e.g. Video games, Movies, TV, Anime, etc…
If you dig too deep into reality, you will discover that effectively 100% of the population is delusional on no less than 2000 subjects. They just have yet to be bitten on the ass for it.
And people take it very poorly when you start pointing it out; just like you and I will when someone else shows up to do the same thing to us. Historically speaking we lock people up for shouting things that have not yet been accepted by enough people. Like the earth is going to be eaten by the sun (true in a few billion years) or the sky is falling (it is more acceptable when you call it rain).
Whilst i think happiness derived from fiction is real, I would refrain from letting it be my only source of happiness.
I could think of a million things in the world that i would like to do if I hade the resources to do them. None of them are fictional. But i can experience a glimpse of them through fiction.
I agree on the first part, I am unsure about the meaning of the second one. Reading a book is for me a great source of happiness, and I wouldn’t completely replace it even given infinite resources.
I mean that there are people who (none named, none forgotten), have a tendency to get lost in fiction and forget about reality. I mean that there is more to gain by deriving happiness from something real.
Can you learn truths from fiction? Can you feel sad at a happy memory? Can you long for a person who wronged you? Can a good point he made by a bad person? Why does the source matter?
I think you’re going to have to provide a generally acceptable definition of “true happiness” - and a definition that isn’t contingent on the points raised in your question.
So we’re just using NoStupidQuestions to insult large swathes of people now, I see.
Get off your high horse by insulting literally the entirety of fiction readers because you believe their happiness to be a “delusion” whatever batshit insane meaning you think that has.
?
I was just enjoying a game, then my conservative parents tell me its wasting time.
Then they proceeded to watch propaganda on social media.
I’m not sure who ruined your day to be making negative inferences about a question, but I guess that’s just the average conservative mindset being negative about everything.
Being happy is never a waste of time.
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I would say there is a case to argue it can be a delusion. I would say you don’t have the authority to determine to what extent someone enjoys or relates to this delusion.
I saw a conversation on another site and I didn’t reply the way I wanted because it would have been insensitive. But that point of view has greater context here. People were talking about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. I don’t know anyone who died from AIDS, or really felt connected to any celebrities who had it. However (especially since you bring up anime in the OP), there is an anime that is generally disliked for a few reasons, some of them valid. Since I am introducing it in this context, I cannot say what the anime is, because the “AIDS angle” is a huge spoiler, and I really don’t do spoilers. But it introduces this character near the end of the second season, and this character is all kinds of awesome and inspirational. You find out that what they’re doing is due to their time being short… due to AIDS. Or, if we’re going off the book those episodes are based on (light novel, not manga), it’s actually AIDS and cancer because, like, eff this character in particular, I guess. I don’t think I have to tell you how this arc ends. I will say if it were its own thing, if it were adapted separately from that anime with all the baggage, it would stand as one of the great drama series out there, it would have a lot more fans and attention on it.
So now we circle back to the OP’s question. If happiness coming from anime (or the other media) is invalid, what about sadness from anime? What if it’s an anime character with purple hair who really makes you care about a real-life social issue that doesn’t affect anyone you know? Does that make it any less real?
It’s not up to me to decide for you. I personally believe those feelings are valid. How you feel, I suppose, depends on factors that matter to you. For example, you might personally know someone who died from AIDS, and you’re like “well screw that fictional character, because that disease claimed millions of lives and I’m more affected.” But I would argue the story brings awareness. I would not argue that such a person is wrong for feeling that way, though.
If you know what anime I’m talking about, I’d ask that you follow my lead on the spoiler thing and not mention it. But I’m no one’s boss here.
Happiness is a release of chemicals to receptors in your brain. If doing something makes you happy, then it makes you happy.
Does using drugs count as true happiness then? Why doesn’t everyone just use drugs to be happy forever?
Well yes, that’s why people do drugs.
Usually doing it forever runs up against other problems like paying for it, holding down a job or health problems
Why else would people use drugs? The problem is that the side effects from drugs tend to increase unhappiness when you’re not on them.
Yes, all happiness is a release of chemicals in our brain. Dopamine from memes, oxytocin from petting a dog or a good hug, tryptophan from a good meal, endorphins from an intense workout, all are not much different from heroine and are addictive, just not as intense and without extreme physical side effects.
drugs only make you feel happy when you first start, eventually you use them to not feel bad
also when you have a heart attack and almost die and are crippled for life: that’s sad
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Why are you not shooting up heroin right now?
You make a good point. I now know what I’m doing today!
Well we hallucinate an experience made from nerve bursts so everything is sort of an illusion for us IMO.
