Boredom - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Boredom

Boredom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In conventional usage, boredom is an emotional or

psychological state experienced when an individual is left
without anything in particular to do, is not interested in his
or her surroundings, or feels that a day or period is dull or
tedious. It is also understood by scholars as a modern
phenomenon which has a cultural dimension. "There is no
universally accepted definition of boredom. But whatever it
is, researchers argue, it is not simply another name for
depression or apathy. It seems to be a specific mental state
that people find unpleasanta lack of stimulation that
leaves them craving relief, with a host of behavioural, A souvenir seller appears bored as she
medical and social consequences."[1] According to BBC waits for customers.
News, boredom "...can be a dangerous and disruptive state
of mind that damages your health"; yet research "...suggest[s] that without boredom we couldnt
achieve our creative feats."[2]

In Experience Without Qualities: Boredom and Modernity, Elizabeth Goodstein traces the modern
discourse on boredom through literary, philosophical, and sociological texts to find that as "a
discursively articulated phenomenon...boredom is at once objective and subjective, emotion and
intellectualization not just a response to the modern world but also a historically constituted
strategy for coping with its discontents."[3] In both conceptions, boredom has to do fundamentally
with an experience of time and problems of meaning.

Contents
1 Etymology and terminology
2 Psychology
3 Physical health
4 Philosophy
5 Causes and effects
6 In the workplace
7 In popular culture
7.1 Superfluous man
7.2 Grunge lit
8 See also
9 References

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Etymology and terminology

The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens,
written in 1852,[4] 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.[5] The expression "boredom" means
"state of being bored," 1852, from bore (v.1) + -dom. It also has been employed in a sense "bores as
a class" (1883) and "practice of being a bore" (1864, a sense properly belonging to boreism,
1833).[6] The word "bore" as a noun meaning a "thing which causes ennui or annoyance" is attested
to since 1778; "of persons by 1812". The noun "bore" comes from the verb "bore", which had the
meaning "[to] be tiresome or dull" first attested [in] 1768, a vogue word c. 1780-81 according to
Grose (1785); possibly a figurative extension of "to move forward slowly and persistently, as a
[hole-] boring tool does."[7]

The French term for boredom, ennui, is sometimes used in English as well, at least since 1778. The
term "ennui" was first used "as a French word in English;" in the 1660s and it was "nativized by
1758". [8] The term "ennui" comes "from French ennui, from Old French enui "annoyance" (13c.),
[a] back-formation from enoiier, anuier.[9]"The German word for boredom expresses this:
Langeweile, a compound made of lange "long" and Weile "while", which is in line with the
common perception that when one is bored, time passes "tortuously" slowly.[10]

Psychology
Different scholars use different definitions of boredom, which
complicates research.[11] Boredom has been defined by Cynthia
D. Fisher in terms of its main central psychological processes:
"an unpleasant, transient affective state in which the individual
feels a pervasive lack of interest and difficulty concentrating on
the current activity."[12] Mark Leary et al. describe boredom as
"an affective experience associated with cognitive attentional
processes."[13] In positive psychology, boredom is described as
a response to a moderate challenge for which the subject has
Boredom by Gaston de La more than enough skill.[14]
Touche, 1893
There are three types of boredom, all of which involve
problems of engagement of attention. These include times when
we are prevented from engaging in wanted activity, when we are forced to engage in unwanted
activity, or when we are simply unable for no apparent reason to maintain engagement in any
activity or spectacle.[15] Boredom proneness is a tendency to experience boredom of all types. This
is typically assessed by the Boredom Proneness Scale.[16] Recent research has found that boredom
proneness is clearly and consistently associated with failures of attention.[17] Boredom and its
proneness are both theoretically and empirically linked to depression and similar symptoms.

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[18][19][20]Nonetheless, boredom proneness has been found to be as strongly correlated with

attentional lapses as with depression.[18] Although boredom is often viewed as a trivial and mild
irritant, proneness to boredom has been linked to a very diverse range of possible psychological,
physical, educational, and social problems.[21]

Absent-mindedness is where a person shows inattentive or forgetful behaviour.[22] Absent-

mindedness is a mental condition in which the subject experiences low levels of attention and
frequent distraction. Absent-mindedness is not a diagnosed condition but rather a symptom of
boredom and sleepiness which people experience in their daily lives. When suffering from absent-
mindedness, people tend to show signs of memory lapse and weak recollection of recently
occurring events. This can usually be a result of a variety of other conditions often diagnosed by
clinicians such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. In addition to absent-
mindedness leading to an array of consequences affecting daily life, it can have as more severe,
long-term problems.

