memes

Enjoying Your Inner Child is Healthy; Living in It is Not.

There's a significant difference between maintaining a healthy connection to the media you loved as a kid and allowing it to completely define your adult worldview.

The Balanced Approach: Keeping "kids' stuff" like video games, animated films, or comics as a hobby is not only acceptable but can be a wonderful source of joy and nostalgia. It’s a part of your life, not your entire identity.

The Unbalanced Approach: The issue arises when this becomes a core part of your identity to the exclusion of all else. An adult who only engages with children's media, and filters complex, real-world issues through a simplistic, fictional lens, risks remaining in a state of arrested development.

I place myself firmly in the first category. I still enjoy playing Super Smash Bros. with friends. However, I know several people in their mid-twenties who exemplify the second. While I care for them, it's challenging to have a serious conversation. Their entire world revolves around Marvel and Disney; it's all they watch, discuss, and breathe. Consequently, they often view the world through a distorted, childish lens, leading them to unrealistic and simplistic conclusions about how life and society work.