Where has the fun gone?

[Joe S.]

There was a time when people did things for the fun of doing them. They sang songs for fun, movies were fun, radio and TV programs were fun, and comedy was fun. Some where in the process business got involved and the fun disappeared to be replaced by funds.

At first people became wage slaves, now we have work slaves. Humor (fun) went from funny to mean to a mechanical business. Singing went from fun and parties to a business.

We now have the Entertainment business. The JOB of those in the entertainment BUSINESS is to pacify the masses to keep them at their wage and work slave positions.

Fun events that people went to became businesses and the fun ran away. Where has the fun gone?

[Carolina]

Hmmm, Joe,

I think people still do things for fun.

We went to a big concert two weeks ago, made up of bands that are all people who play together for fun.

A couple of the people in the big group (maybe 75 or more) hadn't started playing any instrument until they joined the band.

These were all retired people.  Believe me they were having fun!

I do think fun is  1) more organized AND 2) more individual.   There are far fewer occasions when everyone is sitting around together in a large group looking for something to do.

To have fun in a group you need to plan ahead, and in addition to all the hobbies of yore, there are now electronic games and media of communication

This reply to you in part of my way of having fun.

Fun is in the eye of the person having fun!

I guess folks go to Karaoke for fun?  (Not me of course).

Take a bunch of kids to the pool, bowling, or to a bounce place.   You'll see some fun.

Hugs

Elaine

[Velcro]

I don't think the "fun" has disappeared, I think people just don't take time out for the fun anymore.

[A66eyroad]

Are we showing our age when we harken back to a simpler time?

I remember sitting on the front porch in spring and summer evenings with my grandfather, all us cousins singing and trying to harmonize. In good weather we'd go out and jump rope, play tag, and kick the can in the daytime, and at night we'd head outdoors with our little jars and catch lightening bugs. In winter we'd make up plays to show the grown-ups, or sit around the record player or the piano.  There was always music.

We never had air conditioning in our house, so we HAD to go sit outdoors just to catch a breeze.  These days I'm so used to the air conditioning that I can hardly stand going from my nice cool car into my nice cool house.

Now, I hardly ever go outside from June to September or so, and we barely even know our neighbors.

It seems as though "fun" has to be planned now, whereas it once was spontaneous.

[ellenkerr]

Joe, that is an interesting observation.  I know what you mean about how easy it was to have fun years ago.  My 11 year old

granddaughter wanted to go to a concert to hear her favorite "boy band" recently and the cheapest tickets were $350 each!!!!!  I know

when I was growing up we went outside to play and didn't come back in the house until it was dark, and then we played with fireflies.

Cardboard boxes were fun because in our hands they became planes, trains, and automobiles!!  We used our imagination, and books

took us to far away places.  Obviously our world is different today.  We can't let our kids explore on their own without fear of bad things

happening.  The music, videos, and "entertainment" today exposes our youth to what I consider to be inappropriate for their development.  Don't even get me started going there!!!  LOL 

I've thought about having fun and sometimes just the thought of getting together with people or doing something that requires a little

more "effort", just gets passed over because I'm so tired.  I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about!  After thinking about it,

I think we should challenge each other to get out of our box and DO SOMETHING "just for fun" this month!  Maybe if we do one thing

we would have passed on, we might find that it was worth the energy (or spoons) it took to do it.

I'll take that challenge and commit to go to a car show and parade that I had decided to pass on because it was too much effort.  I

have a restored 1969 volkswagen cabriolet, (convertible) that needs to be backed out of the garage and polished up, and driven 200

miles to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to enter it into a VW show, and then drive it in a parade along with 300 other vintage volkswagens. 

Its always fun to see old friends, and meet new ones, and drive my little bug on the highway with the top down and getting waves

from admiring kids.  My bug is painted a Porsche color called strawberry haze, but it's like a bright pink and has a white convertible top. 

So basically, all the girls think it looks like a "Barbie" car.   I had pretty much decided not to go, but Joe, you got me thinking!!!!

I'm going to see if I can have some fun!!!!  Life is too short not to enjoy it, in spite of SJS.  So come on everyone, post what you are

going to do for fun this month!  (Joe, you are next!!! lol)

[Sleepy In Seattle]

It's a choice. It's still out there. As people ALWAYS have, some make good choices and some make bad choices. Forms of "fun" come and go. Life evolves.

We have lots of fun in our family. We play games, we hike, we read, we travel together, we eat meals together, we go see movies (and yes, even some of the Entertainment Industry DOES provide fun!!!!).

