Do You Suffer From Ennui?
By: Jerry Roth
Tags: Social Media Marketing, Entertainment Industry, Money Management, Parenting Advice, Economy

Do You Suffer From Ennui?

Gerd Altmann — RockerFellerenterprises.com

Why would a young woman open a carton of Blue Bell Ice Cream out of a Wal-Mart freezer, lick all around the top of it, then put it back? Why would her boyfriend put a video of her doing the licking on the internet? Why would a large but disconcerting number of people enjoy watching her?

Ennui:/änˈwē/ Lack of Attention or Entertainment.

Humans love to be entertained.

Of all the things we spend our money on, entertainment is right up there with Starbucks and cell-phone plans. While we need to eat every day, sleep somewhere every night, wear clothes that allow us to brave the elements and not get arrested, everything else is for our entertainment.

Since man began, he and his woman have enjoyed doing fun things. Exhilarating, scary, sexy, humorous, or intellectually challenging. You might wonder how they did all that without a phone, but they did. And they’ve always been more than willing to give up a large portion of their hard-earned money to do it.

Roman Gladiators, Greek Olympians, chariot races, human races, archery contests, wrestling, and boxing matches. Shakespearian dancers, artists, musicians, actors, court jesters, magicians, and of course, bars and pubs. Alcohol is the single most purchased enhancer of entertainment. Sometimes alcohol is the entertainment. Alcohol is older than Eve’s apple. Movies, music, sports and hobbies, game shows and reality tv, even the news channels, are all popular because they are entertaining.

And it’s not just the main players, actors, and owners that make the big bucks. There are plenty of high-paying jobs for support personnel as well.

Think about a concert or a movie or a football game. Someone is responsible for advertising and someone else sells tickets. Others work the lights and maintain the facilities. In Texas, even high school games have full lighting and sound in the announcer’s booth. They also have production crews and tv cameras, all requiring professionally trained operators who earn professional salaries.

Aside from the government, the entertainment industry is the biggest employer in the world. The hard-earned money that humans are willing to spend is the reason so many entertainers have more money than Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife. Every time we buy a ticket to a show or a sporting event, watch a movie or listen to a song, we’re helping them become rich and famous.

Even retail and manufacturing, also huge employers, are a big part of entertainment — the making and selling of sports equipment, musical instruments, costumes and theater supplies, hobby stuff, and all the paraphernalia necessary to be properly entertained.

Ultimately, we wouldn’t need jobs if we didn’t need to be entertained.

Paradoxically, if we didn’t have entertainment, there would not be enough jobs to go around. Many more people would be unemployed if it weren’t for entertainment jobs.

Economists call the money we use to pay for our entertainment, disposable income, the money that’s left over after we’ve paid our bills. Since we can spend it on whatever we choose, I’m going to call it discretionary rather than disposable to avoid sounding so wasteful.

We search for and apply for jobs that will provide us with the most discretionary income we can find. Our aspirations for advancement aren’t for more money, they’re for more entertainment. Or better entertainment. Entertainment is the reason people who get raises are still broke.

Our discretionary money is what all marketers are scrambling to get. Marketers know we’re going to spend it and they want us to spend it with them. Even their ads for entertainment are entertaining.

Discretionary money should be sacred. We must protect it and decide what will bring us the most fun for our buck.

Humans also crave attention.

Everyone wants to be recognized in some way. Whether they’re trouble-making kids acting out, or high-performers achieving excellence, they’re seeking attention. They enjoy the accolades they get for the good things they accomplish as well as the scoldings they get for misbehaving. A carrot or a stick. Either way, attention is the desired result.

Andy Warhol talked about each of us having our fifteen minutes of fame. Technology has made it possible for practically anyone to become an internet star, to be an entertainer, to get attention. I think some people today are trying too hard. Maybe it’s just me.

YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all facilitate those who have something to share, a way to quickly and cheaply publish a post or a picture or a video. With rare exceptions, there are no controls or obstacles or rules to publish stuff, nothing to separate the good from the bad.

There is an unlimited selection of how-to videos, science experiment videos, comedies, thrilling stunts, stupid stunts, and cute animal videos. These are the good kids seeking accolades. Many go viral because there are plenty of viewers that still like the good stuff.

Humans appreciate talent and skill and will pay to be entertained by someone who has it.

What about the ice cream licker? Does she have talent or skill? If not, why have so many people rushed to watch her?

