BOREDOM. discuss...

Jul 5

12 min read

Plate 41. Study made on the typewriter. (Albers, 2017)

Notes on Boredom: a sort of abstract/ long read/research paper/ monologue/reflection/podcast(?)

Serving suggestion: I recommend listening to this essay, rather than reading it because the speaking function on a laptop or phone adds a little something special to the experience (Well mine does anyway and it’s funny how the computer voice changes with different words)

Eric Fromm got me thinking about boredom and how it is a bigger problem than it is given credit for. Or rather it is at the root of more problems than it is given credit for and it is made use of for other things - capitalism?

Elif Shafak talked about boredom in Bastard of Istanbul;

‘Boredom is the summary of our lives day after day we wallow in ennui’ her wise granny character said this.

Various writers have lit a flame of curiosity in me so now I’m writing about it. Probably should say something about Covid and boredom that was inflicted upon people and I’m going to argue that it was a good thing for Society but also a bad thing because as I always say, there is no good or bad because that’s kind of binary, let’s see.

Let’s look at it from a karmic point of view….There were different consequences of that or different effects of that

-cause and effect

-intentional and unintentional consequences.

Personally, I love boredom.

I thought I hated it but it definitely spurs me onto doing things or maybe now that I’ve accepted it and make use of it.

It’s not boredom that’s a problem, it’s how we make use of it so how do you make use of your boredom? Do you fight it? What tools do you use? Phone? Sport? Relationships? Food? TV?

How about don’t fight it, ‘fighting’ is a strong word.

How about ‘allow it’ and allow yourself the freedom to choose how to make use of it because it’s inevitable and can be a motivation. More on that later…

My grandmother (wisdom) used to say ‘only stupid people get bored’ and that is another thing I want to deep dive into but I take from that the idea that if you’re bored, you’ve run out of ideas and run out of curiosity. I think she meant that people who are not curious are stupid. Bit harsh but she was basically Victorian.

Maybe to live a good life you need to be good at dealing with boredom and I think this probably goes back to something else that I’ve read from some psychologist or person cleverer than me, who has said that as humans we are brought into the world by someone else and we have a lifespan that is somewhat outside our control and we can do whatever we want with our lives - that’s freedom - and in let’s say for arguments sake, ‘privileged societies’ we don’t have to struggle with basic survival but we are bored and so all of the things we do in life could be seen as being there to stop us getting bored - result of the industrialisation and rise of middle classes - conspicuous consumption et al**

But I believe boredom leads to creativity and creativity makes humans happy because it’s self actualising, as Maslow would say and I think neuro-aesthetics would agree*

I am writing about boredom because it is something which seems to (and has been linked to) define some of the ills of society. However for me boredom is intrinsically linked to creativity and so there is a methodology there so I am doing a deep dive to see what others say about it as a form of reflection - which may help others (my students) and anyone else who may come across my writing (serendipitously or algorytmically)

Connections:

Craft and boredom - arts and crafts movement - shall I talk about the positive effects of craft?

Craft something constructive to relieve boredom - because it has other benefits

Creativity and boredom - situates boredom as part of the process - cause/ effect

‘Boredom has been acknowledged as a necessary moment before creation. Throughout the history of modern architecture, influential figures – including Le Corbusier and Philip Johnson – have confessed to suffering the condition, denoting that the desire to elude it has been a fundamental factor in their work. Moreover, due to the monotonous and anonymous processes required for the assembly of architecture, boredom ensues from the lack of opportunities of personal expression’ (Parreno, C 2020)

Interesting, he talks about boredom which comes from the lack of opportunity for self expression in genres like architecture (I decided against architecture at university because there was too much maths and not enough of what I called ‘creativity’ or art and my career was determined by a navigation of the enjoyment of artistic pursuit and feeling like I had done work which had integrity/ credibility/ paid well and gave some job security/ financial security

Mental health and boredom; In society we hear of ‘youth’ being bored and getting into trouble/ criminal activity

Capitalism and boredom; do you suffer from boredom? buy this...

