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.network
    MEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    I think that one thing shared across everything fun is challenge.

    This doesn’t explain sportball fans. Every sportball fan I see exhibits all the signs of having fun while the Big Game (or even littler games) is playing on the screen, yet there’s no challenge for them whatsoever.

    I find stupid music videos fun to watch, but there’s again no challenge. (I’d say the same for the terrible movies I watch, but there is a challenge there: surviving with your sanity intact. 😉)

    • jadero@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I guess I distinguish between “entertainment” and “fun”. I, too, am entertained by things, and being entertained is an important part of enjoying life.

      As for the “sports ball” fans, the ones I know seem to know the rules, the players, player stats, team stats, the pros and cons of various plays under different circumstances, etc. As much I don’t get it, I would hardly call something passive when time is put in doing what I can only call study. There are probably a higher percentage of “critic-level” sports fans than "critic-level"movie fans. How many people can name 5 directors, 1 editor, 1 cinematographer, and 1 costumer? Contrast that to the wealth of knowledge of the average sports fan.

        • jadero@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          You could be right. I have no access to any formal study of sports fans, so I have no idea what “average” might be. As with most casual “analysis,” I’m limited by my personal experience and am projecting from that. It’s not scientifically appropriate, but if I always limit myself to the scientifically appropriate, I have no opportunity to learn from those who know better.

          A much better phrasing would be “here is what I’ve learned from the sports fans I interact with…”

      • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦@ttrpg.network
        MEnglish
        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.