All right, forget my exam; I'm in a writing mood.
Today, it seems a lot of people spend time doing something just to "relax" or "escape from reality for a while." I know I have throughout the past 10 or more years. But why do we feel the need to relax? Surely no one would say that it would be good to spend all their time relaxing and escaping from the world. A desire to escape from reality can't be a fundamental part of our humanity, can it? What is it that we feel the need to escape from?
I believe the answer is that our attempts at "escaping from the world" are an attempt to deal with the relationships we have in which we have to fulfill the expectations of others. We naturally hate being in this position, I think. Hasn't everybody hated having to do what seemed like a very silly and pointless homework assignment at some time? We hate having to base our actions on the expectations of others, because it sometimes forces us to go against what we naturally want to do. So then the question is, how do we deal with being in this position that we hate being in?
It seems to me we deal with this situation by taking the other role in the relationship in other aspects of our life. Isn't this what we are doing when we play a video game or watch a sitcom "to relax"? Just like the teacher who says "I will accept those students who complete this certain assignment" or "work in this certain way", aren't we really saying "I will accept anyone who also watches this TV show" or "plays this video game"? I realize now this is exactly what often motivated me to spend time playing a video games and look at sports on the internet. We deal with what we hate by becoming it. In order to deal with the expectations others put on us, we in response find our escape in being the one who lays down the expectations.
Okay, I won't say anthing else yet, because I don't want posts to be too long and complicated and all and I think I've said what I wanted to say. (And I really need to start thinking about my exam in 11 hours.)
hmm..perhaps what you say is true for most, it probably is considering what i've seen over the past year. i just tend to read your posts from my point of view. and i play games whenever just for the pure enjoyment (surely there's nothing wrong with fun :P), not because i'm reaching out to others for relationships. again this is just me though.
ReplyDeletealso, in general tom, try to remember to include examples in your writing, it really helps nail your point down. spell out your "so what?" (answer to dilemma) as well. you like to point out problems in society and tend to dance around saying your solution. just some suggestions that would help your readers. i'll put up a post this weekend some time cause i'm itching to do a little writing myself. g'luck on your exam.