Honestly, what do you do to have fun while having less and less access to entertainment via aging?

[citizenofdoom]

I watched a lot of movies in the past then I eventually got bored of them. I don't watch movies produced after somewhen around 2004-2005 due to that I don't see it fit my mindset, the world moves too fast and I am stuck in an old mindset.
I don't have fond of games requiring mechanics due to bad health, also have memory deficit and lack of focus currently so I shouldn't play games that are competitive. I did tried league years ago with Yuumi but eventually got bored too.
I got bored of strategy games, and I am not good at it too(like I can't remember workers in civ games )
Was going outside for fresh air months ago until got bored of it, and felt like it would be a really boring summer.
I used to roll a dice to decide when I should have some fun, due to past experience, but currently, some fun I do are just swipe through some news and wait for the fun time ends, like dice is an instrument to keep me productive enough with an unmotivated attitude.
That's just my experience and I'm just 20 years old which should be a period of time where happiness is still out there somewhere.
I generally do not believe this is depression because I have been like that for years and have a continuous flow of happiness backthen.
Is everyone growing to be a work machine that finds happiness in working things or there are ways to get out of this situation?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Play Path of Exile
Plan for future travel (or other events) [create things to look forward to]
Read books
Pull weeds in the yard
Movies and streaming shows

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I watched a lot of movies in the past then I eventually got bored of them. I don't watch movies produced after somewhen around 2004-2005 due to that I don't see it fit my mindset, the world moves too fast and I am stuck in an old mindset.
I don't have fond of games requiring mechanics due to bad health, also have memory deficit and lack of focus currently so I shouldn't play games that are competitive. I did tried league years ago with Yuumi but eventually got bored too.
I got bored of strategy games, and I am not good at it too(like I can't remember workers in civ games )
Was going outside for fresh air months ago until got bored of it, and felt like it would be a really boring summer.
I used to roll a dice to decide when I should have some fun, due to past experience, but currently, some fun I do are just swipe through some news and wait for the fun time ends, like dice is an instrument to keep me productive enough with an unmotivated attitude.
That's just my experience and I'm just 20 years old which should be a period of time where happiness is still out there somewhere.
I generally do not believe this is depression because I have been like that for years and have a continuous flow of happiness backthen.
Is everyone growing to be a work machine that finds happiness in working things or there are ways to get out of this situation?

You're just 20 but all this has been going on for years and years?

What you describe is enough for me to suggest that you consult a medical professional. I know we're not supposed to talk about mental health here, so this is as far as I'll go.

 

[citizenofdoom]

Play Path of Exile

Seems like another try after buying and deleting 3 games from Steam last month.

Read books

I do read books. Last time I tried to read something in my leisure time is 2 years ago with some math books. It was fun until I realize I do not have the ability to understand more complex and abstract concepts stacking on top of each other.
I read literature before and tried some literatures that aren't from my own country too, like an American novel called 1984.
I can't read long novels because of memory problems(forgetting the name of characters).

Plan for future travel (or other events) [create things to look forward to]

I have things to look forward to but it's like I'm trying to pump enough productivity until the requirement is met, like speedrunning through life.
I actually planned to seek a wide variety of problems that I am interested in and force myself to read those in order to find enthusiasm in anything.

You're just 20 but all this has been going on for years and years?

Yeah. In the past, it's so simple. Massive entertainment in, a little productivity out. It's different nowadays while a little entertainment in and proportionally lower productivity out.
I do keep check of my productivity so I know from the graph, that something fishy is going on.
I plan to go to a psychiatric hospital this week but I don't really expect much from them since generation Z's depression is common enough and they would probably told me that I had depression.
Frankly, around 4-5 years ago, I suffered like 5-6x stress compared to the present and that was just fine.
I accept that my mental health is in really bad shape these days since my lack of enthusiasm for things proved that, which is a reason for me to try to fix that as soon as possible by going to hospital.

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Have a nice day.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Seems like another try after buying and deleting 3 games from Steam last month.

It is a free to play. Download cost nothing. It is an ARPG similar to Diablo 2. If you try the game and like it, there are ways to improve QoL by spending $, but none is required. You cannot buy your way to success.