I had some time off work recently and decided to inflict upon myself a sort of boredom which I sometimes fear and fight against but also love, as I do feel it allows some of my inner thoughts to process, in a way I can’t in the everyday chaos of life.

France gave me that space.

As a Taurus I love comfort and nature and food and warmth and quiet (in moderation obviously) And also solitude, I think, as long as it is balanced.

I noticed shapes and colours of nature in an appreciative way, I had time to notice and it made me want to respond (Art)

I got frustrated because I couldn’t decide how to respond (draw/photograph/write)

I left curtains open so I could see the day begin and end

I listened to the birds

I swam in a lake and had to overcome some mental barriers to do that- worrying about what people thought/ fear of getting it wrong/ fear of injury/worried about permission (hypothetical worries)

I enjoyed doing menial tasks like washing and weeding

I listened to life

I did one thing at a time

I walked half an hour into town to get a pan aux chocolate and coffee, then had another, then walked back home

When I slowed down and did one think at a time I was more engaged in the task and found a sort of peace within it.

So back to my deep dive into Boredom Literature… This is what I found:

PONs (persons of note) who deal with Boredom:

Andreas Elpidorou (recent/ Psychology)

Eric Fromm (Sociology/interdisciplinary Obviously)

Foundational perspectives:

Kant- of course

Kierkegaard - yep

Schopenhauer- not sure

Mill- who are you?

Nietzsche - oh you again

Heidegger- go on then

Literary contexts: (collected from Elpidorou)

Ancient Philosophical Perspectives

Religious and Medieval Explorations

Modern Philosophical Investigations

Critical and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Topics include boredom in:

Socratic dialogue,

Daoist

Buddhist traditions

Stoicism

Cynicism

the religious significance of boredom in Judaism and early Christianity

boredom's role in the works of

philosophical pessimism

phenomenological approaches - ooh what’s this area?

*Phenomenology more on that later…

I’m missing the creative perspective!!

Maybe artists?

Albers?

Barthes?

William Morris?

This might mean interpreting visual art rather than reading literature but let’s see.

Will probably have to be more on this later I think....

I digress...

These people seem to be the contemporary thinkers to consult on Boredom: ( ie. their names keep coming up in my research)

Josefa Ros Velasco and Andreas Elpidorou (2025) The history and Philosophy of Boredom, Routledge

Elpidorou, A. (2014). The Bright Side of Boredom. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1245. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01245

So what are they saying?

On the downside….they found that:

Boredom is thought to be disruptive and harmful (Dostoevsky, 1962, p. 418; Stendhal, 1975, p. 211; Burton, 1621/2001, p. 390; Pessoa, 2002, p. 76; Novalis in Donehower, 2012, p. 48), a great source of unhappiness and suffering (Schopenhauer, 1966, pp. 204, 312–313, 321; Beckett, 1978; Nisbet, 1982, p. 26; Kierkegaard, 1987, pp. 37, 285–286; Fromm, 1990; Schachtel, 2001, p. 183) and, ultimately, a state that hinders the development of one’s intellectual, social, and even moral capacities (Dante’s Purgatorio, XVII-XIX; Cassian, 2000; Sinkewicz, 2003; Pascal, 2004, pp. 40, 163). Boredom, as “the root of all evil,” is a problematic state (Kierkegaard, 1987, p. 286); it has very few, if any, redeeming characteristics

Oh.

The Boredom Lens:

‘Indeed, the frequent experience of boredom forms something akin to a pervasive lens through which the world is filtered.

‘But first, more needs to be said about the very nature of the state of boredom. In terms of its affective (or qualitative) character, boredom is an aversive state that is characterized by feelings of dissatisfaction, restlessness, and weariness. Although additional feelings might be present during the state of boredom (e.g., mild frustration), the aforesaid feelings are essential to boredom. Not only subjects who experience boredom report on having these feelings, but also, and most importantly, the lack of any one of these feelings would result in a psychological state that is different than boredom (van Tilburg and Igou, 2012; Fahlman et al., 2013; cf. Thackray et al., 1975; Hill and Perkins, 1985; Perkins and Hill, 1985; O’Brien, 2014).’

