5 Things I Don’t Do Anymore

Some years ago, if you’d told me I’d change my preferences and habits to this extreme, I’d have said you were crazy. But indeed–I have changed my preferences and habits, and I suspect so too have many of you.

There are lots of things we used to do with some frequency that we simply don’t do anymore, or — we now do them far less often. Many of these things were once pillars of our identity. Now, they’re no longer (as) important.

I don’t share this with any sense of pride, nor do I believe I’m better for the omission. In fact, in each of the examples here, I’m losing something by not doing these same things. However, I also can’t force myself to go back to the way life was before.

Feel free to comment and share. Am I alone in my changing habits and preferences?

(1) Going out to the movies — I grew up on movies, and going to movie theaters. Ever since I was a kid, movies always meant something to me. I also loved the shared experience of a live audience, which when we all laughed together at the screen, seemed to make the jokes even funnier than when we were watching alone. Going to a movie theater was an experience. But now, it’s all too much of a hassle. Getting dressed, driving, parking, buying a ticket, sitting in an uncomfortable seat for two hours, and then not knowing if the movie is any good. It’s not like I can change the channel, or turn it off. At a movie, we’re stuck. Why did this change happen? I think enduring the COVID phase and altered lifestyle changed my viewing habits, and many others too. We became more comfortable with other entertainment platforms like Netflix which are much cheaper and far more convenient. I used to go out and see one movie a week (and that was for over 50 years). Since COVID, I’ve seen just one movie inside the theater. Now, I can’t go back to the way it was.

(2) Reading the daily newspaper — As a dedicated news junkie, I never missed reading my hometown paper. The Dallas Morning News and The Dallas Times Herald….then The Washington Post….then The Las Vegas Review-Journal. When I flew all the time, I always bought local newspapers in whatever city I was in for the plane and then read them all the way through. If somehow I missed reading the daily paper, I felt empty. Like I wasn’t getting my news fix. Even when news organizations shifted more to online delivery, I still cherished holding newspaper in my hands. Maybe the habit of riding the Washington Metro and being stuck in tunnels underground for many years commuting to work embedded the comfortable habit of never being bored because I had something to read in my hand. What changed? I moved to Las Vegas, which isn’t a culture that reads or follows current events–and when far-Right winger Sheldon Adelson bought the LV Review-Journal, I cancelled my daily subscription. I suffered withdrawls for a time, but eventually got over it. I stopped reading the daily paper, breaking a lifetime habit.

(3) Never missing CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday nights –– Sunday nights were always the same for me. In the fall, it was NFL football, then 60 Minutes. From 1970 to the modern day, the last few hours of every weekend were spent with Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Dan Rather, Diane Sawyer, and Andy Rooney. It was one of the top-ranked shows on television for decades (imagine that–a news show!). But the TV news magazine gradually diminished in quality and faded in influence, especially in recent years. The newer lightweight reporters don’t seem like they’ve earned their status, and the subjects have often become a bore. There’s little that’s groundbreaking anymore, or particularly newsworthy. It’s a shame the country doesn’t come together to follow one news source at least once a week if for no other reason than to bond with a shared reality, if only temporary. Now, 60 Minutes seems like a dying dinosaur. I’m sad about this. I still tape all the shows, but may watch them only half the time, and then I’m often hitting the FF button.

(4) Buying music — I once had a huge collection of record albums. My spare money was often spent scouring record stores and buying music, new and old. Today, I can’t remember the last album I purchased (in any form, even downloadable). It’s been several years. The explanation here is probably mostly due to age, but advancing technology and free online access also plays a significant role in changing this lifetime habit. Most modern music doesn’t appeal to me, and I can’t name a single song on whatever the Billboard chart is today. Anything I want to listen to is probably posted on YouTube in some form, and with so many subscriber platforms like XM Radio and Pandora (both active in my home and cars), I can’t even fathom buying an album or CD or making a download purchase. I do miss the excitement of buying an album, studying the cover, unwrapping the cellophane, dropping the needle on the turntable, then following along with the liner notes. Those were great experiences. Mental therapy. But that’s now an ancient practice and a time gone by–a distant memory.

(5) Playing poker — I used to hyperventilate on the weekend drive to Atlantic City to play poker. Even when I moved to Las Vegas, the thrill of sitting down at the table in a game was both an adrenaline rush and a comfort zone. It was a sense of belonging–being at the perfect place and time. And when I worked as an executive at the World Series of Poker or was with Poker Night in America TV, I never dreaded going to work and never hated my job (that’s really saying something). I studied the game, knew all the top players, and made a great living from that experience. I also played nearly every day for two years. Then bam! COVID hit in 2020, and — cold turkey — I stopped playing. Even when things went back to “normal,” I could never muster up the enthusiasm as before. Four years have since passed, and except for BARGE (a poker gathering with many friends once a year) I have not played a single hand of poker since then anywhere–and I don’t miss it at all. The thought of sitting in a packed poker room, in uncomfortable chairs, spending hours with mostly boring non-talkative grinders playing poker and struggling to win maybe a few hundred dollars isn’t just unappealing–it’s repulsive. Working in the yard seems more interesting. I just have no interest. Perhaps the love for poker (the game and the players) I once had may return at some point. But it’s all a huge bore to me now.
Now, it’s your turn…….

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