The Dead End of Overtainment

When I was a young person growing up in the 70s and 80s there was a rather finite number of entertainment options. There were just a handful of channels on the television, if your roof mounted antenna could even capture them. There was also that “Outward Bound” experience of actually going to a movie theater with some friends, or even yourself, to enjoy a couple hours of immersive viewing. 

But during those times you had to actually make an effort to seek entertainment, make a schedule for it, in stark contrast to how young people live today. 

Entertainment used to be a pitstop for your mind and now it is the entire atmosphere in which your mind exists. And it’s not good.

One might think that this explosion in continuous and seemingly limitless entertainment would bring some form of happiness, enlightenment and contentment. The statistics show the exact opposite. Continual and especially mindless entertainment, often viewed in personal isolation, has landed most people into a state of intellectual coma and sensory hibernation.  

Overtainment is here and whether it’s depression, sadness or loneliness, this digital drug is leaving millions by the wayside. 

There is a reason why the Chinese communist party limits the amount of time that citizens can spend on their very own China-made TikTok.  It is because the scientists and leaders realize that uninterrupted overtainment dumbs down their citizens and distracts the thinking functions of the brain from actually learning, growing and solving problems that would move their society forward.

I don’t think the American prescription is to try and prohibit screen time but to innovative our way to having less entertainment dependency, to flip the compulsion from passive consumption to more active creation.  

In other words, we need to digitally design for more mindful and creative experiences in a community that enhances personal discovery and the understanding, expression of self.

Henry Ford once said, “thinking is the hardest work there is which is the reason so few engage in it.”  By studying behavioral sciences and the creative flow associated with music, we developed the Musist app which is specifically designed to help people rediscover a new and more lasting form of entertainment: themselves.  

By using the magic of music and the expressive engine of rich media, the Musist App unlocks “the inner social” for the discovery, enjoyment and expression of self. 

Musist codifies mindful creativity that helps someone think, and feel, better.

Entertainment is a wonderful thing in American Society. But this growing trend of overtainment is leading us down paths of unintended consequences that we must adjust for, in a more balanced and healthier digital lifestyle for all.

Muse on,

Drew Bartkiewicz, Creator of Musist