comment: >
  
  Consuming media and hanging with people fulfill two different needs. Depending on how one engages with media there is genuine value to be had in it. At the risk of sounding cliche and cringe, one of the best movies I saw last year is something I don't think I could've gotten from hanging with my friends. It was a movie about an immigrant mother who did everything wrong with her family and I just saw so much of my family reflected in that story. I'll never get the happy ending the movie has but it was so cathartic and therapeutic seeing that story made. Comfort from my friends just doesn't hit the same way. 
  Granted, that is a very over the top example. In general, media consumption is a form of entertainment and it can exercise critical thinking skills that hanging with friends or pursuing hobbies does not. It can also serve as an avenue to make friends because fandoms are huge social circles that allow people to bond over common interests.
context: /u/pariah1165 (OP) has awarded 3 delta(s) in this post.
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  Reading fiction is positively associated with increased empathy.
  Fiction helps us understand what it’s like to be someone besides ourselves. You sit down and read a book and your spending a few hours actively imagining what it’s like to be someone else — it’s a workout routine for empathy (as well as your imagination.)
  Movies and TV are enjoyed much more passively and so those benefits are watered down, but are still there.
  I can’t say if at any given moment you would be better off reading fiction than going out in the world and doing whatever. But people should definitely make time in their lives for reading fiction. It makes better people out of us. >
  
  Δ   
  "A workout routine for empathy." I really like that!   
  As others have pointed out, I was being pretty all-or-nothing here, and of course going out and talking to people is good for building empathy too. But I really like the idea that reading fiction is like little bite-size versions of that. >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/pluralofjackinthebox (100∆).
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  When you read something, you are exploring the mind of someone else and their creation. Not everyone is extroverted, adventure seeking and society exist because of that. 
  If you feel you are wasting time watching shows and you are introverted, why not start small and take a class once a week or play a social sport and ease into it. See if you enjoy it, add something else, go a random trip somewhere close. Build from there >
  
  Fiction is an escape from the very life you describe as boring and sedentary. For many avid readers, Fiction is a way to escape from life's issues. It also broadens a person's imaginative and thinking brain muscles, providing them with different perspectives that they have never seen do to its fantastical nature. While all the reasons I listed could also be used to describe  the type of physical adventure you suggest, not everyone has the time or financial privilege to be able to go out on lavish outings to see what the world has to offer. So, many people live out their long adventure fantasies at home in the length of the few limited hours they have by reading and watching shows, making fiction a much more time efficient and worthwhile option for people.