The Boredom

Boring. Boooring. The word itself seems so heavy, it’s like being bloated, feels like having the mouth full of tasteless Aldi gorgonzola cheese, the philosopher Seneca himself defines boredom as a kind of nausea and this should let us think that boredom is not just a modern thing but it was already well known even in the past.

Boredom is the weirdest between all the feelings, the only one that you can’t even categorise, everyone gives it a different interpretation. Wikipedia says:”In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotion characterized by uninterest in one’s surrounding, often caused by a lack of distractions or occupations.” And I cannot disagree more; I don’t believe that boredom is an uninterested state, and I don’t think it’s lack of distractions. All of this gives the term a negative and passive meaning, as if we should always been entertained by someone or something in order to stay active and we can’t do anything about it.

Those who were born between the 80’s and the 90’s are probably the last generations to have lived boredom for real. Before the arrival of internet and all the technologies related to it people had less distractions; we played outside, hung out with friends, chat for hours in the square (not me actually, I was the weirdo manga lover who was always at home reading, drawing and listening to music, anyway..) and after that? We got bored, but bored for real, there was no Tik Tok or IG scrolling to fill that time gap; I have so many memories of me as a kid sitting on the stairs outside with a frowning look, or laying down in my bedroom as a teenager staring at the all the famous quotes on post-it I loved to attach on my wall on top of my bed hoping that one of those memorable and empowering phrases would light up a brilliant idea on my head, something to do, something to draw, something to achieve, and sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t and I could be bored for hours, but, before entering the chain of the working productivity, I never thought it was a waist of time; I still remember the feeling, the sensation of having infinite choices, I could become anything in my life if in that moment I would have taken one decision instead of other. That boredom led me to paint, it increased in me the desire of travelling, to look outside the window and desiring of leaving my room, it led me to leave my country and starting a job as digital painter in the UK, and, as a matter of fact, I started this article because of boredom.

But what about today?

I don’t think people today are bored, I think more they want to switch off their brain, we are bombarded by so many inputs constantly, life is way more faster than in the past, we must endless produce and people are exhausted so at the end of the day they just look for something to entertain themself, therefore they spend hours a day watching reels and tik toks on socials to get entertained and “relax”, like spoiled princes and princesses pretending to be entertained by jesters in a court. People are addicted by the entertainment, they cannot allow themself to feel bored, otherwise they’re gonna start to feel ashamed for not being productive in this society.

Here is my definition of boredom:

Boredom is the chance to find an alternative within a state of impossible choices. It’s an open world, boredom can be anything and you have to face the challenge to find a solution.

We are really bored when we cannot do what we really want, let me do some examples.

Make applications for jobs is boring, writing over and over the same informations knowing that no-one will read it seams pretty useless and nonsense (booring), I would rather much prefer go outside and take photos or write what I want, but, you know, bills and stuff.

I’m bored when I do chores, I hate it, I would prefer read a book instead, but I have to if I don’t want to end up on the next episode of Buried alive.

As adults sometimes we just cannot do otherwise than the boring stuff and that’s it, but sometimes, when we don’t have the landlord knocking at the door asking for another rent price increase, we should let the boredom to invade us, let it pass through us and feel it moving from the head to the toe, don’t rush it, you have to let your brain to elaborate it, it can be painful not doing anything, we tend to rush the process and be productive, fight yourself, it is in that moment that you’re activating the creative area in your brain. From boredom creativity will thrive. The creative process is starting.

From now on, every time you will think ‘I’m bored’ don’t be sad, you’re just said ‘I have infinite possibilities ahead, which way do I want to take?’

I think it is very sad that today’s society is pushing people to be more and more productive ‘till there will be no time left for thinking, can you believe that? It seems obvious, of course we think, but have you ever been sit at your desk just thinking? No phone, no YouTube, no online shopping, just you and your thoughts. Today I believe it is one of the most privileged thing: thinking.

I would love to know in which moment or period in your life you felt very bored and what, and if something was born from your boredom.