 

[Farm Boy]

I ride bikes. It's also boring and lonely, but at least the view changes and the wind blows away the stink.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Play videogames
Play boardgames
Play TTRPGs
Read books
Watch movies
Go on internet forums and argue with people

I don't have time to be bored. Maybe two thirds of my life is over, the time seems to go faster and faster, and its the only life I've got.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Seems like another try after buying and deleting 3 games from Steam last month.

I do read books. Last time I tried to read something in my leisure time is 2 years ago with some math books. It was fun until I realize I do not have the ability to understand more complex and abstract concepts stacking on top of each other.
I read literature before and tried some literatures that aren't from my own country too, like an American novel called 1984.
I can't read long novels because of memory problems(forgetting the name of characters).

I have things to look forward to but it's like I'm trying to pump enough productivity until the requirement is met, like speedrunning through life.
I actually planned to seek a wide variety of problems that I am interested in and force myself to read those in order to find enthusiasm in anything.

Yeah. In the past, it's so simple. Massive entertainment in, a little productivity out. It's different nowadays while a little entertainment in and proportionally lower productivity out.
I do keep check of my productivity so I know from the graph, that something fishy is going on.
I plan to go to a psychiatric hospital this week but I don't really expect much from them since generation Z's depression is common enough and they would probably told me that I had depression.
Frankly, around 4-5 years ago, I suffered like 5-6x stress compared to the present and that was just fine.
I accept that my mental health is in really bad shape these days since my lack of enthusiasm for things proved that, which is a reason for me to try to fix that as soon as possible by going to hospital.

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Have a nice day.

I wouldn't read 1984 to relax!

If you like to read in general, though, and have any favorite TV shows or movies, there may be fanfiction available for it. Some fanfic is really long (I'm just off to check my latest Harry Potter story, about Hermione being sorted into Slytherin; it passed the 400 chapter milestone a couple of weeks ago).

But there are plenty of stories that are really short, just a page long.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I was feeling like that when I was around 20. At that time it seemed like every other game was a brown first person shooter and every film and TV show was about antiheroes struggling in morally grey worlds with no answers.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hey @citizenofdoom , like Valka said, perhaps you should discuss your mood with a professional. People can be very young (20 is a child, basically) and still show signs of unhedonia etc.
As for the question about what to do about fun, maybe pick up a creative hobby? All sorts of stuff get made online by independent creators. Check (for example) pixel or voxel art on twitter, or drawing, painting, gfx (3d or 2d) etc.

I started making graphics for the Civ games when I was roughly your age, without having any previous experience.

 

[Synobun]

That's just my experience and I'm just 20 years old which should be a period of time where happiness is still out there somewhere.
I generally do not believe this is depression because I have been like that for years and have a continuous flow of happiness backthen.

Just as a general note: depression manifests differently as you age and develop. There is also a progression effect, where extended illness begins to influence you differently.

Anhedonia is typically not a usual sensation. It follows from depression, anxiety, PTSD, autism, and more.

My experience with anhedonia is that you can't force it away. The suggestions to keep trying new activities are... sound, to a point, but eventually the cause has to be addressed somehow.

 

[citizenofdoom]

It is a free to play. Download cost nothing. It is an ARPG similar to Diablo 2. If you try the game and like it, there are ways to improve QoL by spending $, but none is required. You cannot buy your way to success.

$ doesn't matter tho. The amount of time invested into it matters. I would try it next week.
I don't have the ability to improve QoL by spending too much $$, like going to resorts, since I'm still young and have around 40-50 years to accumulate capital to some point that I can do something meaningful, well, for humanity.
Although I hate charity organizations and actions in general due to hierarchical inefficiencies, my long-term aim is to have enough capital to adopt as many children as possible to improve their QoL.

I ride bikes. It's also boring and lonely, but at least the view changes and the wind blows away the stink.

Was nearly hit by a truck while practicing bicycle riding before.

Go on internet forums and argue with people

My interest was something like matters that happen around us. It was something I tried years ago but my nature as something resembles libertarian conservatism but it doesn't look like that. What I think about has a high chance of rejection even by people believing in conservatism. Felt like it isn't an era for me to thrive in.

