How can I begin to appreciate TV and movies again?

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For years, I have lost my appreciation for TV shows and movies, especially fictional, and it got sucked up by my internet time. The internet takes up almost all of my leisurely activities. How can I begin to appreciate TV shows, movies and books again?

I know how you feel, I worry a lot about how spending all my time on the computer has made all my other special interests a lot less interesting. Sometimes I'll leave the computer and see what's on TV. What I usually see is so bad and stupid that I return to my computer after a minute or so. I hate the fact that I hardly ever get really into my special interests like I used to and it makes me very frustrated and even anxious. Some people think it's good that I'm not obsessing over them but I don't think it is at all and there seems to be no way to rekindle my enjoyment of them.

That is easy! Watch films and TV shows online. Read books online.

I have not watched television for over 5 years but every now and then I watch a TV show, or a film on youtube, or some other website. It allows me to be more selective in what I see, and I don't have to put up with the exaggerated vividness of TV presenters and adverts.

Why would you want to?
Media culture is false culture, enjoy the real world.

Even my mom once told me I need to enjoy TV more.
I got sucked too much into the internet world.

Documentaries about stuff you're interested in is a good way to ease back into it. There are lots of full documentaries available to watch on YouTube.

Revisit an interest from your childhood. It helps if is a broad subject that you can appreciate from a new perspective now that you're older.

I speak from personal experience. I too got burned out on all of my media-based special interests and felt like there was nothing left to explore. I went without a special interest for two years and had lost all hope that I would ever find another one. Then, throughout the past month or so, I have gradually gotten sucked back into a childhood favorite.

In my case, it was Pokemon; and what rekindled my interest was focusing on a different aspect of it that I had completely overlooked before. When I was a little kid, it was all about the cool monsters and awesome battles. Now that I'm an adult, it's all about the scrumptious variety of hot older male characters and the "shipping" aspect (pairing characters up romantically).

I always watch TV and surf the Internet at the same time--couldn't really pay attention to just one or the other.

Speaking from personal experience, think of it like a pendulum. Once upon a time (way back during my college and university days), I too got caught up in the internet, desperately trying to keep up with others to understand jokes, memes, trends, etc, (bearing in Internet 2.0 as people are familiar with today was in its infancy; I remember the time before Twitter and Youtube existed) until one day I just had enough. I couldn't keep up anymore and I couldn't pretend; I was just living a lie to fit in. So I took a step back and questioned, what really interests me, personally?

The answers came to me over time, sometimes by design, sometimes by accident. So I say, investigate, research, listen to what the inner workings of your mind desire for stimulation, entertainment wise or intellectually speaking or even both.

And don't worry if the rhetoric you subconsciously believe in doesn't always necessarily mesh with everyone else's.

Fanshipping exempted (which is something I personally have no real understanding of at all, I'm sorry), I agree with IdahoRose's paragraph... even something from your childhood could provide some inspiration.

Research and see what works for you. Worked for me and King of the Hill for example -- I disliked the show a lot when I was younger, because 'Deep South' culture (as I call it, so Texas, Alabama, Louisiana etc) didn't translate very well with me at that time (bad experiences with a family friend who came from Kentucky, so that discoloured my world perception at a mere 12-years-old). But now as an adult (and wiser to the world, so I'm not as unforgivably prejudiced or lamentably ignorant), I can appreciate the humour and soft satire and I'm quite a fan.

So, expand your mind and experiment. Try anything and everything, media and/or literature-wise and see what happens - you'll be surprised at the results hopefully. And if what you find just happens to à la mode, good for you. And if it's not, then at least you can personally appreciate it on your own merits.

Good luck!