being poor is so mind numbingly boring. you can’t afford hobbies, leisure activities, games, books, music, transportation for going to places, some people can’t afford internet or a phone. entertainment is seen as a complete and total luxury, but what people don’t realize is that people need to be entertained.
there is nothing left to do for fun that’s completely free. parks are tiny and meant for dogs, mostly, they’re unsanitary as hell because there’s mostly just dog waste everywhere. getting to the park costs money. kids and adults alike cannot just go “play outside”. adults aren’t even allowed to “play,” we gawk at adults who stop to play with bugs or look at small animals. adults aren’t allowed to play pretend it’s seen as weird. kids don’t have anywhere to go- they’re considered “loitering” or an annoyance if they hang around anywhere for too long. not everyone can go to bars.
it is necessary for our mental health to have things to keep ourselves entertained with. people often get caught up on a poor person having one nice thing for themselves, but after a while, that 1 nice thing gets boring, too. people need variety. we need stimulation. we need input. we need to experience the world, too
i was told by my own therapist and case worker that people need entertainment and happiness to survive. humans are not wired to suffer 24/7, no one has to earn entertainment. if you think i’m pulling things out of my ass, i’m not. multiple mental health professionals in my own life have confirmed that people need to have fun or their health will suffer. mental health is connected to physical health. you know nothing if you think this is factually inaccurate.
poor people shouldn’t be relegated to boredom and never experiencing life and what the world has to afford. the entirety of entertainment should not be paywalled. people should not have to pay entry for every single event in their area, or try to find free events and struggle to pay for the transportation. it’s not good for your mental health.