Because no one would pay to simply watch her buy the ice cream, eat it with a spoon, and dispose of the container in a trash receptacle. She knows she must shock her audience in order to appear entertaining. Like the Simpsons, the Jack Ass movies, Howard Stern, Jerry Springer, anything from Seth Rogen, and all those stupid reality tv shows. Shock has become the new normal, all in the name of art.

Andy Warhol also said, “Art is anything you can get away with.”

Our need for shock shows up in the movies we watch, the video games we play, our tv dramas and sitcoms. We don’t get jolts of dopamine from watching cute and cuddly, or warm and fuzzy. We get a jolt from shock and awe and violence. We want crazy, bloody, insane, incredulous images and stories. No matter how many times or how many ways we watch a bullet enter a human body or a head bashed in, we still get a jolt, an exciting shock.

Because of that, PG is now PG-13. TV-14 is the new PG-13. R is the new TV-14, and TV-MA is the new R.

We may enjoy and even appreciate romance, charity, and good manners, but we aren’t willing to pay much for the experience. Same with sex. No matter how many times we see a man and a woman having hot, raunchy sex, we’re not shocked, we don’t care. Even though Porn is regulated and sometimes illegal, we don’t care, it has no shock value. Unless one of the partners gets stabbed, shot, blown up, bludgeoned or raped, we just don’t care.

We also experience great joy from the misfortunes of people richer than us, or more famous, or just stupider.

Entertainment magazines and media channels are overflowing with stars and starlets, athletes and their Wags, the rich and powerful, getting divorced, having affairs, filing bankruptcy, and other personal disasters. We spend an enormous amount of time and money following them. The Germans call it, Schadenfreude.

We get an unhealthy amount of pleasure from the displeasure of others.

But all that pales when compared to school shootings.

Drive-by shootings, police ambushes, suicides by cop, and all the other outrageous acts perpetrated by people looking for their fifteen minutes of fame and attention. The amount of attention the news media gives them is directly proportionate to our desire to watch.

Our need to be entertained or get attention becomes a problem when too many of the population have too little discretionary money and too much Ennui. When groups of people with no money get together, the entertainment factor is minimal, and the result is usually boredom — Ennui.

Being bored leads to mayhem. Or worse. Much of the rioting and protesting throughout the world is the result of far too many young adults with no jobs, getting bored. Bored people with no jobs and no money tend to be angry. Groups of angry people with nothing to do and nowhere to do it rarely accomplish anything good.

Every parent knows that children who are entertained are easier to take care of.

They also know that children who are bored will start looking for attention and usually end up in trouble. Boredom and entertainment are two sides of the same coin. When kids get older, boredom can become dangerous.

“EMOTIONS respond to spectacle, not data.” Neal deGrasse Tyson, the science guy.

As I said before, our need for entertainment is as old as humanity. What’s changed is the news media. All news shows are owned by profit-making media companies and the way they make that profit is by selling advertising. The more people who watch the news, the more money they can charge for ads. Media sensationalizing is what keeps us tuned in — entertained.

How do they get more people to watch the news? Not with cute and cuddly.

Which brings us back to the ice cream licker.

As I write this, a mother has been arrested for posting a video of her daughter licking all the tongue depressors in the jar at her doctor’s office. Apparently, there are laws against spreading your diseased spit to the rest of the community. By the time you read this, the ice cream licker should also be behind bars.

But why didn’t the mother stop her child? Why did the ice cream licker ignore the laws? The rules of society? Why did they feel they had our permission to post a video of their bad behavior?

The possibility of jail-time does not seem to be enough deterrent.

In ancient times, punishment was doled out in public, in the town square for all to watch. The executioner, the gallows, the guillotine, stoning, and caning, all performed for huge crowds looking to be entertained.

Today, the need for attention and entertainment is evidently greater than the fear of arrest. The answer to the problem lies within that last sentence. Instead of putting kids in jail, can we find constructive ways to entertain them? Can we invent or create ways to allow them to be productive rather than destructive?

Villages have known since the cavemen days that culture starts at the top.

Each generation learns from the ones before them.

Kids learn from both instruction and observation. When the elders act like punks, the kids observe. When the boss acts like an ass, the employees observe. When the government acts like criminals, the citizens observe. When the church misbehaves, the parishioners observe. But most importantly, when bad behavior does not have swift and immediate bad consequences, that is also observed.

It starts at the top. Whether you are the boss, the parent, the teacher, the coach, the preacher, a friend, a sibling, or a neighbor.

Are you being the example we would want our kids to follow?