[nohankyou]

They may have way too much free time, they just choose to spend it passively watching shows instead of being actively engaged in an activity. Indoors vs outdoors probably doesn't matter as much as how they are choosing to spend their free time in the first place. Are they indoors doing home renovations or art projects? Or simply binging the next new show on the couch?

[Spivak]

This is such a silly take, you're taking a real observation that people need to decompress but moralizing it rather than trying to understand it. While some activities you would call active can fill the need to destress the majority of them are passive. Creative hobbies are serious work until you're good enough at them you can turn your brain off while doing them. I can do it with programming but it's also my career and I've spent my 10,000 hours getting there. So people turn to reading, listening to music, podcasts, taking a bath, watching movies and TV, exercising, video games, or scrolling through their phones.

[kjkjadksj]

The problem isn’t taking time to decompress. Its that there isn’t any time being spent to be active. Most americans are sedentary and its super unhealthy. The fact we’ve established this lifestyle where people sit all day and feel tired from sitting all day and now have to sit all night to relax is terrible for personal health. As an animal we are meant to walk miles and miles foraging for resources and game. If we gave a dog the modern western lifestyle we’d call that animal abuse.

[Spivak]

100% agreed. It's sad that we demonize the symptom of people being constantly burnt out which is the constant need to turn brain off and not the thing burning people out which is our work culture.

It's one of the things I never feel right about complaining about because literally every other aspect of being a "knowledge worker" is great but having to use brain all day means at night I'm physically energized but mentally exhausted which sucks for actually doing anything.

[spencerflem]

^ for sure

even within consumption, a lot of the time i feel spent & dont even want to watch a Good tv show, and intentionally pick something really dumb and pointless.

[drewcoo]

> As an animal we are meant to

Maybe the rejection of notions of design like that are partially to blame.

[nohankyou]

Mindlessly consuming content for hours on end is 'silly'. It's easier than doing something worthwhile, sure. Our society wasted a lot of hours doing idle things yet complains we don't have time to be social or get other things done. People aren't lonely, just too lazy to try. Yet they can watch every episode of Below Deck and feel ok with how they have spent their lives...