“We are getting bored!” “Nothing interests me here, what to do?” “It’s tedious, Oh! I am so bored!” Aren’t we all familiar with these sorts of questions? According to a recent survey average adult experiences 131 days of boredom a year. Almost one-third of a year! Isn’t this an astonishing number!
We are living in a high-paced world! Today, we are keeping ourselves “busy” – all the time. Most of the time we are busy working, taking care of kids, doing house chores, finishing errands, and whatnot. Yes, unequivocally life has become utterly “busy”! But even if we get a couple of free seconds, most of us would like to fill that void too! In our free time, it is our common habit to get our cell phones out and surf something on the phone, get updated with the news, or explore the latest reels on social media, etc.
Let’s forget about our free time, what about the times when we are working on unwanted, “less-thrilling” tedious tasks? Time tends to pass too slowly for us, doesn’t it? A couple of us would carry a bag of chips, candies, or snacks to deal with the boring job! Some would keep on checking their phones- “Why no one is messaging me!”; “Oh my goodness, I need to do this for 3 more hours! That’s so boring, I am so stuck!” could be common thoughts we all might have during those times.
Our relationship with our cell phones has become strong, everlasting, and tenacious. We are the “unsworn couple” – who can’t be separated from each other ever! We have everything in our tiny little “partner”. In earlier days, phones were used to call or message our friends and families. Other than this, it hardly had any fancy features. But nowadays, our “little partner” carries the burden of our entire world – contacts and messages, social media, news, house keys, bank information, passwords, and whatnot! It’s like a small treasure box traveling along with us all the time! Of course, it’s vital to not take it away. But… is it essential to “use it” all the time – especially all those times when we get some free time or are in a state of “boredom”!
So, what exactly is boredom? And do all these external stimulations like binge eating, cell phones, T.V., etc. help deal with boredom?
Boredom: It usually has a bad reputation. If you ask anyone, do you like to get bored, the general answer would be “No” or “Who has time to get bored!” For our follow-up question, “What do you usually do in the state of boredom?” there could be various responses such as, “I get my phone out, the moment I feel bored,” “It’s good to watch T.V. to avoid some nothingness,” “I keep myself fairly busy,” “No chance! I had my schedule jam-packed, there is no space for any boredom!” “I like what I do, I don’t get bored.”
In short at any cost, most of us would not want to have “boredom”.
According to WebMD, “Boredom is an emotion that lets you know that you are doing something that doesn’t give you satisfaction. Boredom could tell you two things: that you are not fully present and engaged in your current task or that your task is not meaningful to you.” In the state of boredom, we have feelings of dissatisfaction, restlessness, and mental fatigue that come with the emptiness.
Putting it in a simpler way, it is certainly not a pleasant feeling to look for. Thus, our natural reaction is to escape from it! And how do we achieve the escape – by external stimulations: like phones, video games, T.V., binge eating, etc. But the efficacies of external stimulation have a shorter life span like addictions. In an effort of “boredom” avoidance, the more we get dependent on external stimulations; the more boredom we invite for our future. It is like one of those sayings that our elderly used to say, “The more you run away from the thing, it will run after you! Running away from any problem only increases the distance from the solution.” Recently, it has been studied that there would be an increase in mental fatigue and boredom after having used a smartphone to escape from boredom. So, basically in contrast to what we assume, our “tiny partner” is the boredom machine and not the boredom remedy.
So far, it seems that boredom is not a nice feeling, and also that we can’t control it through external stimulators. Then how to deal with it? Why do we feel bored, anyways!
Occasionally, irrespective of our personality and mindset, we all face boredom. According to the research paper published in ScienceDirect, 4 prime causes lead to boredom: inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and executive dysfunction. Conclusively we can say that boredom is more frequently experienced by people having impulsive mindsets, who require frequent new changes and experiences in life and have fewer concentration levels.
Now, the thing is that boredom is well known for its negative outcome, but would there be any hindsight benefits from it?
It is an everyday natural feeling. Every feeling has some benefits and drawbacks, like the feeling of fear helping us fight danger. Similarly, boredom has advantages as well:
According to the Psychologytoday‘s post:
Boredom can help us improve mental health if we handle it correctly. We have distractions all around that overwhelm us, overload our brains, and increase our stress levels. Boredom allows us to have time where we can improvise our attention and get away from distractions and disturbances.
Boredom increases creativity: It may surprise us, but tedious and boring tasks are essential for humans. They encourage our minds to wander and to daydream. When we use external stimulation to handle boredom, not only do we stop our mind from wandering but also, we stop crucial thinking, i.e., creative thinking. Studies show that mind wandering leads to creative thinking, innovations, and discovering useful ideas.
How to get benefit from boredom: According to the author Sandi Mann, the author of Boredom: The Upside Of Downtime, boredom can be beneficial if it is done properly. We might think that focused activities would be good tools to achieve this, but in the case of boredom focused activities such as meditation would not be useful since those would restrict the mind to wander. According to Sandi Mann, technology-free activities that require almost no focus will lead our mind to wander such as walking, running, doodling, swimming, etc. Any activity that helps the mind to wander opens the doors of the creative mind.
We also need to identify when to turn off the mind to wander. Mind wandering can be helpful and productive, but it can also become a concern if it is done too much. We need to be mindful and find the right balance in achieving the creative side of it.
Being bored is not such a bad thing. Getting frustrated by saying, “I am bored!” increases the problem and only helps to shut the doors of creativity and the world of new ideas. Rather, we should make use of our boredom time correctly, effectively, and creatively.
Let’s embrace the time of boredom constructively.
Thanks
Mridulika
References:
- https://nypost.com/2019/01/29/this-is-how-often-americans-spend-their-lives-being-bored/
- Boredom: Warning Signs to Look For (webmd.com)
- https://psyarxiv.com/uy8rs
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810013001402
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/202004/5-benefits-boredom
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/magazine/how-to-let-your-mind-wander.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/04/04/do-nothing-mind-wander-how/
Scrollmate 
Leave a comment