Mind Games

Let's say you are stranded on an island by yourself. There is plenty of food around so you're not in danger of starving to death, but there is absolutely no way to communicate with the outside world. How long do you think you can last before boredom or loneliness drives you crazy?

If my livelihood is not in immediate danger, I dare say I can last quite a while before cracking. I have already established I am an introvert, so lack of human contact isn't the main problem. When I was by myself this pasting summer I often stayed home for days on end, only leaving to stock up on food. But then I had the Internet and TV to fully occupy my time. The island will have nothing of this sort. However I think I can live without them, because I will just start thinking. A lot.

You see, when I am lying on the bed or taking the train without my mp3 player, my mind starts thinking about things. The topic can vary from the next blog entry to an unresolved homework problem to pretending I am the powerful hero saving the world from catastrophic events (OK, you can stop laughing now). And it had just occurred to me that I never seem to run out of ideas. They might not represent a breakthrough in physical theory or turn into a profitable product, but they keep me entertained.

Then it strike me that "entertainment" for me always involve thinking. I enjoy playing a game because it makes me think. Watching TV or reading a story might appear to require less (some say no) thinking, but when you read a story, your mind is constantly building a mental picture of the scenario, essentially converting words into a movie of sorts in your mind. TV or movies remove the need for such conversion, but you still need to interpret the scenes and dialogues presented to you, to build up the storyline. Essentially these media give you interesting ideas, a push in the right direction, but the mind still needs to string them up and fill in the gaps to arrive at the final product which we call a story. Of course it doesn't need to be a story. The theory works equally well with textbooks in place of TV and knowledge instead of stories, though some people would find that sleep-inducing.

Therefore isn't it possible for the mind to come up with interesting ideas, without the help of external media, and then process them the same way as it does TV images or text? Doesn't that satisfy the definition of "entertainment"? In other words, entertainment is basically the mind thinking about interesting things. Outside stimulants help inject such ideas but they are not necessary, for the mind already possess the ability to create interesting thoughts. After all, someone has to come up with the story.

I do not wish to neglect the value of films or books, since I am an avid consumer of both media. I just think it wouldn't hurt to put them aside once in a while, and entertain ourselves with our own imagination. Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised.