When my kids were living at home, and now when we have the grandkids around there are three poison words at our house.
“I am bored.”
Those three words from a kids mouth sets me off on a tirade that can go the length of the day and the width of a year. I particularly hate it when they say it when we are camping. Usually it comes about because I often pick spots to camp where there is no cell phone coverage. Without screen time they feel bored. Boo-hoo.
But regardless, my cure for kids boredom is to offer them something to do.
“Well we can fix that,” I say.
When I do say that a look of fear comes across their faces, and a wishfulness that they had never uttered those words exudes from their being. I am a legend (possibly in my own mind) on combating child boredom. I do things like hand them an ax and tell them to chop wood, clean out the privy or police the premises. With as many dogs as I have around there is a lot of policing to do.
I can reasonably say I have never been bored in my life, or if I have it has been extremely temporary. That is not to say that I haven’t sat through a lot of boring lectures in college, programs that put most people to sleep or dull reading that must be done for work. But my analysis of boring is: if you start to feel that way, talk yourself out of it. Either find interest in what is going on or think of something else. In fact, a time of boring things going on, can, in my mind, be some of the most creative times one can have.
People fight boredom in different ways. Some turn to food, others turn to things like alcohol or drugs. Wonderful; there is nothing more boring than a dull drunk.
Personally having studied boredom in my kids and their offspring for years, I think it is a state of mind like temporary insanity. Self cure is the best way to fix it. That means, by hell, do something about it. I am sure it is a lot more complicated than I give it credit for, but it just seems so simple to me. All you have to do is change your mindset.
The website Fast Company put out an article in 2013 that says that scientists have been studying boredom for some time now and they feel there are five types of boredom. Here is the list with my analysis based on my limited experience.
•Indifferent boredom. This is type of boredom includes relaxation. There’s that dull drunk again.
•Calibrating boredom. This is what I do. If I find something boring, I move on in my mind to something more interesting and tune out the boring crap that is going on. This is the kind of boredom CPA’s count on with people who don’t really like to hear all the numbers. Some of us only want to hear the bottom line, not all the diligence that goes into it regardless of how neat a system a beancounter has devised to make it sound complicated and interesting.
•Searching boredom. Trying to deviate from the task at hand. When you are 22 and sitting in a physics lecture at college, instead of listening, you look at the cute blond on the front row, or you think about how good that pizza and beer you ate last night tasted. I could mention a million things on this list. This is what my grandkids should do instead of telling me how bored they are (well but not the beer or the blond).
•Reactant boredom. This is basically thinking about all the better things you could do rather than putting up with your present situation. This kind of boredom reaction may even drive someone to jump up on the table at an executive business meeting, dance around on it and tell everyone in the room where to go. I have thought about doing this a few times in my business life, but have never had the courage to implement such a plan. Of course taking that action leads to the kind of boredom that results from looking for a new job (see the next type of boredom below).
•Apathetic boredom. While reactant boredom can be unpleasant (after you are done doing the jig on the table and you are fired for being a crazy person) this type is totally unpleasant. This boredom can be depressing, because it seems to the person feeling it that life may not be worth living. I have a good example of this: my first marriage. But the details of that need not be recounted here.
So there you have it. I have to wonder about the scientists who put this list together. Do you think they ever get bored thinking about boredom? Or more weirdly, do you think that boredom excites them? Do they realize the are they boring themselves and others in the process? Apparently one scientist is thinking about how a persons level of boredom can be displayed on their Fit-Bit so the person can do something about it.
Just what I need, something for my grandkids to look at to prove they are bored.
The nature of boredom
Richard Shaw