How much does quality of life depend on recreation and amusement?
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“Last but not least, access to the finest products of the human mind has been fabulously broadened and democratized. It’s hard for us to reconstruct the gnawing boredom of the isolated rural households of yesteryear.31 In the late 19th century there was not only no Internet but no radio, television, movies, or musical recordings, and for the majority of households not even a book or newspaper. For entertainment, men would go to the saloon to drink.32 The writer and editor William Dean Howells (1837–1920) entertained himself as a boy by rereading the pages of an old newspaper which his father had used to wallpaper their Ohio cabin.” (Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now)
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More sex too, presumably. Not clear that this is a worse world, may have been more peaceful in its own way. Brings up an interesting debate about quality of life being measured by recreation or amusement. How much does quality of life depend on recreation and amusement? How do we assess the quality of life for older societies?