The desire to talk about more meaningful things that matter more, is not too present. That's too "heavy". That's too negative. Those topics bring people "down", making them "feel-bad" about the condition of the world.
Which is why humor is such a powerful vehicle - as a segue into subjects lots of people prefer to avoid, for the reasons you say.
Rather than seek to escape the boredom because we lack a truer, higher and realer purpose in our lives to spend our time, energy and attention on,
Is this purely from decadence, and technological advances, I wonder?
Real purpose on the biological level is food, shelter, sex. That's it.
So all the computer games in the world with as much realism as actually being there is not actually being there,(and we know this in our brains) because our basic needs have already been met.
For purpose to be real it has to have meaning, relevance. And for that to happen, does it not have to be linked (closely) to meeting the basic needs of the biological unit?
That sounded much more depressing and nihilistic than I meant it to! lol
No, purpose and meaning doesn't have to be linked to the basic needs of food, shelter, sex... lol. Those are lower basic goals for survival, not evolution in consciousness ;)
lol - no, I realize it doesn't have to be related.
?????
My point was that the further away from these basics you go, the more abstract it becomes (evolution in consciousness?)
So to make these purposes as real as possible, requires a self induced 'fooling of oneself', to 'make it' as real as possible.
But it never will be - it never can be.
Food shelter sex is the reality, the rest is degrees of a self convincing argument forcing other purposes to take the mantle of 'just as real'.
....you see what I mean?
Still don't mean to be nihilistic....
One might argue simply based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs that even a caveman would find better things to do if his needs for food, shelter, and sex were indubitably covered for life.
Maslow aside, learning could be argued to be the best way to ensure your own continued existence (unless you already decided your 'soul' is immortal). I'm not just talking about 'becoming immortal'; whether you lived centuries ago and learning about herbs or a snake could save your life, or you live in the present with the dangers of wasting away due to a lack of knowledge about the importance of diet, exercise, stress management, etc. Thus, to anyone who doesn't flinch away from the truth or escape thought altogether, our survival needs really aren't covered as well as they could be.