The biggest problem about all this is that I find myself unable to enjoy things that I SHOULD enjoy, but I don’t, merely because EVERYONE ELSE ENJOYS THEM. I feel this tangible, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I realize “Oh God, I’ve become like EVERYBODY ELSE,” and I don’t want that.

I think, as Christopher says, Ego is an issue, and a set of assumptions about the value of a mass experience versus a more exclusive experience. Marc, you do mention that you can share the things that you do enjoy with a smaller group of friends, but the people in the movie theater enjoying Avengers (or whatever the popular thing might be) are having a shared experience, too. That doesn’t make it a less valuable experience, since there are so many points of similarity and connection between people generally — many of us experience various lifetime milestones, for example — that shared experiences do have value and aren’t necessarily pedestrian.

So it seems like you’re feeling the pull of a sort of elitism but recognize that it isn’t really a healthy thing, perhaps?