Everything about Boredom totally explained
Boredom is an
emotional state experienced during periods of lack of activities or when individuals are uninterested in the activities surrounding them.
Etymology
The first record of the word
boredom is in the novel
Bleak House, by
Charles Dickens, written in
1852, although the expression
to be a bore had been used in the sense of "to be tiresome or dull" since
1768.
Psychology
Boredom has been defined by
Fisher in terms of its central
psychological processes: “an unpleasant,
transient affective state in which the
individual feels a
pervasive lack of
interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity.” M. R. Leary and others define boredom similarly, and somewhat more succinctly, as “an affective experience associated with cognitive attentional processes.” These definitions make it clear that boredom arises not from a lack of things to do but from the inability to latch onto any
specific activity. Nothing engages us, despite an often profound desire for engagement.
There appear to be three general types of boredom, all of which involve problems of engagement of
attention. These include times when we're prevented from engaging in something, when we're forced to engage in some unwanted activity, or when we're simply unable, for no apparent reason, to maintain engagement in any activity or spectacle.
An important psychological construct is that of boredom proneness; a tendency to experience boredom of all types. This is typically assessed by the Boredom Proneness Scale. Consistent with the definition provided above, recent research has found that boredom proneness is clearly and consistently associated with failures of
attention. Boredom and boredom proneness are both theoretically and empirically linked to
depression and depressive symptoms. Nonetheless, boredom proneness has been found to be as strongly correlated with attentional lapses as with depression.
Although boredom is often viewed as a trivial and mild irritant, boredom, and especially boredom proneness has been linked to an amazingly diverse range of
psychological, physical, educational, and social problems.
Philosophy
Boredom is a condition characterized by
perception of one's environment as dull, tedious, and lacking in
stimulation. This can result from leisure and a lack of aesthetic interests.
Labor, however, and even
art may be alienated and passive, or immersed in tedium (see
Marx's theory of alienation). There is an inherent
anxiety in boredom; people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances, it's accepted as suffering to be endured. Common passive ways to escape boredom are to sleep or to think creative thoughts (
daydream). Typical active solutions consist in an intentional activity of some sort, often something new, as familiarity and
repetition lead to the tedious.
Boredom also plays a role in
existentialist thought. In contexts where one is confined, spatially or otherwise, boredom may be met with various religious activities, not because religion would want to associate itself with tedium, but rather, partly because boredom may be taken as the essential human condition, to which God, wisdom, or morality are the ultimate answers. Boredom is in fact taken in this sense by virtually all
existentialist philosophers as well as by
Schopenhauer.
Heidegger wrote about boredom in two texts available in English, in the 1929/30 semester lecture course
The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, and again in the essay
What is Metaphysics? published in the same year. In the lecture,
Heidegger included about 100 pages on boredom, probably the most extensive philosophical treatment ever of the subject. He focused on waiting at
train stations in particular as a major context of boredom. In
Kierkegaard's remark in
Either/Or, that "patience can't be depicted" visually, there's a sense that any immediate moment of life may be fundamentally tedious.
Without stimulus or focus, the individual is confronted with
nothingness, the meaninglessness of existence, and experiences existential
anxiety.
Heidegger states this idea nicely: "Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals being as a whole."
Arthur Schopenhauer used the existence of boredom in an attempt to prove the
vanity of human existence, stating, "...for if life, in the desire for which our essence and existence consists, possessed in itself a positive value and real content, there would be no such thing as boredom: mere existence would fulfil and satisfy us."
Erich Fromm and other similar thinkers of
critical theory speak of bourgeois society in terms similar to boredom, and Fromm mentions sex and the automobile as fundamental outlets of postmodern boredom.
Above and beyond taste and character, the universal case of boredom consists in any instance of
waiting, as
Heidegger noted, such as in line, for someone else to arrive or finish a task, or while one is travelling.
Boredom, however, may also
increase as travel becomes more convenient, as the vehicle may become more like the windowless
monad in
Leibniz's
monadology. The automobile requires fast reflexes, making its operator busy and hence, perhaps for other reasons as well, making the ride more tedious despite being over sooner.
Causes and effects
Although it hasn't been widely studied, research on boredom suggests that boredom is a major factor impacting diverse areas of a person's life. People ranked low on a boredom-proneness scale were found to have better performance in a wide variety of aspects of their lives, including career, education, and autonomy.
Boredom can be a symptom of
clinical depression. Boredom can be a form of
learned helplessness, a phenomenon closely related to depression. Some philosophies of
parenting propose that if children are raised in an environment devoid of
stimuli, and are not allowed or encouraged to interact with their environment, that'll fail to develop the mental capacities to do so.
In a learning environment, a common cause of boredom is lack of understanding; for instance, if one isn't following or connecting to the material in a class or lecture, it'll usually seem boring. However, the opposite can also be true; something that's too easily understood, simple or transparent, can also be boring. Boredom is often inversely related to
learning, and in school it may be a sign that a student isn't challenged enough (or too challenged). An activity that's predictable to the students is likely to bore them.
Boredom has been studied as being related to
drug abuse among teens.
Boredom has been proposed as a cause of
pathological gambling behavior. A study found results consistent with the hypothesis that pathological gamblers seek stimulation to avoid states of boredom and depression.
Popular culture and the arts
In Chapter 18 of the novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) it's written; "The only horrible thing in the world is ennui, Dorian. That is the one sin for which there's no forgiveness".
Iggy Pop, the
Deftones,
Buzzcocks, and
Blink-182 have all written songs with boredom mentioned in the title. Other songs about boredom and activities people turn to when bored include
Green Day's song "
Longview",
System of a Down's "
Lonely Day", and
Bloodhound Gang's "
Mope".
Douglas Adams depicted a robot named
Marvin the Paranoid Android whose boredom appeared to be the defining trait of his existence in
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Boredom'.
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