As for the question about what to do about fun, maybe pick up a creative hobby? All sorts of stuff get made online by independent creators. Check (for example) pixel or voxel art on twitter, or drawing, painting, gfx (3d or 2d) etc.

I started making graphics for the Civ games when I was roughly your age, without having any previous experience.

Seems like a great idea. I tried to write down the story I imagined sometimes before but it's really a dull world to write something that no one is going to read.
I think I try to learn how to draw in the near future.

Anhedonia is typically not a usual sensation. It follows from depression, anxiety, PTSD, autism, and more.

That might very well be the case. I had somewhat extreme PTSD from competitive competition in general.
Generally, in an important competition, it would be like this:
- I came up with some ideas.
- I forgot some details
- Those details end up taking nearly half of my points
It happened so frequently that I realize it was not bad luck but I have some problems with memory and it is expected for me to forget something in competition.
Had I known this earlier, I would have resisted participating in competitions in general.

I might have autism since I don't have the ability to interpret their emotions in real-time by looking at their face, which is also the reason I don't have many friends until I'm 18(literally zero friend or I have forgotten).
I came up with a rather weird solution by turning irl people into tables of numbers and did something like "favor" accounting which worked and it's my current method of gaining friends steadily. But that is really a thing I can't tell to anyone around me, living near me or people irl in general with the risk of being rejected since people would see this practice look like a psychopath while I employ this strategy to ensure no party is harmed.

-

I think I should try to read more things.

 

[NovaKart]

You’re 20 but don’t watch movies made after 2004-2005? That seems unusual since I think you wouldn’t be able to remember that period but you also feel like you’re stuck in that time. It would be like if I didn’t relate to anything made after the early 80s but I’m also too young to remember it.

 

[pob]

This is essentially a "what is the meaning of life" thread. And there is no one fit all answer. For some it can be $$$$ or career, for others family, for others community, it could be charity, it could be religion, it could be creating things, it could be exploring the world, it could be improving yourself.

I have some similar issues to you. I've had severe memory problems for half my life, which means I can't enjoy things that I used to like books and films. It makes making new friends difficult because I don't remember people. My memory basically blanks every 5 days or so.

My way for finding meaning is through working with children. I am broadly unemployable now, but I am able to help run a variety of youth clubs and local children's activities. I find that children react to my memory problems in a different way to adults: when I don't recognize an adult they tend to get offended or don't know how to react; children 99% of the time just take in their stride.

 

[citizenofdoom]

You’re 20 but don’t watch movies made after 2004-2005?

I born in 2002. Those people's mindset really suits mine but I felt like I'm stuck in the futuristic mindset, maybe around three or four centuries until it happens. About those people's mindset, might be a little survivorship bias since I tend to remember adult that is more successful than the less successful by tabular method. And the films in those era, you know, films.
I do watch episodic movies such as animes tho, but it isn't really entertainment, just a mean to kill time.
An hour or more length of modern movies feel so unnatural tbh.
While watching Forrest Gump is enjoyable, seeing the damn world with an over-optimistic len, which then later I eventually adopted that point of view, the over-optimistic worldview, watching parasite movie on the other hand provides a really misleading thing which in my point of view, actually suffering to watch. Although Parasite movie is suffering to watch, it's not that bad compared to the superhero movies, marvel things, which I consider, movies made for 14 years old, having no value at all. But it's popular somehow, my view diverges from the mainstream view much. I watched review of those films tho, mostly to cope with others and understanding what trendy things but eventually dropped that practice due to that I don't recognize any visible difference.

I have some similar issues to you. I've had severe memory problems for half my life, which means I can't enjoy things that I used to like books and films. It makes making new friends difficult because I don't remember people. My memory basically blanks every 5 days or so.

My way for finding meaning is through working with children. I am broadly unemployable now, but I am able to help run a variety of youth clubs and local children's activities. I find that children react to my memory problems in a different way to adults: when I don't recognize an adult they tend to get offended or don't know how to react; children 99% of the time just take in their stride.

