A bit of a lighter topic today: What is fun?

This seems like a simple question that would be tempting to hand-wave away as a “Well you know…” but the more I think about it the less cut and dry it seems.

Some prompts to get you thinking

  • What are the merits and purposes of fun?

  • What makes something fun? Though different people find different things fun, is there a common thread that makes those things fun?

  • Is it easier for some kinds of people to have fun than others? What kinds of situations lend themselves to fun experiences, which make them difficult?

  • Are there ways for people who have forgotten how to have fun to “get back in touch with fun?”

  • Do you think you have enough fun? Too much?

  • How much fun is the right, or a good amount?

  • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦@ttrpg.networkMEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I guess I distinguish between “entertainment” and “fun”.

    I’m not sure that “fun is defined as those things I consider to be fun” is a useful definition. It’s a little bit egocentric, don’t you think?

    The people being “entertained” are exhibiting all the same signs and symptoms as those having “fun” by your bifurcation above. I think, barring some objective way of distinguishing between the two conditions, it’s reasonable to assume they’re the same state.

    • jadero@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Well, I answered the questions to the best of my ability, enjoyed thinking things through enough to feel comfortable contributing, enjoyed seeing what others had to say, and feel good that I have both more awareness of the characteristics of those things I find most enjoyable and what other people think.

      I deliberately left out the words “entertainment” and “fun” in that paragraph, but let me return to them now.

      I don’t know enough to either agree or disagree with your contention that my separation of entertainment and fun is generally unproductive. You write of objective measures, but I don’t know if you’ve considered whether those measures might be improved. Maybe there are better terms than mine to distinguish between active enjoyment (what I call fun) and passive enjoyment (what I call entertainment). And maybe there is truly no difference in outcome.

      That doesn’t change the fact that I at least think I get more enjoyment out of active engagement, even if the activity is as slight as trying to understand the specific reasons a particular movie was watched through to the end while another was turned off after 10 minutes.

      I hypothesize that a complete set of measurements that captures magnitude, not just a binary state, would be able to distinguish between the passive enjoyment I get from funny animal videos, the somewhat more active enjoyment I get from analyzing a movie, and the much more active enjoyment I get from building a boat or writing a new story or writing a new program. But that is a mere suspicion and actual research would be necessary to determine the validity of that hypothesis.