Is Boredom More Significant Than Other Emotions?

schopenhauer1

Boredom is felt when one's attention is not focused on any particular task, or can originate from a lack of stimulating things to do. It is often described as a dullness or restlessness. It causes one to experience time passing, or rather "pressing" down on us. What makes boredom so significant compared to other emotions is that it is, arguably, the baseline emotional state of being. When the usual concerns and goals of daily life are exhausted, or temporarily unable to be pursued, boredom seems to seep through as the phenomenological default experience. If this is true, that boredom is a baseline experience for humans, then what does that say about the nature of being and existence itself?

If life was to be characterized by various forms of flux and stasis, and stress (in its loosest terms of causing one's homeostasis to be out of balance) is one side of the coin, boredom seems to be the emotional baseline state tied with homeostasis. Perhaps like other higher order animals, our baseline state is boredom, but unlike other animals, our acute awareness of our existence makes us aware of time passing, making it all that more significant as part of the human condition.

We are churning along, striving towards goals related to survival, comfort, and entertainment. The avenues to achieve this occur in our particular cultural and linguistic milieu. The props and plays may be different, but the themes are always the same (survival, comfort, and entertainment). The absence of any particular goal/upkeep routine/entertainment seems to lead to a profound boredom- that which makes us aware of our internal need for pursuing something.

There is the stress of moving this way and that, the stress that is inherent with being alive. There is the anxiety of stasis, of no particular goal in mind, of just being, of being acutely aware of time passing. Human existence is characterized by stress and boredom from our first moment of conscious experience.

wuliheron

Boredom is a first world problem and not natural at all. The price of living in an aggressive culture where contentment is for losers.

Terrapin Station

It always seemed to me that it was mostly kids who got bored. I agree it seems to be a first world problem. And with kids it seems to be that they want highly stimulating, play-like entertainment experiences, where they tend to have narrow interests they want those experiences to be oriented towards. They haven't yet learned to appreciate/enjoy subtleties, simple pleasures and a wider range of interests.

schopenhauer1

They haven't yet learned to appreciate/enjoy subtleties, simple pleasures and a wider range of interests. — Terrapin Station

Your presumption here is that, even for adults, if they are not able to get even these subtleties, simple pleasures, and wider range of interests, they too fall into this baseline state. I'm assuming another contender here is a sort of idling/meditative state. Perhaps some are better at letting their own thoughts entertain them, but I guess this is just one more layer that can be absent at some point, leading to the baseline feeling which is boredom.

Terrapin Station

↪schopenhauer1

Actually, the idea was that the vast majority of adults, they do enjoy subtleties etc. That just seems to be part of growing up. I wouldn't say it's universal, but it seems to be close to it.

Barry Etheridge

I agree it seems to be a first world problem. — Terrapin Station

On what evidence? Do you imagine that people in the third world are happy to be engaged in the same old scrapping for survival everyday and content with tedious repetition? And what possible explanation could there be for that. Brains don't differ in their demands for stimulation on some kind of national or tribal basis. The avoidance of boredom has been a driving force in both technological progress, particularly in labour saving devices, and in the flourishing of entertainment, games and sports, and especially gambling evident in all human societies and cultures.

Terrapin Station

On what evidence? — Barry Etheridge

For one, it's correlated with idleness. And that's one reason that boredom is far less common with adults. Adults are typically too busy to be bored.

The Great Whatever

I've never had much sympathy with this position, because I don't really get bored. I like long stretches of indolence and inertia, and if anything disliked being forced into activity. Boredom means, in a way, that you are not interesting, because something external must stimulate you to make living worthwhile for you. True interest comes from within, nowhere else.

schopenhauer1

↪The Great Whatever

Take away enough distractions, boredom will be there no doubt. There's only so much self-talk one can handle before one gets tired of oneself.

