Topic: Is Holding yourself to a higher standard when it comes to things you enjoy a good or bad thing?

This is kinda hard to explain, but I think as we experience more of the things we enjoy, we internaly create our own standards about what's good and what's bad about that kind of thing. For example: as someone watches more movies, their standards for them and which kinds they'll watch will grow and change.

On one hand, this is a good thing because having standards means that you'll be able to avoid garbage media/ products made by greedy executives. And you'll be able to inform others that it's a bad product.

But on the other hand, having too high standards can lead to disappointment and you missing out on things you've overlooked. If a movie fan only watches live-action films because they believe all animated films are garbage and are only made for kids (which is wrong by the way), then they could miss out on dozens of great animated movies.

Age also factors into the standards you form. You get smarter and experience more in your life as you reach adulthood, causing you opinions about things you've enjoyed in the past to change or become even stronger due to understanding more of it.

I think it depends. There’s nothing wrong with having higher standards, particularly with the quality of a product. In terms of media, we have to understand that not every movie, game, television show, or book will be this heralded masterpiece. And we have to accept that. It’s difficult when you experience something that can be life changing, or very clearly a cut above everything else. The first thing that comes to mind is The Last Of Us. It’s my favorite game of all time and it’s revolutionary. It set the bar for quality. However; not every game can do that or even tries to do that. It’s hard to go back down to something of “lesser” quality when getting a taste of something incredible. But at the end of the day, we as a people need to realize that games, movies, television, or what-have-you is entertainment and meant to be enjoyed, and to have fun. I think we lose sight of that fact sometimes.

As long as you’re not trying to enforce your standards on everyone around you, you can go and enjoy the things you enjoy.

I see the title of this thread and I immediately think of gamers who get hung up on graphical fidelity. There are folks who'll skip a game because it wasn't built in UE5 or it isn't running at 60fps in 1440p. I understand that free time is short for some people, but you could be skipping an experience that hits different for you. Like a child who hates onions but somehow discovers french onion soup later in life.