Boredom for the sake of: how useful is the lack of interests

Charlotte Abramow In the modern world, it would seem, boredom has no place. Something is always happening, from exhibitions and film premieres to political events. However, most people can say after the classic: “Boring and sad.” What's the reason for this feeling? And could it be useful? David Robson, author of BBC. They are trying to understand these issues. I’ve met a lot of people who have a real talent for boredom, but Sandy Mann is one of the few people who’ve made it their craft. Volunteers rushing to her lab are usually given the not-too-exciting job of copying long lists of phone numbers. They are generally patient on the task, Sandy says, but the constant fidgeting on the chair and yawning suggests that participants are hardly satisfied with the experience. However, their sufferings benefit science: Mann wants to understand the impact boredom can have on our lives. She is one of the still-small list of psychologists who raid such useless territory. “It’s a class for Cinderella psychology,” Mann says. After all, admitting that you’re studying boredom may sound a little unintriguing in itself, even though it’s wrong to take it that way. It turns out that boredom can be a dangerous and subversive mood, damaging our health and even affecting life expectancy. On the other hand, Mann’s research suggests that without boredom we could not perform creative feats.

Boring to death

Boredom is such a significant part of everyday life that it is somewhat surprising that the word did not enter the language until 1852, thanks to Charles Dickens’ novel The Cold House. Dickens's study of Lady Deadlock's suffering - she is "bored to death" in marriage - could lead him to many recent results. But perhaps because of the constant presence of boredom in life, scientists were slow to investigate the problem.

One of the most common stereotypes is that “only boring people get bored.” John Eastwood of the University of York in Canada has identified two personality types that tend to suffer from boredom—not to say that either is particularly dull.

Boredom often accompanies people with impulsive thinking – those who are constantly looking for new events. For these people, a quiet life is impossible, they need a roller coaster to hold their attention. “Life is chronically stimulated,” says Eastwood.

The second kind of bored almost the opposite problem: they consider the world a place of fear and, protecting themselves from all that is happening, afraid to leave the comfort zone. “Because of their sensitivity to pain, they close.” A retreat might offer some comfort, but such people are not always happy with the security it offers - the result is boredom.

Obviously, any of these motives can cause a desire to hurt yourself; a predisposition to boredom is also associated with a craving to smoke, drink too much and take drugs. Indeed, a study by a group of South African teens found that boredom is one of the top predictors of future smoking, alcohol and marijuana use.

It should be noted that unhealthy excess nutrition is also a way to overcome the discomfort caused by boredom. “Boredom at work supports the confectionery industry,” Mann says. And the most negative effect that boredom has is a reduction in life expectancy. In the famous Whitehall study, which analyzed the lives of British civil servants, scientists found that people prone to boredom are 30 percent likely to die in the next three years.

But this is a mystery to evolutionary psychologists. Emotions should develop for our benefit, not to push a person to self-destruct. “The fact that we encounter boredom every day suggests a useful function of that feeling,” says Heather Lench of Texas A&M University. For example, fear helps avoid danger, and sadness helps prevent future mistakes. If this is true, what does boredom mean?

Some people, being in a room where there was an electric shock, after some time began to beat themselves with electric shock - just to dispel the ensuing boredom.

Lench suspects that one of the main human traits is curiosity. Boredom stops you from plowing the same furrow, and makes you look for new goals, explore new territories or ideas. Finding escape from boredom sometimes makes us take risks, which can end up hurting. For example, some people, being in a room where there was an electric shock, after some time began to beat themselves with electric shock - just to dispel the ensuing boredom. Perhaps the same search for salvation is the reason why people become strange and unhealthy. But it is also a way to increase innovation.

Mann found that volunteers who pointlessly copied phone numbers increased their creativity and were able to find new ways to use everyday objects. The scientist suspects that boredom provoked mental wandering, which leads to more associative and creative thinking. “If we don’t find an external stimulus, we start looking inside ourselves,” Mann says. “It allows us to jump from one imagination to another. We are moving away from stereotypes and thinking differently.” Without the capacity for boredom, we could never have reached creative and technological heights.

Use boredom

Mann believes that we should not fear boredom when it engulfs us. “We have to use it,” she says, and actively practices the principle. “Instead of standing in traffic and saying how tired I am, I start listening to music and let my mind wander. I know it’s good for me and it increases my creativity.”

Eastwood is less enthusiastic about boredom, but acknowledges that we must be careful in seeking immediate salvation. “This feeling is so disgusting that people rush to eliminate it,” he says. “I’m not going to join the war of boredom and come up with a cure, because we have to listen to our emotions and try to understand what they are telling us.”

For example, using a smartphone or pill to combat boredom could be counterproductive, Eastwood said. “We live in a technology-driven society where we are over-stimulated — constantly interrupted from one thing to another.” This puts us on a kind of treadmill where we expect to get faster and easier ways to restore curiosity.

Instead, Eastwood suggests approaching the issue differently - trying to find deeper issues that lead to boredom. His research, for example, showed that people who have more purpose and meaning in life show less boredom on tests.

While feeling bored during a meeting with friends, work, or family gathering may seem superficial and unimportant, it may indicate a deep existential crisis and need for action that requires very different circumstances.

“To feel that the world needs a person and that he can influence him, that what is happening makes sense is just as important for life, sunlight, fresh air and food,” Eastwood said.

Source: theoryandpractice.ru