‘First, boredom is informative: it tells us something both about the world and about ourselves. While bored, our situation is disclosed to us as unfulfilling, uninteresting, unchallenging, or non-stimulating. On account of this disclosure, boredom also informs us of our own goals, interests, and even self perceived wellbeing. Being bored means that we are currently engaged not only in an uninteresting or unchallenging situation, but also in a situation that fails to meet our expectations and desires. Boredom is a state that is about ourselves as much as it is about the world’

‘Second, and most importantly, the negative and aversive experience of boredom acts as a force that motivates us to pursue a goal that appears to us to be more stimulating, interesting, challenging, or fulfilling than the goal that we currently pursue (Barbalet, 1999; van Tilbury and Igou, 2012; Bench and Lench, 2013).’

Because the experience is not so good it pushes us towards a less unpleasant situation (I call this necessary frustrations…)

If u can handle boredom u can handle anything?

‘Boredom thus facilitates the pursuit of alternative goals: it “pushes” us out of this non-stimulating, uninteresting, or unchallenging situation and into another’

‘Boredom is important. It promotes our interests by trying to keep us in touch with what we care about. It safeguards us from emotional traps and long-term dullness’

Boredom and curiosity

Boredom helps ideas flow because in a state of boredom our brain can process in a way that allows for noticing and questioning and wandering...

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered via Blindboy podcast (link in notes)

Known for flow theory.
His work frames creativity as occurring between boredom and anxiety.
Key text: Beyond Boredom and Anxiety ( see notes)
Boredom and balance: talking about over stimulation - cause and effect!

‘Kant famously asserted that boredom is a mental phenomenon related to a type of disgust or loathing toward life. For him, boredom is symptomatic of a personal or ethical failure that is linked to one's inability to properly derive value from physical and psychological efforts.’

So maybe my victorian grandmother had a point…

nice book cover Illustration (can't find the artist to acknowledge)

Notes:

A word on defining what this essay is, for want of a better word. I have deliberately left out some of the structure that would be required if I were to publish this paper in an academic journal or whatever you want to call it there is a methodology there… something that I’m trying out, partly this is because to write this ‘paper’ I have used multiple methods some of which are making notes on my phone while commuting, some of which are random thoughts added in - what I called the bed office - some were made using an audio app on my phone which doesn’t always capture all of my words correctly, but I find it funny.

The decision to publish work before we feel it is ready is an issue that creatives struggle with because it begs the question when is something ready to be published or by published I mean presented, shown to an audience put out there for others to critique and what I’m doing here is playing with that because I have a big voice inside saying ‘why would you put this out on your website for everyone in the world to see and judge you on when it’s clearly not finished?’

Having listened to what I’ve written, using my voice over app which reads my notes aloud so I can listen to it Without my own judgement getting in the way what I mean is judging my sentence structure judging My tone voice judging my use of words because nowadays we have to worry about does what we write sound like we’ve used AI and all these worries become barriers to self expression and that is a problem because Self expression is part of the creative process and it’s also right at the heart of any type of communication and in putting barriers up to that it goes against the whole concept of communication and that is also a strong human trait to be human is to communicate and to express yourself because you can do that. Whereas of the animals don’t have that capacity probably should explain this a little bit better but I think if you’ve read Homo-Sapiens, you will probably understand this and as you know it’s all about methodology.

Okay I lost my trainer. Thought there for a while and then noticed that the app has stopped recording my voice so when I listen back I may or may not edit this depending on how funny it sounds or relevant.

I kept it in…

*Phenomenology is a form of qualitative research that focuses on the study of an individual’s lived experiences within the world. (Neubauer BE, Witkop CT, Varpio L. 2019)

**referencing what has been said by others who I may have forgotten their names but I am very much acknowledging that they said it first and better than I can.

The Blindboy Podcast

This is a Mental Health episode about being Autistic. If you are not Autistic, you might not like it and should listen to Diary of a CEO instead

Season 1, Ep. 455

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

my methodology
by katherine f macdonald

BOREDOM. discuss...

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