Physical health
Lethargy is a state of tiredness, weariness, fatigue, or lack of energy. It can be accompanied by
depression, decreased motivation, or apathy. Lethargy can be a normal response to boredom,
inadequate sleep, overexertion, overworking, stress, lack of exercise, or a symptom of a disorder.
When part of a normal response, lethargy often resolves with rest, adequate sleep, decreased stress,
and good nutrition.[23][24]

Philosophy
Boredom is a condition characterized by perception of one's environment as dull, tedious, and
lacking in stimulation. This can result from leisure and a lack of aesthetic interests. Labor and art
may be alienated and passive, or immersed in tedium. There is an inherent anxiety in boredom;
people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances, it is
accepted as suffering to be endured. Common passive ways to escape boredom are to sleep or to
think creative thoughts (daydream). Typical active solutions consist in an intentional activity of
some sort, often something new, as familiarity and repetition lead to the tedious.

During the fin de sicle, the French term for the end of the 19th century in the West, some of the
cultural hallmarks included "ennui", cynicism, pessimism, and "...a widespread belief that
civilization leads to decadence."[25]

Boredom also plays a role in existentialist thought. Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche
were two of the first philosophers considered fundamental to the existentialist movement. Like
Pascal, they were interested in people's quiet struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of life and
the use of diversion to escape from boredom. Kierkegaard's Either/Or describes the rotation
method, a method used by higher level aesthetes in order to avoid boredom. The method is an
essential hedonistic aspect of the aesthetic way of life. For the aesthete, one constantly changes

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what one is doing in order to maximize the enjoyment and

pleasure derived from each activity.

In contexts where one is confined, spatially or otherwise,

boredom may be met with various religious activities, not
because religion would want to associate itself with tedium, but
rather, partly because boredom may be taken as the essential
human condition, to which God, wisdom, or morality are the
ultimate answers. It is taken in this sense by virtually all
existentialist philosophers as well as by Arthur Schopenhauer.

Martin Heidegger wrote about boredom in two texts available in

English, in the 1929/30 semester lecture course The
Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, and again in the essay 1916 Rea Irvin illustration
What is Metaphysics? published in the same year. In the lecture, depicting a bore putting her
Heidegger included about 100 pages on boredom, probably the audience to sleep
most extensive philosophical treatment ever of the subject. He
focused on waiting at railway stations in particular as a major
context of boredom.[26] Sren Kierkegaard remarks in Either/Or that "patience cannot be depicted"
visually, since there is a sense that any immediate moment of life may be fundamentally tedious.

Blaise Pascal in the Penses discusses the human condition in saying "we seek rest in a struggle
against some obstacles. And when we have overcome these, rest proves unbearable because of the
boredom it produces", and later states that "only an infinite and immutable object that is, God
himself can fill this infinite abyss."[27]

Without stimulus or focus, the individual is confronted with nothingness, the meaninglessness of
existence, and experiences existential anxiety. Heidegger states this idea as follows: "Profound
boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all
things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals
being as a whole."[28] Schopenhauer used the existence of boredom in an attempt to prove the
vanity of human existence, stating, "...for if life, in the desire for which our essence and existence
consists, possessed in itself a positive value and real content, there would be no such thing as
boredom: mere existence would fulfil and satisfy us."[29]

Erich Fromm and other thinkers of critical theory speak of boredom as a common psychological
response to industrial society, where people are required to engage in alienated labor. According to
Fromm, boredom is "perhaps the most important source of aggression and destructiveness today."
For Fromm, the search for thrills and novelty that characterizes consumer culture are not solutions
to boredom, but mere distractions from boredom which, he argues, continues unconsciously.[30]
Above and beyond taste and character, the universal case of boredom consists in any instance of
waiting, as Heidegger noted, such as in line, for someone else to arrive or finish a task, or while one
is travelling somewhere. The automobile requires fast reflexes, making its operator busy and hence,
perhaps for other reasons as well, making the ride more tedious despite being over sooner.

