why I still I try to support smaller projects with my money whenever possible, because everything is a monopoly now. Big companies play it too greedy and too safe, and in exchange for consuming their products they grab us all by the balls.
The way I look at things is that modern content is woke garbage and has been for a while. However, they havenāt erased the past yet, and so thereās a massive amount of high quality and fun older content out there. Sure, half of it has aged terribly, but the other half hasnāt. Itās just all do much more wholesome, positive and genuine. Usually more intelligent too.
Sure, capitalism is sucking the soul out of many things, but something survives even today. We're just getting old and unable to enjoy the present because the past always feels more comfortable and better than it actually was. It's a cycle that repeats itself over and over.
Says someone with NO knowledge of socialist regimes who willingly lives in a capitalist country.
As we age we do become less adaptable to new pop culture and innovation, but even outside of that, I feel the post-social media/smartphone era is a low point for the vast majority of popular media and the internet. Sadly it's probably only going to get worse. As more and more content is created by AI that simply regurgitates what was created before. Eventually, it may become almost impossible to find genuine content. Even now, most subreddits/social media are so devoid of original thought or critical thinking that you could replace 99% of the user posts with AI-generated content and it would be impossible to tell the difference.
The problem is there isn't any diversity of content anymore, creators all want to be woke/progressive or whatever word they use this week. They are all terrified of offending the internet mob and being cancelled. So they all produce the same stories, with the same cliche characters and the progressive viewpoint is never challenged. That is beginning to change, with some standups now going f\*ck it, I want to make fun of this woke sh\*t but for the most part we are stuck in a rut.
A lot of things have changed since then due to censorship from our government and elite powers out there. So youāre right about a lot of the internet and entertainment available now a days. But dude. I promise you 42 is not old šš
This is me. I was able to cope with video games in my 20s but I enjoy them at all anymore. I saw what it was like to have a girlfriend and it was everything I ever wanted. We got together because of crazy coincidences and I just donāt see it happening again. I lost my one shot at love in life and Iām ready to die now
Maybe getting a cat might help
unfortuneately im going to assume you never had a girlfriend before
There's a new video game every five minutes if you're into that.
If you've played one modern game, then you most likely played them all and they are all follow the same thing/formula.
You aren't stuck with it though, you just got complacent.