Boredom

Boredom is a reactive state of emotion that interprets the condition of one's environment as wearingly dull due to repetitive, non-existent or tedious stimuli. Boredom stems from a lack of interesting things to see, hear, or do (physically or intellectually) when not in the mood of "doing anything." Often it is a clearly subjective state; one person may find a classical music concert "boring," for example, while another may find it riveting.

Those afflicted with temporary boredom may regard the affliction as a waste of time, but usually characterize boredom as far worse. Alternatively, one may have the feeling that having too much spare time causes boredom. Indeed, time often appears to move more slowly to someone who experiences boredom, resulting from the way in which the human mind measures the passage of time and by the infrequency of notable events. Boredom can also occur as a symptom of clinical depression and may lead to impulsive (and sometimes excessive) actions that serve little purpose and could damage one's self interest. For example, studies in behavioral finance have shown that stock traders can enter into "overtrading" (buying or selling even without any objective reason to do so) simply because they feel bored when they have nothing "productive" to do.

Boredom can come from a lack of interest in a topic. This could result in a neuroreaction, in which case the mind wavers from the topic and into a subconcious thought. The brain will automatically go into a state, exempt from the objects around, but more focused on the matter in the "dream" state of mind. Boredom is similar to daydreaming, in a sense, because in both cases, the person thinks of an imaginable thought. In the case of boredom, however, the person's imagination takes over subconciously to pursue a more enjoyable thought. Often when one is bored, they invent things to solve this boredom, productive or not.

The Arts

The pop singer Iggy Pop had a minor hit with his song "I'm Bored" during which he would strip his clothes off while delivering a monotonous rendition of the lyric: "I'm bored, I'm the chairman of the bored".

Douglas Adams depicted a robot named Marvin whose boredom led to his cynical attitude which in turn led to a deep comical depression which appeared to be the defining trait of his personality, and indeed, existence, in his series of novels that began with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The Deftones, wrote a song titled "Bored" for Adrenaline.

One of the first recorded songs of punk band Buzzcocks was entitled "Boredom", and was released on the Spiral Scratch EP. It features a minimalist guitar solo of two repeated notes.

The band Tool wrote a hit song "Stinkfist", featuring the lyrics "Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear".

Blink-182 have a song entitled "Boring" on their album Dude Ranch.

Pet Shop Boys have song entitled Being Boring on their 1990 album Behaviour. The title was inspired by the Zelda Fitzgerald quote "she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring".

Green Day's song "Longview" is entirely about being bored at home alone.

The song First We Take Manhattan by Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen starts with the line "They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom".

Philosophy

Arthur 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".

The Arts

Philosophy

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The Arts

Philosophy

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