I think my work is fun - and that's great. I have found a way to make some money doing what I love. It's not ALWAYS fun, but nothing is! I have also had really crappy jobs where I have worked really hard to find fun in my work, in my relationships with co-workers, etc. Yes it can be hard, but it's a way better way to live than being negative all the time.

I think what people have forgotten is that happiness is a HABIT and a way of thinking, not some thing that comes to you from outside. Don't be passive in seeking happiness - it's not something that is a condition of external circumstances. There are happy people in all SORTS of situations. There are people having FUN in all sort of situations. And there are unhappy party-poopers in all sorts of situations too. It has always been thus...choose not to be a grump!   

[ellenkerr]

  Sleepy, very well said!!!! 

[Carolina]

I agree with Sleepy!

Fun is everywhere, along with the crystal glass half full of champagne.

Hugs

Elaine

[Velcro]

I totally agree and it probably all ties together with what Joe was saying.  I think people have forgotten you can have fun, without spending tons of money or even any.  It seems like everyone's idea of fun nowadays is that they have to go spend money.  Growing up, we didn't have money to spend on fun, so we had to make our own (your words about cardboard boxes made me giggle with memories about making houses out of them, cutting windows and doors and coloring them).

[Sleepy In Seattle]

My daughter and her friends are all in high school, they don't HAVE money, and they have TONS of fun. I don't think times are changing that much...

[Carolina]

Ahh, the good old days.

My mother-in-law, born in 1900 (long gone) used to fret that 'girls nowadays weren't learning how to do dishes properly'!

All those dishwashers.

As if you wouldn't learn to do dishes properly in about three tries if you had to!

I also told her that I didn't know how to make my own soap, either.  Or gut, scald and pluck a chicken (tho' I do know how to cut up a whole chicken.......now I just buy boneless skinless breasts).

Times change, life changes, people, not so much.

Hugs

Elaine

[irish]

I know what you mean, Joe. Life as many of us knew it is long gone. I feel so sorry for my grandkids. They do not know how to have fun unless it is "wired". Sometimes in the winter we can get a puzzle going, but generallye fun to them involves a screen of some kind. The kids are getting so out of shape from sitting around all the time.

I am not from a family that knows how to have a lot of fun as my foils owned a restaurant and my sister and I always had to work and didn't get much time to play. I really do like to work, and for me sometimes that is fun. My hubby loves to work and to him that was his fun when he was healthy.

Oh, I remember the sitting on the porch and watching the fireflies and playing army with the neighborhood kids crawling around on our belly and running up and ringing doorbells in the dark. We used to ride bike for the fun of it and now days kids won't walk 6 blocks if they can get a ride. The library was always my friend and still is. I love the smell, the sounds and the soul of the library. So much knowlede at my fingertips and all I have to do is read.

Our whole world is a mess. We were better off when we were poor and everyone was in the same boat. None of us had a darn thing and most of our toys we made or were hand me downs. Christmas presents were made for us by our parents. Ice cream on Saturday night was a 1 pint box and divided carefully and enjoyed over a long period of time. No wolfing down a huge bowl from a gallon ice cream container.

The good shows on TV are gone and all we have now is junk. I miss Rockford Files and all the old "who done it shows" where there was kindness and humor. Much of the pain and suffering in this world has been taught to generations by the media who thought we need to watch what they want us to. Time does march on, but it would be so much better if it would march more slowly and if we could all take more time to get to know our neighbors. The old art of "neighboring" is pretty much a thing of the past.

Stop and think how much we all stay in our homes and entertain ourselves with our things. I know we don't feel good, but it would be so nice to sit on the front step or on a lawn chair in the back yard and have people wander over to visit for a few minutes like they did years ago. Sigh.Irish

[eye2dry]

Well Joe...............there is just too much fun at my house.


I sing out loud in front of anyone and don't care.

My grandkids provide way too much excitement on their visits......takes me days to recover from their idea of "fun"

And my little dog............his antics are amusing and occasionally destructive........



but seriously, I think it's just that in my era (I am 55) my kind of fun just isn't "hip" anymore.


we play charades at Christmas, shoot pool on our table with family (cheat even), play Old Maid with the grandkids

still have camp fires on cold starry nights.


sounds like Mayberry FRD/


eye2dry

[Joe S.]

This question came to me this morning after hearing that Edie died yesterday and they played her song "Blame it on the Bosinova" (sp). When we made it to my grandsons birthday party on Sunday after an hour in traffic, I watched the children play games. When they left to go swimming I sat and watched the activities on the lake. I was in my zero-g recliner under a large shade tree with a gentle breeze. SPF 30 clothing, sunglasses and Big floppy hat. Just people watching with the dog.

