Bring on the Boredom--No Ho Hum About It

The art of boring other people is now the subject of fascinating studies, and a bunch of psychologists from all over the world are watching its cause and effects.  Are they kidding?  Hardly.  According to an article by Rachel Emma Silverman from The Wall Street Journal, boredom is particularly hot in Canada.

Dr. John Eastwood, a Canadian psychology professor and one of the top researchers in this flourishing field, presents his students with videos of dry instructions in an effort to produce boredom.
 

Dr. John Eastwood

Why?          

 Because psychologists discovered that boredom produces serious health consequences, like depression, overeating, substance abuse, gambling, even heart attacks.  In short, it can kill us.  Who knew?

So what are these scientists trying to do?  They're trying to simulate extremely dull conditions and then measure what it does to the body and mind.   But becoming bored has its problems too.   Scientists say it’s difficult to find something that’s truly dull to everyone.   

Some techniques are tried and true, like tracing circles over and over or counting the appearance of a certain letter in long treatises.  One group of subjects saw a man mowing a lawn and laughed, and one researcher had so many problems finding boring scenes that she finally took her own video of people hanging laundry.  

For heaven sake, haven’t any of them sat in the college classroom of a droning professor where they thought they’d die if they didn’t make it out the door?

People laugh when they hear about boredom, but the topic's so popular that this past November London held its third annual “Boring Conference” to a sold-out crowd of 500 enthusiasts.

Dr. Eastwood found that bored people usually blame their environment and not themselves.  It’s “the task that’s boring” or “there is nothing to do.”  Don’t people ever realize that they were born dull because their parents could put an entire audience of Psycho lovers to sleep?   And that’s after Janet Leigh stepped into the shower.  

So how do we relieve this thing that can eventually cause us harm?

Connecting with other people is a positive move, finding something important in the task that you're doing, or taking a walk might help.

 

Well I guess I’d better finish this blog because (Big yawn. I stand up and stretch).  Maybe I’d better run around the block but not before I call London and tell them I’m coming to their next boring conference.   What could be better than that?