existentialist crisis

[Hero in a half shell]

I'm a Christian, so for me life the meaning of life is glorifying God and enjoying him forever. Nothing like a bit of religious objectivity to put everything in focus.

As for everything else we do:

Meaningless! Meaningless!
says the Teacher.
Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.

3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
?Look! This is something new??
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them."

Or if you prefer not to believe in God then I'll let these two scholars explain it:


So remember, be excellent to each other and PARTY ON DUDES!

 

[Betancore]

Well, while I see nothing wrong with spending an evening staring into my monitor, life is what you make of it.

Existentialism, to me, has a sort of duality to it. I mean, on one hand, you are in charge of your own destiny, but on the other hand, it also means that you're solely responsible for every consequence of every decision that you make in your life - there's no higher authority than yourself.

If that makes life objectively unintelligible and meaningless for you, then all you can do is create meaning for yourself. If you don't find it meaningful to live life through the experiences of others, then go out and find meaning in empirical experience, because at the end of the day, that's all that's real.

 

[Antari]

I too spent alot of years staring at a box. Now I stare at a box attached to another box. I think I may be moving up in the world. Or atleast my consumer level has gone up. Yes technology has some weird influences. Its important to take everything in moderation. Especially hot peppers.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

In this day and age there is no shortage of movies to watch, games to play, books to read, and many other forms of entertainment. Most of the time I'm happily enjoying these, but I realize I'm living vicariously at times. We experience a wide range of emotions, drama, and action through the eyes of the characters. Appropriately called (thus the name of this site) we are escapists.

However, have you ever stopped and thought for a second? I just spent the evening starring at a box.

I think we all have some sort of existentialist crisis at some point in our lives. I once had an existentialist crisis when I came to the conclusion that the universe in general is pointless and absurd. This was quickly remedied when I came to the conclusion that this was a good thing.

 

[Carbonyl]

So what if it's a box? Do you read a book for an evening and think, "Damn, I spent all night looking at dead tree bits?" No, you don't. It's the content that's important, and what you get out of the experience. You can learn about new ideas and facts or gain new perspectives through various forms of media, and simple entertainment is very emotionally healthy. There is a large problem when you overindulge in TV/Movies/Video games, but that's true of anything. Just because people have the ability to use something irresponsibly or to their own detriment, does not inherently make it a bad technology.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

In this day and age there is no shortage of movies to watch, games to play, books to read, and many other forms of entertainment. Most of the time I'm happily enjoying these, but I realize I'm living vicariously at times. We experience a wide range of emotions, drama, and action through the eyes of the characters. Appropriately called (thus the name of this site) we are escapists.

However, have you ever stopped and thought for a second? I just spent the evening starring at a box.

I've had enough of life's experiences forced on me in earlier years to feel quite happy with the amount of control I get out of the experiences from "the boxes".

All ominous allusions aside, it depends on the life you have actually had and how many of those experiences through characters you've had personally. Have I ever saved the world? Only through characters. Have I been abandoned by a friend at some critical battle-like moment? Yes, personally too.

Experience is experience anyway - your brain doesn't make that much of a distinction between what you personally go through and what you go through by proxy. On an intellectual level anyway - happily you're less likely to be scared for life by something your video game persona went through, so there's always a bright side.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Yup, I've had those realizations many, many times before.

That's why I try to get out and experience more 'genuine' emotions. But even that I can find disappointing, because I often find I can't relate to most people. Instead of those experiencing those "profound human moments" that I desire, I just get... awkward, boring conversation.

Oh, the absurdity.

 

[drummond13]

Sometimes. But then I play board games with my friends or go out to dinner with my fiancee.

 

[teisjm]

Sometimes yeah, but then i remember that i had fun doing so, and enjoyed it, so i don't find it a problem at all.
I don't consider life to be anything more fancy than what we make it out to be ourselfs on an individual basis.
People can tell me i'm wasting my time watching/playing stuff on the screen if thats what they wanna do, but really, i couldn't care less.
I'm having fun, and enjoyingmy life, and don't really give a fuck about what someone else thinks about it, unless of course it's gonna have a direct effect on my life, like my boss firing me for playing games at work, or from beeing too tired at work to be of any use, because i was gameing all night. But in the end, even that consideration is not because of his oppinion about games, but because i value my job, and prefer to keep it.
(in reallity, i can play games at work, and my boss has no problems with this whatsoever, as long as i take care of my job as well)

 

[Vault101]

well...whats the alternitive? working away in the feilds?...I supose you couls be doing out dorsy stuff..but still everything moderation

 

[Erana]

I'm an art student. Every day I learn something new, and every day, I spend at least five hours in the studio.
Its great.

