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Comment by FormerBandmate | Hacker News Reader

HN viewing videogames as more sophisticated or intellectual than TV is hilarious ngl. Reverse Boomerism

I wouldn’t call video games more sophisticated or intellectual, but they do require you to use your brain in a way that is not strictly necessary for watching TV.

Likewise, I don't have any illusions about medium fully defining the quality of content: eg reading 50 Shades of Grey isn't more rewarding or meaningful than watching The Wire.

But apples-to-apples, watching video is the only common activity that feels maximally passive.

I guess with the exception of listening to music? Not sure how this fits in

Music consumption itself is passive, but we frequently use it as a backdrop to do other things. Or we dance to it. I would like to think that the curation of playlists or mp3 libraries is considerably more involved than doing so with videos, on account of how limited in scope most songs/tracks are compared to video.

I’m sure if you drew a Venn diagram of “people who post to HN” and “people who dance”, the overlap wouldn’t be that large.

Are you kidding? I bet a ton of us go to raves or undergrounds or festivals, Burning Man has been pretty much taken over by SV tech dweebs, and I meet tons of tech folks in the local scene here, and that scene is just a tiny fraction of the overall picture for this area

If YOU don't, I would highly recommend considering it. Hell I'm pretty sure I got my COVID 19lbs because I couldn't go out and dance at parties when lockdown hit

My going to a rave at 49 years old would be…sad

But I do a run and lift weights regulatly

> Burning Man has been pretty much taken over by SV tech dweebs

Burning Man has been intertwined with tech culture for like...30 years?

This is not true for everyone. It's mostly true for me (although I play Guitar Hero, which makes it quite active). It's not at all true for my girlfriend, who listens to music very actively.

Agreed about background music, but I definitely spend time listening to music and doing nothing else, and the medium feels active to me in a way that television doesn't.

On the other hand, I've been a musician since I was three, so perhaps the way I'm processing music is different from normal. One facet might be that I usually don't find myself focusing much on lyrics (if any), which means it ends up as a semi-meditative activity in a way that TV can't.

I DJ in the local techno underground and produce it as a hobby, music is a very active and deliberate activity for me. That there are so many different ways to engage with it is part of why I don't lump it in the same bucket as TV.

They're also basically impossible to play while eating dinner, unlike watching TV. They're also generally not something you can do with your girlfriend or wife.

> They're also generally not something you can do with your girlfriend or wife.

This is an issue of availability. There need to be more games with a broader appeal. I can certainly see why FPSs are not appealing to the feminine demographic. On the other hand, the Wii was popular with all genders and all ages.

Nothing is funnier than hearing impassioned defenses of e-sports from the same people that are annoyed with the attention paid to 'sportsball'.

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