Lack of interest in movies? (people)

[elmejor77]

I've aways been an avid movie enthusiat, when I was young ( I am 41 now) I could watch 3 or 4 in a single day, it was like breathing, just stare at the sreen and let the time flow, super relaxing, ecaping reality for a couple of hours.


But this gradualy began to change a few years ago. I started taking online moocs in all kind of subjects, specially maths and psychology and watching movies began to get boring...and sometimes I wonder if its a normal process some people go through , or could it be some (negative) reaction to so much studyng, like if the brain had suffered a reset and could no longer find please in movies anymore?

[Sassybluesy]

Originally Posted by elmejor77

I've aways been an avid movie enthusiat, when I was young ( I am 41 now) I could watch 3 or 4 in a single day, it was like breathing, just stare at the sreen and let the time flow, super relaxing, ecaping reality for a couple of hours.


But this gradualy began to change a few years ago. I started taking online moocs in all kind of subjects, specially maths and psychology and watching movies began to get boring...and sometimes I wonder if its a normal process some people go through , or could it be some (negative) reaction to so much studyng, like if the brain had suffered a reset and could no longer find please in movies anymore?

It sounds like you're taking classes for the joy of learning. That's a more 'active' mental process than passivly watching a movie.


Seems like you are just at a different point in life now. I don't think one is bad and one is good. I think it's more like "somedays I wear sneakers, other days I wear cowboy boots." And maybe down the road, you'll feel stressed and burned out, and you'll crave a nice movie where you can just shut down and chill out for awhile.

[sas318]

I used to love watching movies too in my 20s. I'd watch every Mission Impossible and Star Trek movie in the theater, along with any action movie that sounded fun. Now, I have no interest in them and don't feel like I'm missing out. You get bored of some hobbies, you gain others. It's normal human behavior as you get older.

[Parnassia]

Instead of watching others take action you are now taking your own.

[chessimprov]

There's too much in life to do. Some people are surprised I haven't seen this movie or remember this or that. Just make choices and try to enjoy and be well rounded enough.

[ShouldIMoveOrStayPut...?]

Originally Posted by Sassybluesy

It sounds like you're taking classes for the joy of learning. That's a more 'active' mental process than passivly watching a movie.

Yes, this of course! It is not only more active, but more interactive. O.P., you have simply "grown out" of movies for a more engaging/intellectual/creative learning experience. And I agree that "they don't make e'm like they used to" when it comes to movies.

Occasionally, I'm sure a good one will come along now and again that will pique your interest, but for the most part, stick with the path you are on...

[john620]

Movies that have come out in the last 5 years tend to suck. I haven’t gone to a movie theatre in 10 years (aside from 2 times) and haven’t rented more than 1 movie a year from iTunes in 5 years. They are just not worth it to spend money. I think in addition to the terrible quality of recent movies is that with the internet and all sorts of games, podcasts, YouTube videos and movies and tv shows available online what cut it 10 years ago doesn’t cut it anymore. With streaming from various platforms like Netflix and Hulu I now fast forward most movies I watch. I rather not waste time on a scene I am not interested in with so much content out there. I can watch a 2 hour movie in 30 minutes. Sometimes I can watch 10 movies a day.
Foreign movies and tv shows require more focus so they are more enjoyable for me. Great tv series in general I now prefer to movies because you basically have 10-200 movies in one tv series and if it was interesting to you then as there is continuity in story lines it should continue to be.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by elmejor77

I....But this gradualy began to change a few years ago. I started taking online moocs in all kind of subjects, specially maths and psychology and watching movies began to get boring...and sometimes I wonder if its a normal process some people go through , or could it be some (negative) reaction to so much studyng, like if the brain had suffered a reset and could no longer find please in movies anymore?

The above is something I can certainly related to, though I would guess that I am probably much older than the OP. I am eighty-one now, and I found that my interest in films began to decline very steeply in the 1970's. I lived in Manhattan, so I certainly did not lack for choices.

I am a voracious reader, and if I become interested in something I usually buy half a dozen books on the subject and read until I am satisfied. (Thank god, it ain't donuts!) I worked in an academic computer center for twenty years starting in the early 70s, so using the internet, the web, etc. has supplemented the reading for many decades.

What I have found myself doing in recent years is buying DVDs of very old or obscure movies (many/most are foreign films), and once or twice a year I pull out one of these. And I find this kind of "quirky" movie watching has provided a great deal of pleasure. My last film was Cré na Cille, an Irish language film, so without a doubt obscure is not an exaggeration. On the other hand, most of the films dovetail very easily into my other interests. I bought an Irish language childrens book, big splashy illustrations and a limited text. It is about a cow and a chicken, Mavis and Marge, hitting the road to get away from boring farm life, and I have been translating a page or two a week with my limited knowledge and heavy leaning on a bilingual dictionary. I find it is actually exciting as the Irish language version of the book has language nuances that are sometimes a major hop from the English version, and each time one of these comes up it is like, "wow!"... hmmmm, and I stop and think for awhile, maybe quite awhile, about how this linguistic twist really tones the story a bit differently from the English version.

But clearly this is considerably different from my "going to the movies" in the Sixties.

[Sassybluesy]

Originally Posted by kevxu

The above is something I can certainly related to, though I would guess that I am probably much older than the OP. I am eighty-one now, and I found that my interest in films began to decline very steeply in the 1970's. I lived in Manhattan, so I certainly did not lack for choices.

I am a voracious reader, and if I become interested in something I usually buy half a dozen books on the subject and read until I am satisfied. (Thank god, it ain't donuts!) I worked in an academic computer center for twenty years starting in the early 70s, so using the internet, the web, etc. has supplemented the reading for many decades.

What I have found myself doing in recent years is buying DVDs of very old or obscure movies (many/most are foreign films), and once or twice a year I pull out one of these. And I find this kind of "quirky" movie watching has provided a great deal of pleasure. My last film was Cré na Cille, an Irish language film, so without a doubt obscure is not an exaggeration. On the other hand, most of the films dovetail very easily into my other interests. I bought an Irish language childrens book, big splashy illustrations and a limited text. It is about a cow and a chicken, Mavis and Marge, hitting the road to get away from boring farm life, and I have been translating a page or two a week with my limited knowledge and heavy leaning on a bilingual dictionary. I find it is actually exciting as the Irish language version of the book has language nuances that are sometimes a major hop from the English version, and each time one of these comes up it is like, "wow!"... hmmmm, and I stop and think for awhile, maybe quite awhile, about how this linguistic twist really tones the story a bit differently from the English version.

But clearly this is considerably different from my "going to the movies" in the Sixties.

This is awesome.

[steiconi]

Most movies seem to be written for 14 year-old males.
It's been that way for a long time--movies weren't really better 15 or 20 years ago.
If you're losing interest, you've probably matured.

There's an Alan Alda movie (Sweet Liberty, 1986) about a book being made into a movie. The director says the characters in a movie need to do three things to make the movie a hit:
-defy authority
-destroy property
-get naked