“I’m bored”: probably everyone knows this feeling. According to one expert, it’s important to be able to tolerate it or consciously accept it.
A rainy day and no one has time to do anything. The long wait for the late bus. A tough school lesson. Sometimes it can all be terribly boring, tiring and almost unbearable. Deadly boring, they say. Or bored to death. One thing is certain, no one likes boredom. But we show what researchers know about boredom – and what it can be good for.
What is boredom and is it a signal?
“Boredom is the absence of all motivating incentives. There is nothing that would push or pull me,” says psychology professor Oliver Schultheiss from the University of Erlangen. “In scientific terms, boredom is a signal,” says psychologist Maik Bieleke from the University of Konstanz.
“It tells us that we might be wasting our time and encourages us to do something else.” However, research into boredom is still in its infancy. “The research that exists shows that areas of the brain that are related to evaluation processes are active,” says Bieleke.
Is boredom a question of age?
“Children get bored more often and more severely,” says Bieleke. This is because they have fewer opportunities to shape their environment. “Their schedules aren’t that full yet,” adds Schultheiss. In addition, children experience many things for the first time and therefore have no experience at all of how long the car journey to a vacation might take, for example.
“Boredom changes over the course of life,” says sociologist Silke Ohlmeier, who published a book about boredom in the spring. “It peaks in the teenage years. From the twenties onwards, boredom decreases continuously, then increases again as we get older.”
Are some people more bored than others?
Everyone feels bored – but not everyone is always aware of it. “Because it is a basic signal, boredom often affects our behavior without us noticing it,” says Bieleke. On the one hand, this is because there are so many ways to distract yourself or keep yourself busy these days.
“It has become attractive to reach for your smartphone at the slightest hint of boredom.” On the other hand, there are also people who find it easier to come up with ideas for something to do. They then say that they are never or rarely bored.
Silke Ohlmeier describes in her book that this can also be a question of education and financial situation: “Because boredom is such a widespread everyday phenomenon, it is often referred to in research as a democratic feeling.”
This may be true for situational boredom – the kind you feel when you’re stuck in a traffic jam, for example. The situation is different for chronic boredom, which you might feel in your job or your current life situation. For example, if you don’t have much money, you won’t risk changing jobs and you’ll go to the cinema or do sports less often.
The three types of boredom
In an interview with Die Zeit, the expert explains that sociological research distinguishes between three types of boredom: situational boredom, which has no long-term consequences, and chronic boredom – for example, when a trainee does not get enough exciting tasks over a long period of time. The third type is existential boredom, “where one’s whole life seems boring.”
Existential boredom can have far-reaching consequences, she explains. Studies show, for example, that this type of boredom is often associated with depression, addiction and eating disorders.
Should you endure this feeling sometimes?
“When there is little external stimulation, the brain tends to switch on its mind’s eye,” says Schultheiss. Daydreaming is a strategy against boredom that can unleash creativity. “We need this time out for our brain.” Boredom in itself is important, but is not an end in itself, says Bieleke. “I believe that we always have to weigh up why I want to endure it.” In school, for example, this can be useful so that you learn something and get good grades.
Ohlmeier also advocates allowing yourself to be chronically bored sometimes. If you cram your week full of appointments, you’ll just numb the feeling, she says. “It’s important to look at it, to admit that you’re bored, in order to be able to change something in the long term.”
Often you can’t avoid boredom in everyday life – and according to the sociologist, you shouldn’t either. It is important to be aware of why you can put up with boredom: doing your tax return, for example, is boring, but it has an important goal.
But according to the sociologist, boredom is not desirable in the long run, especially not in major areas of life such as work, relationships or being a parent. “If I find my life boring, then it is important to look at it and change it. In order for this to be possible for everyone, regardless of their social position, we must take boredom seriously as a society,” Ohlmeier summarizes.
What is the point of boredom?
“Boredom is an unpleasant feeling and people do a lot to escape it,” says Ohlmeier. “But the impulse does not give us any direction. It is a myth that boredom per se makes us creative.” Studies have shown that boredom is perceived as even more unpleasant than exertion, explains the sociologist.
“What we do when we’re bored also has a lot to do with what we do in other parts of our lives.” People who watch a lot of television are more likely to combat boredom with television than with sport.
According to Ohlmeier, pleasant experiences and entertainment are not wrong when you are bored, but the meaningfulness of the activity should not be neglected. “The question should not be: How can I minimize my boredom? But rather: What arouses my real interest?”
Can you get bored even though you always have something to do?
According to Ohlmeier, boredom is not so much a question of a lack of quantity, but of a lack of quality. You can have a lot to do, but find it monotonous or pointless, and feel under-challenged or overwhelmed.
An example of this could be parental leave, when mothers and fathers are busy with their toddlers all the time – and sometimes still get bored because they don’t have time for themselves and their cognitive abilities, says Ohlmeier. Even people with supposedly exciting jobs like surgeons or lawyers can get bored if they actually want to be something else.
Can boredom make you sick?
Extreme boredom makes you tired, you feel listless and burned out. “Once we’re really bored, it’s hard to get motivated to do anything,” says Ohlmeier, explaining that she herself suffered from a “boreout” during her training. “Long periods of boredom are not relaxing. It stresses us out and makes us restless.” In the long term, chronic boredom can have serious consequences such as depression, eating disorders and addiction.
Note: Anyone who feels psychologically stressed can find help from the telephone counseling service: On 0800/1110111 or 0800/1110222. Alternatively, there is a chat service at: online.telefonseelsorge.de
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