Pointlessness.

Have you ever had a day where all you did was activities considered as "fun" like playing videogames, watching movies or scrolling through social media and all that you felt at the end of It was a sense of emptiness and that you just wasted your weekend? Well, you're not alone as I can count myself as someone that was a participant of It in the past. Well, you might ask yourself: Why I don't feel entertained anymore about what I do? and that might require a layered response, though part of It has to do with the fact that the guilt that your brain feels by not doing anything productive is higher than the enjoyment that those practices might bring you. That's why in this article I will explain a little better why this lack of enthusiasm with regards to what we do invades us more now than ever and what can we do about It. Let's begin:

Why do I feel this way?

Have you ever heard of the term dopamine? I know you do, as It is as of now a common word that people use more and more in their vocabulary. Well, this neurotransmitter, better known as the "pleasure hormone" is the main responsible for our reward center, the one that gives us a sense of immense satisfaction when we accomplish something we've been working on, along with having other functions such as helping in memory and attention.

What does dopamine have to do with what I'm feeling right now? Well, a lot. As we adopted a quicker pace with regards to our internet consumption, we began to have to put our attention at different places at abrupt and short periods of time, such as checking our instagram feeds or playing many videogames at once, disrupting in this way our focus and decreasing our capacity to concentrate over long periods of time. Accompanied by this is the fact that by looking at sources of artificial pleasure that require no effort (As naturally getting them would require to), what we call instant gratification, our reward center spirals out of control and our motivations just get deviated to wanting to keep watching at our screens for no reason, getting to the point of addiction.

Now we know why we feel empty inside when we're just indulging in low level pleasure, though what can we do about It? Well, in the next paragraph I present my perspective regarding It.

Anything that hurts or makes you feel uncertain helps.

What did people in the past did with their free time? Well, a lot of things, such as reading, talking with friends, practicing a hobby in particular or even doing sports, and the most important of all, enjoying themselves, the key component of truly having fun and feeling engaged. If you ask yourself why they were happier than you doing what they did is because of what they were focused on, usually requiring for them to be concentrated in order to get a payoff that was really tangible and benefitial for their development in opposition to just looking at a crystal screen. That's why I encourage you to pursue passion projects such as writing, music, painting, exercise, dancing or even reading when you're not working so you can feel what true satisfaction is again, making the most out of your time and getting out of miserable ruts.

I hope that this article could have made you seen the importance of doing what really makes you feel entertained, all so you can improve while you engage in things that get you in a happier mood, making not only your own life better but also those of your loved ones as they see you having so much fun. Thank you for your support and good luck!