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Causes and effects

Although it has not been widely studied, research on boredom suggests
that boredom is a major factor impacting diverse areas of a person's
life. People ranked low on a boredom-proneness scale were found to
have better performance in a wide variety of aspects of their lives,
including career, education, and autonomy.[31] Boredom can be a
symptom of clinical depression. Boredom can be a form of learned
helplessness, a phenomenon closely related to depression. Some
philosophies of parenting propose that if children are raised in an
environment devoid of stimuli, and are not allowed or encouraged to
interact with their environment, they will fail to develop the mental
capacities to do so.

The Princess Who Never In a learning environment, a common cause of boredom is lack of
Smiled by Viktor understanding; for instance, if one is not following or connecting to the
Vasnetsov material in a class or lecture, it will usually seem boring. However, the
opposite can also be true; something that is too easily understood,
simple or transparent, can also be boring. Boredom is often inversely
related to learning, and in school it may be a sign that a student is not challenged enough, or too
challenged. An activity that is predictable to the students is likely to bore them.[32]

A 1989 study indicated that an individual's impression of boredom may be influenced by the
individual's degree of attention, as a higher acoustic level of distraction from the environment
correlated with higher reportings of boredom.[33] Boredom has been studied as being related to
drug abuse among teens.[34] Boredom has been proposed as a cause of pathological gambling
behavior. A study found results consistent with the hypothesis that pathological gamblers seek
stimulation to avoid states of boredom and depression.[35] It has been suggested that boredom has
an evolutionary basis that encourages humans to seek out new challenges. It may influence human
learning and ingenuity.[36]

Some recent studies have suggested that boredom may have some positive effects. A low-stimulus
environment may lead to increased creativity and may set the stage for a "eureka moment".[37]

In the workplace
Boreout is a management theory that posits that lack of work, boredom, and consequent lack of
satisfaction are a common malaise affecting individuals working in modern organizations,
especially in office-based white collar jobs. This theory was first expounded in 2007 in Diagnose
Boreout, a book by Peter Werder and Philippe Rothlin, two Swiss business consultants. They claim
the absence of meaningful tasks, rather than the presence of stress, is many workers' chief problem.

A "banishment room" (also known as a "chasing-out-room" and a "boredom room") is a modern

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employee exit management strategy whereby employees are transferred to a department where they
are assigned meaningless work until they become disheartened enough to quit.[38][39][40] Since the
resignation is voluntary, the employee would not be eligible for certain benefits. The legality and
ethics of the practice is questionable and may be construed as constructive dismissal by the courts
in some regions.

In popular culture
Meh is an interjection used as an expression of indifference or boredom. It may also mean "be it as
it may".[41] It is often regarded as a verbal shrug of the shoulders. The use of the term "meh" shows
that the speaker is apathetic, uninterested, or indifferent to the question or subject at hand. It is
occasionally used as an adjective, meaning something is mediocre or unremarkable.[42]

Superfluous man

The superfluous man (Russian: , lishniy

chelovek) is an 1840s and 1850s Russian literary concept
derived from the Byronic hero.[43] It refers to an individual,
perhaps talented and capable, who does not fit into social
norms. In most cases, this person is born into wealth and
privilege. Typical characteristics are disregard for social
values, cynicism, and existential boredom; typical
behaviors are gambling, drinking, smoking, sexual
intrigues, and duels. He is often unempathetic and
carelessly distresses others with his actions.

Grunge lit
A superfluous man (Eugene Onegin)
Grunge lit is an Australian literary genre of fictional or idly polishing his fingernails.
semi-autobiographical writing in the early 1990s about Illustration by Elena Samokysh-
young adults living in an "inner cit[y]" "...world of Sudkovskaya, 1908.
disintegrating futures where the only relief from...boredom
was through a nihilistic pursuit of sex, violence, drugs and
alcohol".[44] Often the central characters are disfranchised, lacking drive and determination beyond
the desire to satisfy their basic needs. It was typically written by "new, young authors"[44] who
examined "gritty, dirty, real existences"[44] of everyday characters. It has been described as both a
sub-set of dirty realism and an offshoot of Generation X literature.[45] Stuart Glover states that the
term "grunge lit" takes the term "grunge" from the "late 80s and early 90s...Seattle [grunge]
bands".[46] Glover states that the term "grunge lit" was mainly a marketing term used by publishing
companies; he states that most of the authors who have been categorized as "grunge lit" writers
reject the label.[46]

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See also
Apathy
Cabin fever
Drab (color)
Dysthymia
Motivation
References
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