Some Thoughts and Statistics on boredom

Statistics can be fun sometimes. Yet at other times they can leave us really amazed, with the enormity of what they actually represent.Such as what I have here.

Image courtesy- Internet

A fairly recent study conducted by the Daily Telegraph on 'Boredom' tells us that the average adult spends upto six hours a week, feeling completely and utterly bored with life.Looking a little bit further, that translates to 13 days in a year, or a total of 786.5 days of the average adult lifespan of 60.5 years.

According to Wikipedia, 'Boredom' is an emotional state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do and not interested in his/her surroundings. The first recorded use of the word 'boredom' is in the novel Bleak House by Charlers Dickens written in 1852 in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a bore had been used in print in the sense of "to be tiresome or dull" since 1768.The French term for boredom, ennui, is sometimes used in English as well.

Image courtesy Internet

As to the reason for this boredom- it simply boils down to having "little" or as came through in the cae of this particular study, what is perceived as simply not having "enough money."But I differ with that because I've personally met many people who are not 'rich'in the typically understood sense of material wealth but lead a peaceful and contented life on the whole- simply by virtue of the fact that they have the love and warmth of family and friends or  at other times, they are involved in community service-viz doing something to make others happy. 

One more key element of boredom is control.  Boredom often occurs when you have little control over your situation.  Waiting rooms, lectures, and airline gates are all places where you have little control over your situation.  Normally, we react to unpleasant situations by changing the situation.  If you don’t like a book you are reading, for example, you close it and do something else.  Boredom tends to rapidly set in when you are unable to change the situation.  

Finally, a real problem caused by boredom is that it leads you to dislike the things that are the object of boredom.  Here's a real  life example-In Class X, for example, I was forced to read Great Expectations  as it was a course book. While I adore reading, this book became a complete 'no no' as far as I was concerned.  I struggled to get interested in it and spent long hours staring at the pages trying to lose myself in it.  To this day, I really do not like Great Expectations.   The negative feelings that came with the boredom have stuck to the book.

As the authors of the review point out, these negative feelings can actually impair later performance.  Stress can decrease people’s ability to pay attention and can narrow people’s working memory capacity.  These effects can be a particular problem in school settings.  Students need to be able to work at peak capacity to get the most out of school.  So factually, boredom can create long-term difficulties for students.

What can you do about boredom?  Obviously, there are times when you are stuck.  If you are listening to a lecture that you cannot leave, then you just need to find a way to get through it.  When you have some control though, use your understanding of boredom to help you out.  If you can, try to do a meditation exercise to lower the 'extent of boredom' level.  If you can lower this to some extent, it will definitely help. Also, keep some music handy.  Music you really enjoy can help push out  distractions in the environment.  It can also positively influence your mood in positive ways to counteract the pain of being bored.  

Think about it- you could agree or disagree with any/all of what I've written above but then I'm sure you certainly have your share of life's bored moments.

Simple fact is, we all do...