BC

If this is true, that boredom is a baseline experience for humans, then what does that say about the nature of being and existence itself? — schopenhauer1

I disagree that boredom is a baseline experience for humans. The baseline is "rest", unstressed quiet. There are many states of excitation, one of which is boredom. "Being bored" isn't being at rest -- its being irritated, stressed, oppressed, with monotony. Boredom isn't "at rest" -- it's a stress that seeks release. You've been at work, doing some fucking dull pointless activity all day, and are bored out of your mind. That is not a baseline status.

What it says about being and existence is that life is a mixed bag: some pleasure, some suffering--usually not in the preferred combination. In other words, life is a bitch and then we die.

schopenhauer1

I disagree that boredom is a baseline experience for humans. The baseline is "rest", unstressed quiet. There are many states of excitation, one of which is boredom. "Being bored" isn't being at rest -- its being irritated, stressed, oppressed, with monotony. Boredom isn't "at rest" -- it's a stress that seeks release. You've been at work, doing some fucking dull pointless activity all day, and are bored out of your mind. That is not a baseline status.

What it says about being and existence is that life is a mixed bag: some pleasure, some suffering--usually not in the preferred combination. In other words, live is a bitch and then we die. — Bitter Crank

Unstressed quiet, done long enough, leads to boredom.

Agustino

Unstressed quiet, done long enough, leads to boredom. — schopenhauer1

Yes, that is true. You have to do something in your unstressed quiet time. Read something. Watch something. Learn something. Talk with someone. Play chess. Write on TPF. etc. If you don't do anything in your unstressed quiet time and just sit in a chair doing nothing, of course you'll become bored. I have an acquaintance who literarily sits in a chair, smokes weed everyday, and plays video games. Doesn't even go out of the house. He lives with his brother. His brother works, pays the rent and buys the food. He doesn't do anything. He always complains that he's bored. Of course! How can he not be... he's not doing anything, not challenging himself, not focusing his efforts on doing something worthwhile.

All that's saying is that living is challenging though. You can't languish and be satisfied. And I'm sure that @Bitter Crank will agree with that.

schopenhauer1

↪Agustino

You bring up something interesting in a post-work society. I'm going to bring that up as a topic.

Agustino

I've never had much sympathy with this position, because I don't really get bored. I like long stretches of indolence and inertia, and if anything disliked being forced into activity. Boredom means, in a way, that you are not interesting, because something external must stimulate you to make living worthwhile for you. True interest comes from within, nowhere else. — The Great Whatever

>:O You must be like some damn lion lying in indolence and inertia doing nothing. But common - how can one be interested just in themselves without ever desiring (not needing, but desiring) something external? That's like not even being in the world. You're saying that you could just lie on the couch and do literarily nothing day after day, except of course the necessary things like hygiene, food, etc. That seems to be a lie to me.

The Great Whatever

↪Agustino

It seems to be a lie to you that some people don't mind sitting around not doing much? I would attribute that to a lack of life experience, I guess.

Agustino

↪The Great Whatever

>:O No but this was different. This wasn't just sitting doing nothing for one day or a weekend - but a long period of time. Yes, that I have not heard about, apart from in a weed-smoking acquaintance who does that the whole day - see my post to schopenhauer1. I'm curious in what sense do you think "true interest comes from within" - how are you, for example, in your long periods of doing nothing, having true interest in yourself? What do you even mean by that?

The Great Whatever

↪Agustino

So, you haven't heard of it, but you have an example of it from your own personal life?

Agustino

↪The Great Whatever

Did you not read the "apart from"? Perhaps new glasses would be helpful. Furthermore you didn't read that that guy actually does get bored, and quite often. Again, read my post(s) properly.

The Great Whatever

↪Agustino

I don't understand how you think my claim can be a lie, and then attest that it's true for someone you know. Not sure what you're trying to say.

Agustino

I don't understand how you think my claim can be a lie, and then attest that it's true for someone you know. Not sure what you're trying to say. — The Great Whatever

Your claim that you do so and not get bored I find unlikely to be true. That guy does nothing and DOES get bored. There's a difference there.

