In the same month that several social media companies were sued for deliberately making their platforms addictive, a famous novel about entertainment addiction celebrated its thirtieth anniversary: Infinite Jestby David Foster Wallace (1962-2008). The book now seems to be better known for its size (with half a million words, almost ten times thicker than the average novel) than for its content and that is a shame, because if one work is a mirror for the current time, it is this story. Fortunately, a Dutch edition has just been published, Endless entertainmentby master translator Robbert-Jan Henkes.
Infinite Jest is set in a future in which man is not only in constant competition with others, but also with himself. You are only as good as your latest success, it’s every man for himself, and most try to escape that by seeking numbness in entertainment. For many, watching films, programs and series incessantly becomes an attempt to avoid having to think about their own isolation. Anyone who opens the novel in 2026 cannot help but feel a shiver of recognition about the world that Foster Wallace predicted in the 1990s.
When, during the last family weekend, when everyone was glued to their phones again, I felt Infinite Jest I also had to think of that one statement by Molière, that most sick people do not die from their condition, but from their medicines. In the universe of Infinite Jest entertainment is used to escape the existential and spiritual emptiness of the competitive and consumer society, with all its deadly consequences.
They only exist to watch
Look, distraction is of course not a bad thing if it helps you let off some steam. Some forms of recreation can even improve health, such as exercising or dancing, making you laugh or even helping you sharpen your mind (like reading, preferably the newspaper). But as soon as distraction turns into escapism, the medicine becomes yet another disease maker in a society that is not very beneficial anyway.
When I mentioned this to my great-nieces during that same family weekend, they shrugged and turned back to their phones. No one spoke to each other anymore, it was everyone for themselves. Sometimes one of them would chuckle at a K-pop video, but he would do so quietly so as not to disturb the rest.
They don’t want to look at their existence, I thought, they only exist to look.
Foster Wallace would have nodded. And finally added that modern man has come to confuse entertainment with happiness.
