A Retirement Paradox: Why My Retired Friends Judge My Downtime, But Not Their TV
I seem to fit the profile of a typical guy who had the good fortune of retiring in his late fifties. I spend a considerable amount of time doing physical activities: racket sports, cycling, running, hiking. I'm also a keen reader of history, science and financial content. I volunteer my time coaching sports development courses and volunteering at a local church youth group, lots of very fruitful and productive activities to be getting on with.
When you add in working in my large garden, hanging out with my wife and social engagements with friends and family, plus handling the school run and childcare for my grandkids, I really don't get a lot of downtime. I'm also one of those strange individuals who doesn't watch TV with any regularity. But I have, from what I can ascertain, one frowned-upon time-wasting little pleasure I enjoy indulging in.
Video games are that little guilty pleasure. I don't get much time to indulge, but I love a few hours of online killing mayhem playing Call of Duty or a few snatched hours playing Tiger Woods Golf. Nobody I know who's my age ever seems to admit to spending a few hours with a bit of gaming... I seem to be a sample size of one in my social circle.
To be honest, I really don't feel guilty. Why should I? I seem to spend a lot of time listening to my friends discussing the plotlines of the latest Netflix series they devote many happy hours to watching, but if I ever mention my gaming interest, they turn up their nose and suggest I could find better things to do with my limited spare time. What? Watch a miniseries maybe? No thanks.
What strikes me as particularly odd is how arbitrary these judgments seem. Spend six hours binge-watching a Danish crime thriller and you're cultured. Spend two hours playing a strategic video game and you're wasting your life. Both involve sitting in front of a screen, both are forms of escapism. Yet somehow we've collectively decided that passive consumption is respectable while interactive entertainment is frivolous.
Is it a generational thing? Probably. Is it a class thing? Possibly. But mostly I think it's just prejudice dressed up as concern. My friends will happily dissect characters and plot twists from their latest streaming obsession for an entire dinner party, but mention that I've just completed a particularly challenging mission and the conversation dies. The implicit message is clear: your hobby is less valid than mine. But nobody can quite articulate why.
I suspect there are more of us out there than anyone realizes, closet gamers of a certain retirement age, quietly enjoying our hobby while everyone else assumes we're watching Masterpiece Theatre or tending roses. If you're one of them, consider this your invitation to come out of the shadows. We're not harming anyone, we're having fun, and honestly, our hand-eye coordination is probably better than most of our Netflix/Britbox watching peers. Game on.
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