In this interesting post ‘Why Being Bored Is Good‘ this controversial statement is explained in detail. Being bored goes against the natural evolution of our ever-increasing busy, connected, stimulated days. Still it seems that it would be essential to remain bored from time to time.
From a historical perspective, as the post explains, boredom was rather seen as an evil: the source of crime, addiction to games of chance and more generally, anti-social behavior. Therefore the solution was to find some occupation so that people wouldn’t have stray thoughts and too much idle time on their hand.
In the current Collaborative Age, the age of the attention-economy, many devices try to make sure that we don’t get bored, calling our attention any minute with notifications that ensure that we interact with our devices (and provide information for free about ourselves that can be monetized by advertisement). Being bored now rather becomes a luxury, an exceptional state that some will seek to attain. There are books about how getting bored more or better, and how it is essential for our brin development and our creativity.
I’m not quite sure what to make from all those contradictory views. It seems to be quite useful to be from time to time idle, disconnected and well… bored. Therefore in our current world where this becomes rather the exception, it might be useful to try to attain that state from time to time. We’ll certainly see soon being bored as being a respectable holiday goal or activity!
