What does it mean to be ‘bored’ in today’s age?
Suppose you’re even slightly privileged (like I am). In that case, your primary problem is not fighting for your rights, demanding equal pay in workplaces or finding yourself on the streets, struggling to eke out a living – it is not being aware of what to do with your free time, which is surprising.
Why so? The entirety of the world’s information is available at our fingertips. Learning a language has never been more accessible – and despite all its focus on narrowing your worldview, YouTube is an equally good starting point for nuclear physics and Machiavellian philosophy. Although more or less finished with the advent of the epidemic, socialising with friends is making a comeback.
What, then, is the problem? I propose the main problem is over-stimulation due to an overt focus on consumption. Content has taken over our lives, for better or for worse. Wherever you’ll go, you’ll find content – music, movies, food, plays, comedy shows, vlogs, viral videos, and so on. ‘Following your passion’ has changed dramatically since the 1960s. Then, it might have meant being a banker instead of opening up your shop – now, it might mean becoming an owner of a digital storefront instead of becoming an investment banker. The more times change, the more things remain the same.
What does it mean to be bored, anyways? Being bored in the time of the Internet Age means, more often than not, you’re not suffering from anhedonia (unable to find happiness in usually pleasurable activities). You’re probably suffering from over-stimulation or hedonic depression, as termed by Fisher. You are either so wired to the Internet and media consumption that you’ve seen most meme formats 20 times over, you’ve explored all the famous and not-so-famous artists of your favourite genres, and you think an abstract short from 1973 is the best movie ever made. Or, even while having done none of these things, you’re still bored because gorging on social media is the same thing anyway.
When you are bored, time ceases to be an arrow, moving forwards from the past to the future. It instead becomes segmented and disconnected – there are only pockets of the present, all disconnected from each other. Time ceases to be an abstract notion, and instead, all your focus is somehow on ‘passing’ the time, making it go even slower than usual.
Mindless media consumption is not to blame, and neither is lethargy. It is easy to blame others for making so much content that you devour till you’re on the verge of puking. It is not easy to have self-control and try to detach yourself and consume media only when you feel the need, due to actual boredom, than some vague notion of emptiness that you hand-wave as boredom.
I’ll give an instance to explain further. Which do you think is better - if you and your friends watch one film in a week (just as a means of fostering togetherness) without bothering about its ratings on Letterboxd or RottenTomatoes, or you pick a movie each day to watch from your favourite podcast? Until a week ago, I’d choose the latter (variable quality vs at least decent quality), but I now think the former might be better instead. It is people who’re scared of the unknown, like us, who grant media outlets the legitimacy to decide on behalf of us – because we either don’t have the time or are unwilling to put effort into finding new things.
Now, I’m not saying people should dive deeper into their hobbies (it’s absolutely up to them, after all). I’m just saying that we should try and move the focus from others to ourselves – because that way, admittedly, you’ll be finding shittier content more often than not – but at least you’ll have more autonomy that way. You’ll feel much more confident about the stuff you do.
Another thing I feel has utterly destroyed the art of consumption and utility is ratings - whether it’s for food, media, movies, products and books. Ratings in themselves are neither good nor bad - but they’re significantly misused. It’s much easier to say ‘Let’s watch this because this is highly rated!’, instead of ‘Let’s watch this because I want to!’. Ratings have the potential to destroy your autonomy. Your time of experiencing something becomes no longer an act of sparking emotion - it instead becomes an act of judging if the media’s rating or hype is justified or not, hence the terms ‘underhyped’ and ‘overhyped’.
I now feel the joy of discovery is not in consuming ten thousand pieces of media considered ‘good’ and basing your entire personality upon the best thousand. It is to expand your taste, as far removed from external influence as possible, solely because you can. The journey of discovery is precisely that – a journey, with no start, no destination and no end-goals – very similar to life itself. I think we all know someone or the other who claim they are ‘unhappy’ and consider moving to different jobs or expanding their taste will help – and they still find themselves in the same state of mind even after they’ve made the changes. The state of boredom is also very similar. Since I’ve realised I can’t force away boredom or do something to lessen it – I’ve tried embracing it for a change.
Learning a new language, going for long walks without my phone or a watch, talking to friends and family members I haven’t spoken to in years, trying cooking – these are all things I’m planning on doing every day. There are so many things I’ve always wanted to do, but I haven’t because I was scared I’d be bad at it. I’ve never tried embracing the present – it’s easier to get caught up in how good the past was or how promising the future can be. It hurts to realise, but the fact is that the present is all we have – try staying in the moment for once. Try showering without music for a change, and try staring at the ceiling with your doors closed, with only your thoughts for company. If you’re unhappy with your job, change it, don’t just accept it as the ‘way things are’ – there’s no point in sacrificing your happiness for a bit of money and being loyal to a corporation that will laugh you off if you try to ask for a wage increase.
We live in an era of constant over-stimulation and instant gratification, with little to no self-control. Residing in constant over-stimulation a la Huxley or our thoughts cultivated by algorithms a la Orwell is not a happy thought. It is challenging to develop self-control, but we can easily cut down stimulation, and we can, and should - learn to appreciate things more. If that means lowering our bar for quality (which is arbitrarily defined anyways), then so be it.
The only eternal companion your thoughts will have is you - so it’s never a bad idea to figure out what makes you tick and mould your taste according to that - and not the other way round.