Boredom is not that simple to explain
We may tend to think of boredom as a response to monotonous activities. But boredom isn't this clearcut.
Research reveals that there's a significant variation in how much boredom each person can deal with.
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The boredom signal is telling you that you are failing to interact with the world. The negative emotion is trying to motivate you. We really want to be cognitively engaged.
Only some people allow themselves to become bored. They recognise that sense of restlessness and find a way to turn things around.
- Bored people are more susceptible to impulsive behaviour, substance abuse, gambling addiction, compulsive mobile phone use, depression, etc.
- Boredom also seems to be linked to many personality disorders, such as covert narcissism. These people think they are incredibly talented, but feel they are not given credit for it. Other personality traits linked to boredom include anger and neuroticism.
- Altogether, being prone to boredom may be partly caused by having poor emotional control.
Psychologists differ in their definition of boredom.
- In the 1960s and 1970s, boredom was defined as the feeling generated by a repetitive task. Researchers found that boredom increased alertness to the things happening around you (distractions).
- From 1986, the opposite was found. A study found that boredom caused less concentration.
Boredom is sometimes described as the plague of modern society.
- Back in 2016, a French worker sued his former employer for "bore-out." He won.
- Many people, especially those born between mid -1990s and late 2010s, scrolls aimlessly through apps and find nothing of interest.
- People are even diagnosing their pets with boredom.
Psychologists now know there are at least five types of boredom.
- Calibrating boredom: You have wandering thoughts and a feeling of not knowing what to do.
- Reactive boredom: You feel aggressive towards your detainer - a teacher or the workplace - and dwell on the things you would rather be doing.
- Searching boredom: You feel restless and search for a way out.
- Indifferent boredom: You feel relaxed and separate from the world around you.
- Apathetic boredom: You feel neither good nor bad, but helpless to avoid the feeling.
RELATED IDEAS
It drives us to engage in activities that we find more meaningful than those at hand. Without it, we’d be perpetually excited by everything.
Research shows that people who are bored think more creatively than those who aren’t.
Flow is the satisfying feeling of absorption we get when we’re wholly focused on an enjoyable, open-ended activity, of which we are in control but which stretches our abilities. But if our skills are greater than those needed to accomplish the activity boredom is the result.
Paradoxically, trying to avoid boredom can result in a kind of dissatisfaction, experienced as boredom.
Unpleasant, but causes low levels of arousal and a lack of positive or negative feelings–in other words, a feeling of helplessness or depression.
It’s a common kind of boredom, which is worrisome given that studies have shown that boredom, depression, and destructive behaviors are often linked.
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