Happiness from media is like strength from lifting - is it real strength of the weight is measured precisely and there is an easy to lift handle? Of course it’s real. How we feel reading and vicariously living through stories gives our brains an emotional workout.
All things test us. Whether mentally, physically, emotionally, we are required to use a bit of our willpower/strength/sanity each day because that’s life. Without working on, building, and honing our ability to manage we would always have a personality defining moment where we found the edge of our ability and collapsed from the pressure.
We also see others in that medium and can learn from what they experience. Again, vicarious living is a free tool our brain uses all the time and media is exactly why.
Being entertained is a workout for being a good person not because it builds the imagination but expands our capacity to be a more developed person.
I think happiness is more generally defined as the absence of things that make you unhappy rather than a tangible thing itself.
Kind of like how cold is defined by the absence of heat.
The issue is, is that people think that happiness is a concrete thing, and so when they are asked if they are happy, they start looking for some like joyous positive, buoyant, radiant, plus in their lives.
And then, when they don’t find it, it makes them wonder if they are not happy.
Happiness is the capacity to be engaged with your life under your own volition.
If you have that, even if you don’t feel the way you think happiness should feel, you are happy.
Happiness is not contentment.
Happiness is not joy.
Happiness is not a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day.
Happiness is being alive and present in your center.
If you feel like you are not happy, that is what you should aim for. All of the other things will work themselves out in the process.
Does fake happiness even exist?
If you are happy you are happy.
It would be different to discuss if it would be long term sustainable.
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Usually people regard using drugs as false happiness. Or like having a parasocial relationship with a famous person.
If our feelings are formed by chemicals and waves in the brain, then what would be false about happiness from those sources? Is it actually false happiness, or is it possibly just happiness derived from stigmatized/alternative sources?
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I think the concept of “false happiness” is given by the ends result of such behavior. Doing fruits gives you a high, but also addiction, so in the long run it’s bad for you. Having a fake relationship does not allow you to develop a real one, thus being a negative over time. True happiness is something that should make you happy in the moment and in the long run.
For this reason, media is true happiness.
I wad happy reading the lord of the rings and I’m happy I read it. The happiness reading produced has kept being a source of additional happiness. I remember Bilbo’s songs, and think about them when I take a walk. I remember small little details, or big plot points, and I’m happy to remember them. Same can be said about films and video games (I am just less passionate about them, but that’s just me)
True happiness is something that should make you happy in the moment and in the long run.
I’m not sure I agree - why is a long term aspect necessarily for something to constitute true happiness?
If I can’t remember something, does that mean it didn’t make me “truly happy”?
If so, that would mean that a child given a toy they play with for years but eventually lose interest in and forget as they grow older, didn’t experience “true happiness” from that toy, which doesn’t seem right to me.
I don’t think permanence or longevity are factors in whether ones happiness is true or not.
Good point!
Other hypotheses: we say “true happiness” when it’s sustainable (for a bit) without obvious negative effects. Thus drugs are stereotypically not sustainable and with negative effects, so they are not true happiness [obviously many would disagree, e.g. Baudelaire] and finding true love is true happiness. Thus, stories are also true happiness.
imo, false happiness is something that takes more than it gives. So drugs is good example, maybe they make you feel good but eventually they stop doing that and start taking from you.
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with mtg cards, they drain your money so that kind of works too. But rescuing animals or learning something doesnt apply here because it doesnt take anything from you (unless you are kind of insane). Or rather they dont cost too much in terms of invaluable resources like your mental or physical health, just your time which you have to give to everything anyway. Stuff like drugs diminish you being able to enjoy other things and drain your health and relationships. Even if you keep those under control, it still takes something from you, just a bit less.
Though anything can become an addiction too, but if positive things become that then you might have other underlying issues rather than those things themselves causing it.
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again this does not apply to what i was saying, loving someone doesnt cost you. Frankly i cant tell how you are interpreting me, so i dont know how to clarify what i mean.
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now i’m even more confused
Humans have always understood our experience through stories and myths. Literally every civilization throughout history has them. It’s the people who refuse to consume any fiction that I don’t understand. Even when a story is entirely fictional, surely there is still meaning in metaphor and juxtaposition and human understanding to be found.
Reading a story that brings happiness is real happiness.
Most often, when I finish a good book, usually one that has altered my world view, or changed some aspect of thinking, is profound, absolutely can even bring joy. The sustained feelings from the thoughts that came from the media are real. If they are happy and joyful thoughts they are real, if they are negative, the emotion is real.
To be delusional in this aspect, you’d have to see the peice of fiction as real life, as in, you may meet the fictional character one day so you are happy at that chance to meet them.
Are you truly happy? Then that’s true happiness, however you got there…
Are you not? Then it’s not, however you got there…
