I was beginning to think that my loss of interest in many things was a sign of depression or a midlife crisis or something. I turn 40 next year, and it’s been on my mind a lot. But, after reading everyone else’s answers to this question, now I’m thinking that perhaps my loss of interest in a lot of things is just a normal part of getting older.

In the last 10–15 years, I’ve lost interest in:

• Video games of all kinds. I can play one for about 10 minutes before I start to think of other, more productive things I could do with my time. The only video game I play on a regular basis now is War Robots on my phone, because a single match takes about 10 minutes.
• Sports fandom. If people ask, I’ll tell them I’m a Bears or Cubs fan, because I live in Chicago and I feel like those are the correct answers. But I haven’t watched more than a few minutes of a game in years now, except once or twice when I got tickets to a Cubs’ game for free, so I got the whole Wrigley Field experience. Even when they won the World Series in 2016, I barely watched more than 20 minutes of each game. Watching any kind of non-interactive screen just seems really boring to me now. I start thinking about other things I could be doing almost immediately.
• Pretty internet women. I use iFunny (I know, it’s lame), and often, when scrolling through memes, I’ll scroll across some Instagram model repost or something like that. Basically soft core porn for teens whose parents think iFunny is a “safe” app. Years ago, those women would have gotten my attention. But now? Meh. I just keep scrolling. Sometimes I feel bad for them. Like they’re trying too hard to get attention. I feel like a lot of them will regret it in the future.
• Discussing politics online. I still like to read about politics. I still like to write about politics. But I rarely engage others in a discussion about politics. It just seems like a pointless waste of time to me. Everyone believes what they believe, and no one is really changing their mind about anything. Commenters have called me out on this here on Quora. I throw my ideas out there to political questions, and people try to debate me in the comments, and I just ignore them. Not that I think they’re right, but rather, I think my time would be better spent doing other things. Let them believe what they believe.

I would say I’ve lost interest in celebrities and pop culture, but the truth is I was never really interested in those things anyway.

All of the time I save by not doing those things I used to do has been replaced by new interests, such as:

• Keeping my house clean and yard maintained. It’s Wednesday, which means laundry and vacuuming this evening. I’m actually looking forward to it. It’s satisfying to me.
• Spending time with my family.
• Staying on top of work-related stuff. I like the satisfaction I get when I’m totally caught up on my grading and planning.
• Walking my dog.

The more I read my lists here, the more I realize just how much like a boring middle-aged man I sound. My 15-year-old self would hate what I’ve become.