What mainstream culture tells us about fun

According to mainstream culture, fun is: frivolous, dangerous, childish, and dispensable. If you’re having fun, you have “too much time on your hands” or “more money than you know what to do with”. You’re unserious. Why would a reasonable adult prioritze fun if it’s viewed this way by others? It’s BAD! NAUGHTY! IRRESPONSIBLE!

I disagree, and the data support my position.

What the sciences tell us about fun

Everyone’s heard of the classic rat studies (e.g., James Olds, Charles Schuster, 1950s–70s), where rats were kept in isolated, deprived conditions and given a lever to self-administer hard drugs. Many of them pressed it compulsively, sometimes to the point of neglecting food and sleep. Don’t look it up, it’s horrible.

Fewer people know about later work like Bruce K. Alexander’s “Rat Park,” where rats lived in a rich, social environment with friends, toys, and FUN. Given access to drugs, they used far less and often preferred non-drug options.

Fun is not just nice to have. It’s protective:

• Work by Stuart Brown argues that play is a basic biological need.
• Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden-and-build” theory states that positive emotions literally expand your thinking and attention, helping you build social bonds, skills, and coping resources.
• Clinical psychology studies show that scheduling enjoyable activities can lift mood before motivation returns (depression). Fun is the cure itself, not the reward after the cure is complete.
• The Harvard Study of Adult Development consistenly find that fun is HEALTHY AS FUCK!!

LOOK IT UP IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME!!!! Use CORE to find articles.

How Easy>Hard sees fun

Here at the Easy>Hard headquarters, we believe that:

• Fun should be prioritized very highly in life
• Fun can be incorporated into almost any task or activity
• We should be producing fun and not sucking fun
• Negative emotions can also be fun (we reject toxic positivity)
• You don’t, necessarily, need money or things to have fun
• Merely thinking about fun is fun
• Fun is attractive
• Fun is healthy
• Fun is easy
• Fun is IMPORTANT!