But for me, the greatest thing I can be doing with my life is just staring at man-made simulacra for hours and hours on end, so I've come to accept it, with the understanding that it will not keep me from embracing beauty elsewhere when I see it. (Or taste it. OMG, crabcake.)

 

[Gloomsta]

All the time, and sometimes it makes me feel sad.

But, you know, what am I gonna do with my time? Cure cancer? Get a college education? Go see a doctor about these bed sores? bwah ha ha, no, I just need a new box to stare at.

You dont need to do great things. You just need a real challenge that is great to you personally. But is a real one. That doesnt mean beating the hardest boss in a video game, but maybe climbing a massive mountain or helping out people. REAL REAL things.

I have thought of that. Sometimes I think about how drastically the world has changed from the time of my youth. Technologies meant to free us have only served to enslave. I can't even fathom the amount of times I felt completely lost in this modern world by leaving my smart phone at home...

My most recent existential crisis lead to the deletion of my facebook.

I thought that as a culture, we're simultaneously becoming closer while isolating further.

With the endless stream of information readily available at our fingertips, there's no reason to have genuine human interactions anymore. I mean hell, you can always look up what your best friends have done in the last week by checking their facebook. At the rate I was going, when I would see my friends, I already knew everything new in their life, which made our time together all the more awkward.

That kind of worries me...

Only you let your technology enslave you.

There is still reason to for human interraction. We naturally require it, its part of happiness to communicate with humans on diffrent levels, life is lesss meaningful when there are no people around.

Experience is experience anyway - your brain doesn't make that much of a distinction between what you personally go through and what you go through by proxy.

Are you telling that reading about sex in a book, is the same as having it for real?

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Experience is experience anyway - your brain doesn't make that much of a distinction between what you personally go through and what you go through by proxy.

Are you telling that reading about sex in a book, is the same as having it for real?

No. I'm not.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Yes, a great number of times. Often just to make sense out of it or to clearify my understanding of it. Though they aren't Existential Crisis's as much as Existential Thinking.

 

[Zen Toombs]

However, have you ever stopped and thought for a second? I just spent the evening starring at a box.

No i didn't just stare at a box. I stared at the most important technological advancement of my era. I stared at the seemingly simple display which is actually reflecting an extremely complicated series of equations which are ultimately managing the flow and strength of electrical impulsives across a circuit board to produce the visual stimuli in front of me. As a result I have the information of the world at my fingertips, I have the sights and sounds thought unimaginable brought to my senses. I simultaneously a God descending from the heavens with an infinite array of knowledge, skills and expertise and a sentient being sitting at a desk. From this little 'box' I have absolute freedom and absolute power, I know all and see all, I am the alpha and the omega and I am blessed to live in an age where this unprecedented power is widely available. I did not just stare at a box. I learn't more, experienced more the those in generations past dared imagined and interacted with people across the world in the blink of an eye.

I like this guy, he talks sense.

 

[Togs]

However, have you ever stopped and thought for a second? I just spent the evening starring at a box.

No i didn't just stare at a box. I stared at the most important technological advancement of my era. I stared at the seemingly simple display which is actually reflecting an extremely complicated series of equations which are ultimately managing the flow and strength of electrical impulsives across a circuit board to produce the visual stimuli in front of me. As a result I have the information of the world at my fingertips, I have the sights and sounds thought unimaginable brought to my senses. I simultaneously a God descending from the heavens with an infinite array of knowledge, skills and expertise and a sentient being sitting at a desk. From this little 'box' I have absolute freedom and absolute power, I know all and see all, I am the alpha and the omega and I am blessed to live in an age where this unprecedented power is widely available. I did not just stare at a box. I learn't more, experienced more the those in generations past dared imagined and interacted with people across the world in the blink of an eye.

But none of its real, its second hand watered down seen through a safe and neutered filter.
There's no denying that TV, internet and its ilk are technological marvels, but that doesnt necessarily mean its a good thing- its still only vicarious, a proxy a pale imitation of the real thing.
A prison of pleasure, if you'll forgive the melodrama.