Balance.

I  have just had a Eureka moment.  It's probably been kind of obvious to most people for some time but I have just clicked.    I was reading an article that was discussing people's hobbies, past-times etc and I noticed that people who have a lot of stress, hardship, misery and so on in their lives are  more drawn to lighter entertainment sources.  Whereas those who have hardly any stress, hardship etc are more drawn to darker entertainment.

Let me elaborate a little here.  I have had so much stress and hardship in my life that when I want to chill out I tend to choose a lighter kind of genre, such as romatic novels and films, or fantasy programmes that are quite light, definitely not darker stuff.  For instance, I love shows on TV such as Lost Girl, Haven, Charmed, Dr. Who,  Merlin, Legend Of The Seeker, Vampire Diaries, True Blood.  Films such as Practical Magic, The Star Wars films, The Lord of The Rings trilogy, Sweet Home Alabama, Clash Of The Titans.  The types of book I read does vary, anything from Mills and Boon, to fantasy novels; chick lit to classical stuff.    Everything about my entertainment is aimed at lightening my mood, cheering me up.  That isn't to say that people who love blood and guts and gore aren't seeking the same kind of release, they just prefer a different genre to seek the same escapism.

Now, how do I conclude that people like me - stressed out due to illness, problems in life, and so on prefer lighter entertainment to those who seem to have tickety boo kinds of lives?  Well, there are these things called Facebook and twitter and forums, and chat, and email, and text messages and real life conversation and interaction.  And it is through all of these mediums that I have noticed that the stressed out folk are more likely to seek out lighter entertainment and those who have better lives seek darker.

Of course there are always exceptions to these rules, it isn't set in concrete.  This does seem to be the general consensus among people I know in these different areas, and of course it seems to be like this when I read about it with people I don't know.  This got me thinking that it must be a balance thing.  And yes, it does seem kind of obvious when you lay it all out, just took me a while to notice.