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Subscribe to RSSYawn. Welcome to Tuesday, arguably the dullest day of the week. But a new book argues that there might be some surprising benefits to experiencing ennui. We asked Peter Toohey, a University of Calgary professor and the author of "Boredom: A Lively History," to explain.
Q: What could possibly be a benefit of boredom?
A: (Boredom) is a first cousin of disgust. When people are bored, they are somewhat disgusted -- they talk about being "fed up." So what it’s designed to do is protect you against certain situations that can be injurious.
It (makes) you change your situation. It’s a warning we almost always act upon. One of the more obvious upsides is, a lot of people link it with creativity. You’ve got to fall into the deep, the absolute misery, and then something comes out of your brain. A lot of people talk about the value of daydreaming, which can also be the product of boring or mildly boring situations, and your best ideas may come from it.
Q: In writing this book, did you have a working definition of what boredom is?
A: I think it is what I suggested it was: It’s a mild feeling of disgust. People are disgusted with boredom. It’s brought on by temporarily unavoidable or predictable circumstances. [Editor's note: Hey, that sounds like the definition of "annoying"!]
Imagine yourself stuck in a classroom or (listening to) a long speech. But it’s temporary, and it’s not going to cause you a great deal of harm. And the opposite of boredom is being completely engaged an activity completely absorbs you.
Q: I think some of us might think boredom is a modern problem. Is that true?
A: No, I don't think so. If (boredom is) an emotion, then it’s there for a good evolutionary purpose. All of us are going to feel it, but some less than others. The argument is that it’s a product of the enlightenment -- it appears in the language for the first time 17th century. They don’t talk much about it in Greece or Rome, which is what I teach for a living, but there are examples of it. There's a strange little inscription (in an) Italian town where local people thank one of the dignitaries for saving them from eternal boredom, in Latin. It's from the 2nd century.
Q: Are some personality types more inclined toward boredom?
A: They say so. It’s linked to the level of dopamine, the neurotransmitter linked to boredom and excitement. So if it tends to be low in a person, one of its symptoms (is boredom.) Also, there is a test called the boredom proneness test; it’s used by psychologists all the time. And people who score low on the test have low levels of dopamine.
Q: When are you most likely to feel bored?
A: I don’t know, sometimes when I’m working on books like this -- it’s fun to think about, it’s fun to talk about, but it can get incredibly tedious (to research and write).
Q: Any tips for overcoming boredom?
A: There aren’t really. There’s the "keep busy" tip. Well, that’s fine, but if you’re really bored, you can’t. There’s been a link made between monotony and the plasticity of the brain -- monotony is bad, it’s bad for neuroplasticity. So how do you encourage brain plasticity? It seems the greatest way to do it is aerobic exercise. Perhaps a fair amount of exercise in a person’s life might make them somewhat boredom-proof. (He pauses.) It's miserable, really.
What's your go-to boredom buster? Exercise? Netflix Watch Instantly? Facebook? Leave a comment telling us your strategy to overcome ennui.
Related content:
- What bugs you? Book uncovers the science of what irks us
- Bored to death? It really could happen, study says
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Leave a Comment:
When I'm bored, I like to sniff my farts. They always smell horrible, then I chase a butterfly or something...
When I'm bored I come here and read some of the comments posted by fart-sniffers.
When my grandsons tell me they are bored, I reply by telling them: "No. You are not bored. You are boring."
Being bored out of one's skull is fashionable nowadays. Perhaps it has been fashionable since forever. The beat generation, the angry young man at the sidewalk cafe drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while writing really bad love poems, the kids hanging out at the mall because there is "nothing to do."
Goodness, what would we do if we were not bored?
I supposed we'd be excited to death :)
I must confess I have dramatically sigh and rather loudly exclaimed "I'm bored." on occasion but you are right grump, it's because I am being boring as opposed to actually being bored.
Utter-Disbelief beat me to it....when I'm bored I come on Newsvine
there's always at least one comment everyday that cracks me up
Utter, someday I hope to be excited to death. Not yet, though.
LOL@482933 There are some doozies on here aren't there. Hmmm...I'm probably responsible for a couple.
grump don't you dare even think about leaving me here to fend for myself!
wow... big surprise. wanna chase after my bumble bee pet too? i assure you, you won't get bored.