When are grand kid were here for two weeks, They went through a lot of money to "have fun" and we never really saw them; Rides, museum, and other planned activities. When they were around us their faces were glued to a video screen or an electronic game screen. They could not converse with Grandpa and Grandma as that was too difficult. They also had trouble talking to mom and dad.

I used to have fun with my grand father in the shop building, weeding the garden, or just playing card games. We now have just over the air TV at our home. While the TV was on at my grand parents home, it was like listening to a radio and we would do other  activities.

Jan and I went to over the air TV. The new digital channels have lots of old programs. I am currently listening to "Perry Mason" as I am typing this. I have watched "The Rockford File", "Burns and Allen", as well as many other old B&W shows. Today's children can not remove their attention from the TV screen when it is on. Often you have to turn it off just to say something to them.

Yes our definition of fun has changed over the years. While the video games do trigger chemical changes in the brain that we associate as fun, they are also very addictive. Often they are as addictive as strong mood altering drugs. While some see this as fun, I do not.

I used to play cards for fun. I did magic tricks as fun for others and watching them have fun was fun for me. Yes our definitions have changed.

Have they changed for the better?

[Sleepy In Seattle]

Why are the children allowed to play so many video games/watch so much TV/ignore their family? Why do people spend so much money to keep them entertained?

I have a wise friend who summed it up well: "Boredom is a holy space - it's the crappy compost where creativity grows and blooms..."

Kids get bored and they're a pain in the butt. But if we give them screens and money and distractions and then complain about it, is it our fault or theirs? They are just kids - who is in control?

For heaven's sake - my husband WORKS in the video game industry - we are certainly not "anti-video-game", but just like every other form of entertainment, they have their time and place. Out 15YO has probably played a total of maybe 10 hours of video games in her LIFE. We make sure she dances and draws and plays with the dog and reads books. She is sitting beside me right now, her beloved grandparents across the room on the couch, and we're all reading or researching or whatever interests us...she has her sketchbook out and has been drawing for the last hour. Last night we all went to a concert together. Earlier today, we spent time at the barn, shopped for groceries, and made a meal together. It's not that she's not ALLOWED to watch TV, but she's not allowed to watch MUCH...and so she's learned to value other things.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but every generation thinks the next one is going to h#ll in a handbasket, yet we all survive. We all make mistakes, and we all do some good things too. In the 15th Century, people were CONVINCED that civilization was going to crumble because people started reading NOVELS.... (gasp!). Then it was those nasty Shakespeare plays (such low humor...), then public dancing, then women started showing their ANKLES (can you IMAGINE?!). Coffee, the bicycle, the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the radio, silent pictures, jazz, talkies, rock-n-roll, television, and now video games and electronics. At each stage, anybody over 40 sneered and were just SURE things were better when THEY were kids.

But all these "ruined" generations also came up with some pretty good stuff: Sailing ships that could cross oceans. Medicine. Schools. Modern democracy. Science. Astronomy. Engineering. Scads of music and art (even those TV shows like Perry Mason and The Rockford Files). Somebody came up with ways (natural and chemical) to treat autoimmune diseases so we don't all die so soon - and they're workingt o come up with more).

When each new thing came around, some people thought it was crap, and some saw that YES, some of it was - some of everything has ALWAYS been crap - there's never BEEN some Golden Age when Everything was Of Good Quality. It's ALWAYS taken self-discipline, and discipline of our children to develop critical thinking skills and sort out what we do and don't want to be part of our lives.

We do have a lot more options nowadays - THANK GOODNESS. We also have more access to knowledge, and art, and music, and food and travel and education. Women are no longer considered property in most parts of the world, and it's no longer considered okay to hate (or hurt) people because of their skin color or religion. We've still got a long way to go, but it IS getting better. 200 years ago you could OWN somebody - or be owned - because of your race or gender. You were likely to die before you were 45. If you were female, you could be raped and have no recourse under the law. Children were property as well, and were often beaten or worked mercilessly as a matter of course.

Those "good old days" were not so good for many of us.

I'll choose today's complexity and distractions over all that any day.

It's natural to be nostalgic about our own youth....we saw the world through hopeful, youthful, and let's face it - ignorant eyes back then (whenever "back then" was for us). Our kids and grandkids will do the same thing with their own youths... "You kids nowadays have no idea - everything is so convenient and planned out for you. When I was a kid, we had to go to SCHOOL, we couldn't download knowledge - we had to learn it the old-fashioned way! We couldn't instantly transport wherever we wanted to...we didn't have 3-D printers in the house, we had to go to a STORE to get things...why, my parents had to drive their own CAR!..." etc.

We'll all survive, and with some effort we'll even have good lives - maybe even have FUN.