Bored: Feeling weary and impatient because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity.
I’ve taken the trouble to post the dictionary definition of ‘bored’ above because it’s becoming increasingly rare for people to be bored in the world we live in. When was the last time you were properly bored? So bored that you had to try and find something to do to occupy yourself? Soon, for all we know, boredom may well become extinct.
I say this because a recent survey of over 35s in the UK found that boredom levels were “at an all time low” and that 80% are “rarely or never bored”. As many as 63% of respondents said they were less bored than they were 20 years ago. The top two ways people use to battle boredom in that age group are watching TV and reading a book. But technology is fast becoming an important weapon in the war against ennui. Looking at a smartphone was third in the list, followed by using a computer or laptop. Using a tablet was in eighth place.
It’s significant that technology is so highly placed given that the respondents are over 35. The survey found that three-quarters of those surveyed said their lives were better because they had a smartphone. More worryingly, it found respondents unlocked their phones, stared at the screen and put them away without accomplishing anything more than 10 times a day.
While stimulation levels have never been higher, attention spans are shortening. The survey found that it takes an average of 47 seconds of reading an article online before people’s attention starts to wander.
Greg Tatton-Brown at casumo.com, which commissioned the survey, chose to highlight the positive aspect of the war against boredom: “It’s great to see that the country is less bored than ever before and that many people have their smartphones or computers to thank. With any luck, in another 20 years boredom may be gone completely.”
Take a moment
All well and good if you truly believe that boredom is an enemy that needs to be vanquished once and for all. Not so much if you believe, as several studies have shown (a number of which are referred to in this article at Fast Company), that boredom increases creativity and boosts critical thought.
The flashing warning light from the casumo.com survey is the reduction in attention spans as the opportunities to be bored diminish. The worrying aspect is that people in the lower age groups are likely to be far more attached to their smartphones than those in the over-35 age groups which means their capacity for boredom and creative thinking is going to be even lower.
Technology is playing a very big role in this trend. You can argue that the people making things that distract us when we look at our phones are being creative but it’s at the expense of our own creativity. Sometimes, looking out the window at nothing or staring at the ceiling really is much better for you than looking at another funny cat video on your smartphone.
Iggy Pop once even wrote a whole song about being bored called, appropriately enough, I’m Bored. The song began with the following lyric: “I’m bored, I’m the chairman of the bored”. The fact the song exists demonstrates, all too clearly, the creativity that can emerge from boredom.
In 20 years time, if Tatton-Brown is right, anyone who finds the song playing through their smartphone will have no idea what Pop is singing about. Unless it’s being used as accompaniment to a video of a bored cat.
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