Why do we get bored

Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard considered boredom a particular scourge of modern life. The nineteenth-century novel arose in part as an antidote to the experience of tedium, and tedium often propelled its plots. What was Emma Bovary, who arrived in , if not bored—by her plodding husband, by provincial existence, by life itself when it failed to show the glittering colors of fiction?

Heidegger, one of the preeminent theorists of boredom, classified it into three kinds: the mundane boredom of, say, waiting for a train; a profound malaise he associated not with modernity or any specific experience but with the human condition itself; and an ineffable deficit of some unnameable something that sounds thoroughly familiar to us.

One does find intimations of boredom long before its mid-nineteenth-century flowering. Is there no end? Do all things go in a circle? This is persuasive, though I suspect that some subjective sense of monotony is a more fundamental affect—like joy or fear or anger. In recent years, something like boredom has been studied and documented in understimulated animals, which would seem to argue against its being an entirely social construction.

Historically, the diagnosis of boredom has contained an element of social critique—often of life under capitalism. But, while social critics can endow boredom with a certain potent charge, many people downplay or deny their own ordinary experience of it.

Boredom is a distinctly uncharismatic state of being. If you are bored, you might well be a bore. To be bored more than occasionally seems a small, peevish grievance in the scheme of things, a sort of weak-minded disengagement from a world that demands urgent action to try to set it right while offering endlessly streaming entertainment to distract us.

The interpretation of boredom is one thing; its measurement is quite another. In the nineteen-eighties, Norman Sundberg and Richard Farmer, two psychology researchers at the University of Oregon, developed a Boredom Proneness Scale, to assess how easily a person gets bored in general.

Seven years ago, John Eastwood helped come up with a scale for measuring how bored a person was in the moment. In recent years, boredom researchers have done field surveys in which, for example, they ask people to keep diaries as they go about daily life, recording instances of naturally occurring lethargy.

Creating dull content is a mission they approach with some ingenuity, and the results evoke a kind of rueful, Beckettian comedy. It depicts two men desultorily hanging laundry on a metal rack in a small, bare room while mumbling banalities. Then the researchers might check how much the stupefied participants want to snack on unhealthy foods a fair amount, in one such study. Contemporary boredom researchers, for all their scales and graphs, do engage some of the same existential questions that had occupied philosophers and social critics.

Erin Westgate, a social psychologist at the University of Florida, told me that her work suggests that both factors—a dearth of meaning and a breakdown in attention—play independent and roughly equal roles in boring us.

It may also occur when you have difficulty focusing on a task. Boredom is a common complaint among children and adolescents. Boredom is marked by an empty feeling, as well as a sense of frustration with that emptiness. You may feel apathetic, fatigued, nervous, or jittery. Almost everyone experiences boredom from time to time. Some age groups might experience more boredom than others. Adolescents frequently experience boredom. Not knowing where to focus can lead to boredom.

Boredom is a normal response to some situations. And while there are no tests to diagnose boredom, boredom that lasts for long periods of time, or occurs frequently, may be a sign of depression. Symptoms of boredom and depression are sometimes similar. Working with a mental health professional and also asking questions may give you clues about what your child may be experiencing.

If boredom is interfering with your ability to complete necessary tasks, or hampering your quality of life, talk to your doctor. Your boredom may be related to depression if you experience the following symptoms:. Your doctor will be able to help you distinguish between boredom and depression and get you the necessary treatment. For example, you may want to consider trying some new hobbies or other new diversional activities.

Joining a club can be a good way to thwart your boredom. Reading clubs, hobby groups, or exercise groups are all great places to start.

Joining a community group that organizes activities and outings is another good idea. You can help your child cope with feelings of boredom when they arise. When they complain of boredom, encourage them to communicate.

But instead many people look to other things in an attempt to stop feeling so bored. When people feel trapped they can experience boredom. They want to get out there among the excitement of the big wide world, but until a certain age are dependent on their parents.

Often as well, teens and younger people are studying, which requires a lot of repetition to learn things — plus they know the time could be spent alternatively having fun with their friends or doing a sport or hobby they love.

Boredom at any age can be caused by repetition and a lack of interest in whatever we are doing. Many modern-day jobs are repetitive and extremely predictable. We switch off and then it is almost as if our minds and bodies are craving something else. But people feel trapped because they need to earn money to pay their way. It is clear that jobs that are also our hobby or that are different most days are the least likely to lead to boredom.

Some people are more prone and likely to be bored than others. Boredom is also connected to problems with keeping attention. Consequently, someone with ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will frequently feel bored. Someone with borderline personality disorder BPD can also find that boredom comes on them much more quickly due to the nature of their condition. In addition, sometimes a chronic illness can leave people feeling bored.

For instance, if someone cannot get out and about as they would like it can obviously create problems. Boredom often serves a purpose though. So boredom can be the inspiration for taking action, for doing things differently, for making changes. It can also be an indication that repeatedly doing something is a waste of your valuable time. This can be a strong persuasion not to carry on with it. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed admitted missing aspects of their childhood.

This included having fewer responsibilities, spending time with friends, and not going to parties.