When everything is entertainment, nothing is entertainment.
Entertainment is defined as the action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment.
What amuses you?
To Amuse means to provide interesting and enjoyable occupation for (someone).
To interest is to excite the curiosity or attention of (someone).
(This is going somewhere…hang in there)
If entertainment at its core is something that will amuse us by providing some interest that excites our curiosity then whatever this is — it has to be NEW — something we haven’t seen, something that sparks curiosity. This entertainment can’t be common because common is everywhere and it’s not amusing.
There is work to do — in particular with how we entertain each other. The oversharing that happens in the social media world makes everything common which makes what was entertaining… well… common.
Catching up with friends to talk about last week or last month or the latest highlight of each others lives is less amusing because “oh yeah, I saw when you posted that.” or “oh yeah, one of my friends shared that they were eating at that place the other day” and “oh yeah, I saw this artist from (insert city) do something similar”.
If everything we post is entertainment — our food, our trips, our promotion at work, our jokes, our thoughts — then everything gravitates towards being common and less amusing which makes nothing entertaining.
I hope this was entertaining.