Having fun as a consumer product

It seems like our life today is a continuous and desperate search for fun. Having fun is our obsession. In this world where frantic productivity is the measure of success and happiness, the cathartic abandon of inhibitions has become a matter of survival as well as, paradoxically, another parameter of success.

The same effort young people exercise in societal competition they put into the attempt of having fun. It is a way to escape from the stressfull and boring reality as well as to prove to themelves and others their completeness of character-they not only work hard but also party hard.

Having fun has become a consumer product. It has to be attained in the quickest but at the same time in the most intense way possible. This is the reason why so many more people everyday assume chemical and illegal substances in order to intensify perception.

Having fun is becoming more and more synonymous with getting drunk. It seems impossible now to dance and enjoy a night out without consuming alcoholic drinks and so the fun you have is directly proportional to your level of drunkness. Buying alcohol is like buying fun.

But, at this point, my question is: is fun ‘buyable’ and, more important, what is ‘having fun’? The concept of fun changes depending on the culture. Based on my personal experience, the english organisational streak emerges even in playful contexts such as a party. 

It seems that having fun loses its intrinsic spontaneity and  laxity and becomes almost a duty to yourself as well as society. You feel almost forced to say that you had ‘so much fun last night!’ in order to be cool.

A party is a very common but at the same time a very hard event to organise because the success of it depends on people’s fun. And actually fun is such a vague and personal  psychological state which varies in accordance to many different factors such as the physical and social contexts.

People, people, people. The world is made of people interacting with eachother and the power of a person, like the power of a country, lies in his/her ability to collaborate and create constructive connections –italian people, unlike english ones, have not metabolised this principle yet.

So, nowadays, people’s idea of having fun reflects the cultural uniformity in such a way that, as previously said, fun has become a consumer product. However, we should consider that, like for happiness and moral strength, enjoyment as well lies in the interaction with people and not in the consumption of a product.