IN PRAISE OF BOREDOM

‘This is boring!’ The standard battle cry of the restless teenager. My classroom response is ‘No, you’re just bored. The difference is subtle, but important. Should I explain it?’

Usually they choose no. Let me explain anyway, because I think it’s important. In many ways boredom is like hunger, a signal that the body, or mind, craves something more. The signal is a healthy one. Time to turn your attention to the getting a little more of what you need. But as the environment changes, so too does the healthy response.
 
‘I’m hungry,’ says the child. ‘Dinner will be soon,’ replies the parent. It’s a sensible, instinctive reply. Hang on to that hunger a little while longer, you’ll have an appetite for some of the things you need, like nutrition, rather than filling up on what you’d prefer right now, which is junk. Occasional hunger, in other words, is healthy.

And it’s the same, I would argue, with boredom. The difference is that educators and parents are perhaps not as quick to recognise this. Boredom, in moderation, provides many benefits. Here are some of them:
Boredom is the window through we escape into the world of the imagination. The child who is lucky enough to learn the art of daydreaming, has a wonderful head start when it comes to creativity. It is only when we are able to turn away from the demands of instant stimulation that the untethered mind can be given its full range. The child in the back seat of the car, facing down the long journey to the beach, has the opportunity to create worlds inside their head. I still love doing that.

Opportunity number two comes when we consider another cause of boredom, which is not so much a lack of stimulation as a lack of engagement. Often, in order to engage, some groundwork is necessary. It’s much harder to enjoy watching a sport if we haven’t fully grasped the rules. Many great films and novels take a while to get going. If we always throw the book to the floor, or flick through the channels looking for a car chase or explosion, we deprive ourselves of a much richer level of engagement. If we see boredom as a thing to work through, in order to reach rewards then the rewards, ultimately, are greater.

There is a social element here, too. One of the great causes of boredom is a heavy level of self involvement. If there are eight people in the room having a discussion, then you probably are going to have to spend more time listening that speaking. And if the only voice you find interesting is your own, then you’re going to be very bored. One solution is to seek only social gatherings where the opportunity for monologues is high. The other, is to develop to listen attentively, the interest will become real, and you will have escaped the lonely fate of the social cretin.