h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear all,

I have seen more conversations in h2g2 about bored people than anything else. Could someone please explain once and for all the psychological state of mind of a bored person. When I am bored I don't want to sleep, eat, work, play, watch TV or do anything.
Is there a trick to escaping this black hole of despair or is evolution just having a laugh because... well... it's bored? Why do people become bored and why do we become miserable as a result of it?

Could we please get to the bottom of this!

Yours sincerely,

Hammer Head.

P.S. No bored people allowed to post on this conversation for health and safely reasons. Thank you. People have been know to die of boredom in the past.

"People have been know to die of boredom in the past."

It's true, you know. Take George Sanders, for example.

Myjo

As a parent, I hear all too often " I'm bored!" My reply? Life is full of boreing things but it is up to you to makeing boreing things interesting. Personallu, I often do "boreing things" but at the same time, tdry to balance out those "things" with something which stimulates my brain. I try to read a good book, go for a walk in nature, come up with some future textile design or simply sit in front of the TV with a knitting needle in hand. Obviously, Boredom is a state of mind so it is up to the mind to figure out what stimulates it. Example- When I am unable to sleep (far too often) I get up and go to my computer and visit museums around the world. (The Smithsonian is my present favourite.) I use my "boredom time" to my advantage. I awake in the morning knowing that in my previous state of agitation, I learn't something. In my way of thinking, there is no excuse for boredom. Life has too much to offer. Next time you rake the leaves , see a piece of wood, walk the streets in a large Metropolis, look beyond the inidtial facade and I guarantee, the boredom will fade away, as you sssee beyond the obvious. Sorry, when I have more than 2 glasses of wine I abecome a little too introspective K

boredom is a state the human mind strives to avoid. it is the drive behind our creativity. to this extent it is strangely vital

Who is George Sanders...died of boredom??? what was so boring?
Andrea

Also, in today's society, one must make the distinction between bored and jaded.
Andrea

'Good discourse prevents drowseyness', doesn't it also help prevent bordum? Mental stimulation is, I guess the key, whatever that mental stimulation; I'm equally not bored whilst mopping the floor, as when I'm alligning DNA sequences or searching promoter regions for TF binding sites... I think perhaps, the increase (if there is indeed an increase), in boredom is a symptom of society. We (many of us), rely to heavily on having our entertainment 'done for us', watching TV would be the prime example, as it all too rarely actually involves much real engagement of the passive TV-watcher. Hence why discourse can engage more througherly, making one part of the process as opposed to a passive observer. Drugs help

Funny that this question was asked. I've been wondering what being bored is myself for months, can't actually remember the last time I was bored and I hear it from other people all the time too.

I think not being bored has a lot to do with the fact that I don't watch tv. I watch other things instead, things I think many people would find 'boring'. For me it's in discovering the subtle changes that occur constantly in my life, which is actually very simple compared to many people's lives. There's no way possible for me to be bored when I see the transformation in the colors of things as the light changes, for example. Lately I've been going to the beach almost every morning and sitting at the same place watching. It never looks the same one moment to the next or one day to the next. Yesterday the sky was mostly overcast with just a tiny space between the clouds that allowed beams of light to break through and illuminate a spot on the ocean around a cruise ship with the most brilliant gold chunk amidst the softer shades of water and sky that weren't being shined through. I took it as an omen of sorts because I was having an difficult day emotionally, filled with gloom. So throughout the day I kept looking for the surprising chunks of light in my regular life and kept finding them, and I ended the day feeling really happy that the gloom was there as a contrast to the normal vividness that surrounds me.

I don't know if that'll make sense to anyone else. I don't think it's possible to be bored when you pay attention to your surroundings and hold them in your mind as a symbol of your own connectedness to the rest of the world. And you can chose the symbols to use as you need them, because variety is everywhere.

"Being bored is a state of mind, not a lack of resources" (Mark Steel: Reasons to be Cheerful)

A good quote, I feel.

Sometimes you have to start something - or restart something, though every nerve in your body and mind is whimpering Apathy! Learning to surmount that hurdle is one of the most valuable lessons you can learn in life.

Telly is chewing gum for the brain. You feel like you're doing something, but your mind is getting no real sustenance from it. Set limits to your tv watching and throw yourself at something more constructive!

...only *one* kntting needle, kaese?

I hardly ever watch TV anymore. Of course, not having a TV helps with that, I just couldn't see the point in getting a TV as the only time I watch it when at my Fathers, it is only 'because it is there', I don't have a TV in the 'center' of the room; that is where teh Hi-Fi sits, tuned into the radio from when I get up and for most of the day on from then

George Sanders was a movie star of the silver screen era. Younger generations would be most likely to know him as the voice of Shere Khan, the tiger in Disney's 'The Jungle Book'. He committed suicide in 1973, leaving a note which said, "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."

Myjo

Beats "Goodbye cruel world."

I would say boredom is a lack of new sensory stimuli. Which for some reason we see as a bad thing. Probably due to evolution, the same thing that gave us curiosity so we could learn more. But what the first person described as boredom "When I am bored I don't want to sleep, eat, work, play, watch TV or do anything" sounds to me more like a depression. To me boredom is not being able to find joy in anything I do anymore. And as mentioned about the TV, people nowadays are not used to have to do something active to be entertained. So you might stay bored, because you don't consider that in order to stop being bored, you might have to leave the armchair.

More to the point, what's a television?

Boredom is indeed a lack of stimulus. The brain normally likes to keep its activity levels fairly constant. Both too much and too little stimulus cause stress. I think there's more boredom about because we have fewer survival challenges, and/or fewer really worthwhile goals where we feel we can make a difference.

Noggin

Mother of God- In my mind, we are definately on the same page. Colovisecat,"Kasese, only one knitting kneedle? I did say I had had two glasses of wine! Perhaps I should knit socks and use FOUR! K