Why do you think people get bored?
 

This may sound like a strange question but why do you think people get bored . I suppose it could be linked to the fact they we are so used to adapting to new things that we are unable to be satisfied by the same things. I honestly have no clue though. It doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose from an evolutionary stand point in itself though.

Whaddya guys think. Why do people get bored?

Because life is empty and meaningless.

But that doesn't stop it from being fun sometimes

Boredom is a core construct in existentialist thought, it's the essential human condition. When one is 'bored', they are confronting the nothingness of being. Life can be fun, and often is, but only because people are actively pursuing activities and interests, expending their energies, in the attempt to steer clear of the anxiety and dread that accompanies the realisation that everything's meaningless.

Of course, if you do not subscribe to existentialism, I'm sure you'll have another explanation for it.

When I grow truly bored, I develop a headache.

I definitely feel like that. I take a fairly optimistic way of looking at it though. Like I have faith in myself that I won't be bored but I definitely see it as an active pursuit as you describe it.

We seem to need constant stimulation to stay in the present moment.

When there is no stimulation from outside ourselves we think we have attained stasis between threats perceived and dealt with.

For some reason fear then gives way to doldrums.

Instead of appreciating serenity we instead turn within and project catastrophies into the future, based upon past experiences. This inner dialogue creates stress, which has no outlet if we do not actively process it through some kind of movement.

Stress saps strength, without any sense of satisfaction in doing something productive to "better our circumstances."

Fear turned outward is anger.

Fear turned inward is depression.

Depression saps motivation. We languish in the doldrums of inactivity, and miss the hungry years when we found meaning through successfully negotiating challenges.

We seek Rx through retail therapy (AKA G.A.S.).

That will be $25.
I'll invoice ya.

Can you explain what you mean by this?

Means we're not self-motivated, as a species.

Given a choice between taking our chances outside the cave to forage for food at the risk of being eaten by bears, we're far more likely to remain in the cave, take another bong hit, and call out for a pizza delivery.

If we were wired to be complacent we'd sit on our asses and experience being directly, instead of taking dominion over creation and eventually paying The Fed to sell us our own money at interest.

That's the short form.


Yes I left out some evolutionary details, but that's a start.


We need SOMETHING to drive us out of our comfort zone. That something is not likely to spring from within (except perhaps as hunger).

"Stimulation from outside" can be, but is not limited to, the empirical needs of sufficient water, food, shelter, and social grouping for mutual benefit. Once these basic needs are met, the threat implied by their lack is diminished, and too the motivation to keep moving to towards broader goals unless a motivation is generated from an imagined (inwardly created from projection into the future) threat(s).

Keeps you occupied?

I think boredome is a state of mind. There's never nothing to do. You just don't feel like doing anything.
I read somewhere that being bored is actually developing the brain.
Hence the headache :D

when you're ground to the ground with routine and ennui, boredom sets in

it's just the same thing day in day out, except that it's "different" than the day before

Its hard though some days its easy to see this and some days it feels like everything is meaningless. At least its like that for me. I sometimes can go a whole day and just not feel or experience anything and be totally numb. Today was like that for me which was bad because for 3 hours of it this girl I knew was talking to me and never really caught on I wasn't all that interested and zoned out for a very significant portion of it.

I usually feel numb when I feel bad.
The story about the girl... Find different people to talk to.
I know people like that and I try to avoid them like the plague.

The only times I've gotten bored regularly the last few years have been in lectures that were either too simple or too difficult so that I didn't manage to connect with what was being taught. In other words, I got frustrated with having to sit and wait for something to be over and done with before I could do something I liked. I can't say I felt there's much existentialist anxiety involved in being bored on my part, at least not consciously, but then again I don't normally suffer from boredom. There's just so much to do during a day!

i do suffer from a lot of existentialist angst

It may not be boredom after all, it's just how you perceive it.

Driven individuals like you & I will have a much more difficult time coping with idle time because to us it represents a complete waste.

Being bored and looking for something to occupy yourself is very different from the state of boredom where nothing seems to interest you. I've experienced both, but the latter state seems to have eroded from my life entirely. And that's not a bad thing at all.

I am quite concerned about my posts in this thread. It seems as though they were written by two different people :O. I don't know how or why my perspective on things fluctuate so immensely. I thought I was growing out of that stuff but evidently not.

Only boring people get bored.

I never get bored.
Awwwww yeah!

Unless you've been having real-world problems I wouldn't worry about a few idle posts here and there. There are old habits (even cognitive ones) that we slip in and out of from time to time.

I know I definitely get a little nuts if I'm low on sleep...

How can you get bored with Nothingface, Lithurgy and Elton John on your Play Queue?

Actually yep that's it. I am extremely sensitive to sleep.

i tend to sleep too much

I haven't slept for 32 hours and don't plan on stopping!

If I get a good sleep im a charming socially suave person who is very empathetic and good to people. When I am tired I turn into a horrid beast who couldn't give a damn about anyone or anything.

Its kind of like Dr.Jekyll

this thread is boring me

And that answers our question

Apparently I'm boring the forumsoftware.

Whenever I'm bored, I check this site.

Always cheers me up.....

This and your post after are amazing. Seriously you put that incredibly well. While it may be overly pessimistic considering we are not all the same it was for all intensive purposes generally true.

Great post mate.

@right track: I dont think thats always true. Sometimes circumstances lead to boredom.

They are boring.

because they have nothing to do?

Kind of the same answer that immediately popped into my head.

If you are on the computer you have to be pretty lame if you can't fins something interesting to do.

Because life is a flurry of meaningless, lukewarm drivel.

because the only thing that makes life interesting is mental stimulation, and i'm sorta finding a dead end as to where that's concerned

yawn

Because we put expectations on ourselves and conditions on reality. We want to be interested, interesting, we want to achieve, to learn, to fill every moment of silence and stillness with noise and motion. We want to feel alive, not realising we needn't work at it. In short we've forgotten how to just be. And just being is never boring.

The world is not a boring place nor a safe place but unless you make it awesome! You can only imagine how capable you really are. The ability to do whatever it takes to make yourself happy. And that is all.