During the pandemic, hearing about the shows and movies people watch and reflecting on the same that I consume, I always think about not just the quantity but the <i>density</i> of entertainment these days.<p>We've been in the "golden age" of prestige TV for years now, right? So people end up following serialized storylines, binging from time to time. Even 9-12 episodes a season piles up. People are (were) following shows like <i>Game of Thrones</i> with casts of dozens of characters. The MCU is just this massive twine ball of franchises and storylines. Multiverses and crossovers are en vogue.<p>On top of that, you have the stories and characters on social media. Someone might be on Facebook seeing what their grandkids are up to. Others are on TikTok hearting their choice content creators, curating the algorithm for more like them. Following their favorite streamers on YouTube, or Twitch. Even text-based media on Twitter is an endless source of in-jokes from in-groups, memes, different codes of conduct, different ways to get dunked upon.<p>You can choose to avoid all that, right? But you still engage upon it somehow. You lurk on HN for long enough, you see familiar accounts, with the high karmas and early creation dates. Long thoughtful comments and high community clout. You've entered into another social network without expecting to, another cast of characters, another stage full of drama and conflict.<p>It's all very removed from the real world- and yet, another thought from the pandemic quarantine- is that not what we're doing so? We work so we can play. We play so we can experience emotions safely, at a distant, from the real physical dangers of the world. Every form of art is a simulation. So then we don't have to bleed on a battlefield, get bitten by a lion, grind away in real toil. So, what-?<p>I guess we should be looking for existence beyond entertainment, whether it's an active or a passive form of amusing ourselves. The past couple of years have been a unique time that's stripped out so much of the outside world and its complications, and allowed for longer stints of entertainment. Optimized for it, you could said.