People that are bored need to go to school. Vocational, Junior College. It means you either don't have enough toys, hobbies. If your dexterity sucks learn to play piano. Buy different varieties of books. Learn to make an example of every function in Mathematica8 and Maple15 you might be the person that wins the Next Nobel Prize. ?Could be You? Also you can study Brotherhood of Light Egyptian philosophy and buy a radioshack 300 and 1 project kit. Then Paint with Corel Painter or Pixaara Twisted Brush or Paintshop Pro.
Or buy Reaktor and make your family appreciate you loudly.
how can you learn to play the piano if you're not a dexterous person? well, i don't have any skills of my own (unless you count my kills in GOW2), i'm physically (no balance, no gracefulness, no dancing skills of any kind, no good reflexes...) and mentally (no wittiness, no concentration abilities, hard to memorize stuff...) challenged. but i sure as heck know how to entertain myself -and no, it's not what you're thinking... actually, that would be a good option- i guess it's all in my whimsicalness. i do like your user name, you see, i can't even bring myself to believe in any kind of god! shall we put that inability in the mentally-challenge section?
This was a very boring article. I'm disgusted that the author could not write a book about something more interesting.
Hilarious. All the gadgets, facebook, tweeting, internet, Xbox, Playstations, home entertainment systems, and people are BORED! Gee whiz, what the hell did WE do back in the "olden days". Oh, I remember; a pick-up game of sandlot baseball, playing army in the woods with sticks and dirt-clods. Building a soapbox go cart and racing it down the street, go fish, learn how to play an instrument.... how bout reading a good book? (You do know how to read don't you? or did the public school system let you down?)
I'm bored? Cry me a river. Now with the economy in such bad shape, any extra money after bills going to just put food on the table...I guess people can't "Buy" their way out of creativity. I want, I need, gimme more "stuff."
Get used to it folks, soon your spare time will be filled exclusively just trying to make ends meet with the basic essentials.
I second that!
Bullpuckey.
Boredom is the result of an idle mind. If you choose to be idle, don't whine about.
No one should EVER be bored in a world filled with so much, more than you could possibly do in a lifetime. With as much as mankind knows, if you are bored, then you are just plain lazy and wasting your life away. Likely the only life you will ever have. Also, it is not up to others to cure your boredom, they have their own lives.
Personally, I find it disgusting when anyone complains about being bored. And as far as the article/book are concerned, what a joke. Boredom and disgust are not 'first cousins'. The more likely case is that you are disgusted with yourself at a subconscious level because you are wasting your life away.
Also, you should not defend boredom by saying it can be a gateway to creativity. That's like saying you need religion to be good. Bull. Creativity and imagination are what can keep you from being bored, but boredom should not be a catalyst, that's just stupid.
I cultivate boredom. It makes the time go slower. My ultimate goal is to make time drag so much I virtually live forever.
Ha ha, that was rich! Many of you people who comment on here are delightfully funny. Makes it virtually impossible for me to feel bored. ;) (And I do get terribly *disgusted* and *fed up* with myself whenever I start to feel bored. . .)
That was so well put. Boredom is the result of an idle mind. The cure is to never stop learning. With the internet, it's so easy to expand and educate one's mind. Life is eternally fascinating, and the world, universe, is the library, the internet is our e-book. I was curious about the Colorado River the other day. Got on the internet, and you wouldn't believe where it took me. The research led me to disciplines I never knew existed: things like watersheds, deltas, marshes, modification of discharge, environmental impact and public policy, international treaties, geological forces such as subduction of tectonic plates, which leads to the causes of mountains and canyons, historical inhabitants... I could've kept going for days if I'd had the time. Who knew how vast and interesting this could be. And all I thought I wanted to know was where the river started and where it ended. Bored? Are you kidding me?
In today's society, boredom might just be a sign that you're lucky enough to have the luxury of downtime. We keep such a frantic pace these days that it's a wonder anyone has time to sleep let alone be bored.
Boredom is just a state of mind. You have the free choice to do something about it. Someone once asked me after I retired if I was "bored to death". My response was "not for long" that I used to get bored at work as well, but now that I'm retired I can actually do something about the boredom!