You must have lived your life really hard since your problem is worse than mine in every way. An average human has around 10 friends they are close to so I think a diary would help you mitigate your problem a bit. My numerical table is similar to a diary but it's numerical since I have an another problem of understanding relationships.
I don't know how adults are since technically I'm still children. We don't really have youth clubs in here, so I would like hear about your stories in youth clubs and how it looks like in reality.
Imagine help youth clubs by teaching mathematics to them, very awesome, but I don't think that is an activity in youth club.
Anyway write things down, in a short and simplistic manner, kids will be grateful if you still remember them
-----
I gonna go to hospital in Thursday
I expect them to give me medicines that mitigate this problem to improve my productivity.

 

[EnglishEdward]

@ citizenofdoom

I suggest you also look at your diet.

It is easy to run short on vitamins and trace elements, and that can adversely impact memory and concentration.

Hospital ought to take a blood sample. Ask them what they are checking.

Some people for various reasons are particularly susceptible to deficiencies and need top ups.

This often occurs with age, but it can also happen to youngsters too.

 

[amadeus]

I guess at least for me as I get older I find myself just appreciating time for what it is sometimes, not having feeling like I need to do anything. Just a few quiet moments.

 

[Kaushad]

Maybe you need people more than media at this point. Both help to grow one's mindset and the former can lead to the other anyway; I was introduced to a lot of TV programmes that I enjoyed during my 5th flatshare, in 2015, and that hasn't happened to me since. Obviously, socialising effectively is easier said than done, but from what you've said, you've recently made a lot of progress in that area.

I am surprised that this would be an issue to you at 20 years old. Are you not busy preparing for or starting your career? And if that's working out, is your way of life to not going to change in a few years' time anyway?

I wouldn't read 1984 to relax!

If they're talking about George Orwell's 1984, that book's entertainment value is underrated; I think the mistake is treating it as just a political statement. For faster gratification, there is the film starring John Hurt (not be confused with a dreadful earlier adaptation).

 

[citizenofdoom]

what you've said, you've recently made a lot of progress in that area.

Yes. I was very proud of my result after successfully made some friends back then.

. Are you not busy preparing for or starting your career? And if that's working out, is your way of life to not going to change in a few years' time anyway?

I tend not to think about my career comparing to people near my age but I'm making progress towards it little by little.
That's working out in the current environment and I don't expect it to work in the future. Comparing to normal humans' result, it is still very bad, so I will eventually improve it if I learned more advanced things.
I expect my lifestyle will change drastically in around 2 years as it changed by a very large margin 2 years ago. How large the change was verified by my close relatives(not my family since I don't employ that method to family members for the sake of ethics) since she realised and told me that I was like a totally different person.
The inability to process the information real-time is a big negative thing. I literally just being a rock and overcautious to the people I first met. I need to solve it somehow for me to progress as a more competent person. This is my two year target.
Also my way of explaining things, other people have troubles of understanding my explanation and I have trouble understanding others. This is expected to be solved when I make a wider range of friends in order to learn variation.

suggest you also look at your diet.

It is easy to run short on vitamins and trace elements, and that can adversely impact memory and concentration.

Thanks. I checked the diet I ate when I was in dormitory and it seemed like that I am having a Vitamin D deficit which describes those noticeable alarming metrics. I had tendancy to eat a lot of chicken meat, very little vegetables. It seems like I have to add more Vitamin D by using pills, and also have to take blood test in approximately 7 hours later.

 

[Kyriakos]

I born in 2002. Those people's mindset really suits mine but I felt like I'm stuck in the futuristic mindset, maybe around three or four centuries until it happens. About those people's mindset, might be a little survivorship bias since I tend to remember adult that is more successful than the less successful by tabular method. And the films in those era, you know, films.
I do watch episodic movies such as animes tho, but it isn't really entertainment, just a mean to kill time.

Interesting reversal, in that the common variation is for the person to identify with a past during which he wasn't alive.
Now, I don't recall your posting history (and relying on people's laziness is almost always a safe bet), but how exactly are you "stuck in a futuristic mindset"?