Desensitized?

The recent posts about the future of the forum and how to get folks more involved have prompted me to bring up something that has affected the frequency of my participation; namely that I feel desensitized toward much of the photography I'm viewing.
Many of us, if we actively work at it, develop our photographic skills and reach some level of competency but, along the way we've probably viewed tens of thousand of images, often of the same or similar subjects. For me at least, I often feel like I'm watching the same TV rerun over and over. No matter how hard I try otherwise, I find myself uninterested when someone asks for a critique of a scene that has been repeatedly photographed, or a style that is overused. At the same time, I'm well aware that new folks want to imitate work that they like, and that's part of the learning process. I think most of us went that route.
Does anyone else feel this way? Is this perhaps why folks fall off the forum bandwagon? More importantly, how does one remedy this, or avoid feeling this way to begin with? How do we keep up our passion for something that we're repeatedly exposed to?

I've started feeling that way myself, I love nature and everything that comes with it but get burned out myself on rocks, trees, and water. So I've done a 180 so to speak and started shooting cityscapes at night. There's plenty of subject matter to shoot and locations to scout. Has it helped? It's to soon to tell wheather it's helped or not, but I'm having a good time with it. Another practice that I have done in the past is to shoot where and what others don't. I love to shoot in the Hayman burn area for a couple of reasons. Most people don't see it as a very photogenic place so there's not much of a crowd, and you can usually come away with something different then most due to the subject matter. I would suggest try something out of the norm for you and see if it helps.

Have you checked out the new Road Kill Forum?

Michael, I too have branched out. I'm on a light painting kick these days, and while it's certainly helped reinvigorate my creative juices, it's not doing much to help me overcome my feelings of disinterest over seeing the same stuff over and over. My comment wasn't directed specifically at NPN, but the whole online world in general. We're flooded with images and my brain is just revolting I guess. Maybe I need to follow Cole Thompson's path of photographic celibacy.
And Jim, while I like the idea of the Road Kill forum, I think it would work better as a gallery instead of a forum. That way members wouldn't have to sift through every post.

Read my article in the October edition--does that answer your question?
I have an easy way out though--it's album #5, soon to be released to music venues online around the world...

I'm in the Mid West Forum which isn't active from what I gather. I love the southwest - Utah and Arizona. I've been to Utah twice this year including Bret Edges spring fling. I asked Bret if I could post some of my images from the midwest for critique and he said it should be a problem. I have been following this forum for awhile and I'm impressed with the involvement. If you folks wouldn't mind I'd love to have you guys take a look and offer suggestions. I've been shooting less than 2 years and could use the help.

George, I hope you mean "shouldn't" be a problem. You are welcome to post here as far as I'm concerned

Paul, sometimes I just have to put away my camera and turn off the photo thoughts for a while. I've found that there are certain things I just have fun taking photos of. No doubt, the crowd pleaser is the saturated sunrises and sunsets with high peaks or dramatic landscapes in the middle ground, but there are so many other subjects that are fun. I have a preference for intimates and old buildings. I love Mike Moat's macros, but don't quite have the right equipment. These are different for folks and maybe a part of finding a personal style.