• Question: Why do we get bored?

    Asked by asiansupreme to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 27 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Oooh that’s a good question.

      I know when I get bored – I tend to get bored when I’m asked to do something that I find really easy. I also get bored when I try to listen to/watch/read something that I’m not really interested in.

      As to why that actually is…. I don’t know

      Perhaps one of the others knows the answer?

      Do you get bored a lot? What tends to make you bored?

    • Photo: Michael Cook

      Michael Cook answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Did you know that boredom wasn’t common in society at all until up until around 1900? The word didn’t really exist and there’s not much writing about it. Over the last century-and-a-bit though, it’s become much more common. Society has changed a lot!

      As Emma says, boredom is often caused by not being interested in something we’re doing. But boredom is a bit mysterious too – it’s not very well studied, and sometimes we get bored simply for no reason at all! Like Emma, I don’t know much more than that.

      Some supporters of videogames think they’re one of the best ways to combat boredom! What do you do when you’re bored?

    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      That’s interesting, I didn’t know that boredom was such a new concept. Is that because in the past survival was much more difficult and there was little spare time to fill and thus get bored?

      Do we get bored when we can’t engage with something and it doesn’t interest us? We probably get bored when something is very repetitive. But not everyone gets bored doing the same sort of thing, because we all have different interests so maybe there is no one answer to your question…

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