Anyone who can entertain themselves like reading a good book, working in the garden, taking an educational course, etc., is never bored for very long.
Instead of saying "I'm bored"
Say "I'm boring"
I think we're so used to being 'entertained', (in anyone's mind) and having it come TO us, that we've allowed our thinking process to become restricted, limited to the inward flow. We've forgotten that we can also 'reach out' mentally, to observe our surroundings, see what peaks our interest, to let quiet time generate forgotten natural curiosity. It can start by just paying attention. In a way we're lucky to have the luxury of boredom, in a way we're not. We need to pick up our own spoons...
This article was boring...
No human being has an excuse to be bored. Not enough to do in your life? Learn kung fu or karate or tae kwon do. Learn to play the piano or the guitar or the bassoon or one of the other 50 instruments available. Learn to draw or paint. Take dancing lessons. Join a gym and do workouts. Learn algebra. lear calculus. Go to a library and pick up one of the 10,000 books there that you've never read. Voyager 1 was sent to the starts with a message from humanity in each of the 107 basic languages on our planet, so learn another language other than your native tongue. Doing that will give you another 10,00 books you could read! Still bored? Learn another language until you can speak all 107 fluently. Trust me, you won't have time to be bored! LOL!
Being bored might be one of the primal emotions, but I doubt early man had that much time to be bored spending most of his time either fighting the elements, foraging for enough food, or evading predators to avoid being a meal himself. I suppose waiting out the winter deep in a dark cave eating the limited variety of what food could be stored for months could get pretty boring, though. I guess that down time led to stories, myths, etc...
I dispute that boredom is related to disgust. It's related to complacency, not disgust; almost the exact opposite thing. If you're disgusted with something, then you're not bored; you're engaged, and hating what is going on. Boredom means that you just don't care enough about what's going on to have any opinion on it at all.
Good point McBob
I disagree that it is the same as complacency. Dictionary.com's definition of Complacency = a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.
Boredom to me is a state of agitation coupled with a lack of imagination. It is not satisfying in the least. "Good grief, I have nothing to do and it is driving me crazy!"
Boredom = depression. To say you're bored is really like saying you don't give a flying *#@^&. It's the apathy that comes with a low level depression.
Bored is not something done to you from "out there", like to be chased or beaten. It's something you're either actively doing to yourself...hence, boring...or your brain chemistry is doing. It comes from your own mind, whether through lack of insight or lack of properly firing neurons.
It seems to be just a "reboot" or way to reset yourself...an opportunity to stare off into space or meditate. However, boredom is more than that. There's no positive aspect to it. Rather than meditating and clearing your mind, you're actively disturbed, disgusted, disgruntled, and maybe even a little antsy. With no outlet. It is not a happy state, nor is it a passive state.
my humble opinion is that, though boredom might give you a sense of emptiness, depression is a way of how you percieve yourself -physically or emotionally- and most of the time it just requires to have a mirror in your room, or being told at work that you're not efficient enough, and you lose the little self confidence -if there was any at all to begin with- to put on that nice dress you're so fond of, or simply go to work. depression is a state of mind, boredom is just a moment passing by -waiting in line, "a long speech"-there's many ways you can overcome boredom since is only temporary and we know that, that's why sometimes we don't make a big deal of it (just overly dramatic sighs and yawns, and "i can't stand this!" thoughts). depression is a constant feeling, that every time you make a mistake (even insignificant ones) or just plain look at the mirror (where "i can't stand myself!" thoughts will pop up), it's enough to turn belligerent towards yourself and think you're worthless...
Alve -- it's like you're describing my life! How do you know me so well? ;)
boredom?? what is that? just give me a good videogame, book, ipod (it has games in it, or just plain music is enough), give me a pen and some paper (anything will do -white paper, scraps of something) to draw illegible, nonsensical stuff (nope, no crayons please), or just thinking of how to handle things if given situations would arise (like waiting at the supermarket line, what if... zombies attacked!), what i'm gonna wear next day, what kind of makeup to put on, if i'm in the middle of a long speech, heck, it might turn out interesting... i guess entertainment varies from individuals, and how we perceive the world...?! well, i dont't take that as an answer.