I have an acquaintance who literarily sits in a chair, smokes weed everyday, and plays video games. Doesn't even go out of the house. He lives with his brother. His brother works, pays the rent and buys the food. He doesn't do anything. He always complains that he's bored. Of course! How can he not be... he's not doing anything, not challenging himself, not focusing his efforts on doing something worthwhile. — Agustino

I doubt that in your long periods of inertia you actually do nothing. You don't play, you don't study, etc. So I'm just inquiring what it is that you actually mean by long periods of inertia - what does that actually and practically mean?

The Great Whatever

Your claim that you do so and not get bored I find unlikely to be true. That guy does nothing and DOES get bored. There's a difference there. — Agustino

OK. You didn't say that in your previous posts, but you said you said you did right after, which was confusing.

I doubt that in your long periods of inertia you actually do nothing. You don't play, you don't study, etc. So I'm just inquiring what it is that you actually mean by long periods of inertia - what does that actually and practically mean? — Agustino

I never said I did nothing, I said I had long periods of indolence and inertia. This also fits with the OP, which mentioned 'when the usual concerns and goals of daily life are exhausted.' But yeah, I can go a long time browsing the internet aimlessly, reading, studying, or just lying down and not thinking about much. I always have things to think about.

Agustino

I never said I did nothing, I said I had long periods of indolence and inertia. This also fits with the OP, which mentioned 'when the usual concerns and goals of daily life are exhausted.' But yeah, I can go a long time browsing the internet aimlessly, reading, studying, or just lying down and not thinking about much. I always have things to think about. — The Great Whatever

Ok thanks for that. See I take that as activity. I myself engage in that kind of activity; it's called the activity of thinking and it's good you're doing that, at least you're using your God-given head, most folks just let it rot or treat it like an unnecessary appendix to be entirely honest with you >:O

Buxtebuddha

Boredom is just another way of identifying depression.

Jeremiah

"Boredom is a first world problem and not natural at all. The price of living in an aggressive culture where contentment is for losers." -

↪wuliheron

There is nothing in this world that is not naturally occurring to this world. I'll even go one further, and say there is nothing in this world that is truly unnatural, as only things which can naturally occur in this world, occur. Humans building cites, making money, driving cars and typing on computers is every bit as natural as a river flowing down the mountain.

Unnatural, and natural is humankind's semantic attempt to pretend they are not a part of nature; that they are not the very arm of nature themselves. As if they somehow magically teleported outside nature and exist separate from it.

So boredom is completely natural, just as birds singing in the trees, and the development of the Atom Bomb.

Jeremiah

↪schopenhauer1

"Boredom is felt when one's attention is not focused on any particular task, or can originate from a lack of stimulating things to do."

Do you have a reference other than your opinion as to what boredom is and how it originates?

"boredom so significant compared to other emotions"

And do you have something other than your opinion to establish it is in fact an emotion?

If you can prove to me, that the mental processes of boredom is the same as say happiness, or sadness, I would be able to view from the perceptive that it is an emotion. However, your opinion that it is an emotion is not very convincing.

So are you speaking factually, and where are you getting your information, or is this opinion? Please clarify, because if boredom does act like other emotions, then that is something I would find interesting, but without something substantial I have to be skeptical.

See the problem with your post, is that I have no clue if you are speaking form a position of factual knowledge or if you are simply stating an opinion.

wuliheron

There is nothing in this world that is not naturally occurring to this world. I'll even go one further, and say there is nothing in this world that is truly unnatural, as only things which can naturally occur in this world, occur. Humans building cites, making money, driving cars and typing on computers is every bit as natural as a river flowing down the mountain. — Jeremiah

That's known as a category mistake and is basic logic 101. When you can no longer identify that you have identified nothing you have personal bullshit to deal with.

Jeremiah

↪wuliheron

Can you define for me where the line between natural and unnatural occurs?

wuliheron

↪Jeremiah

The dictionary makes the distinction between natural and synthetic, or natural and man-made. We make babies, but they're supposedly made by God or nature and we just get to help. Not that I draw strict lines in the sand myself, but without at least being able to express what synthetic means you are talking in circles and the word becomes meaningless. Along the lines of saying every direction is up.

Jeremiah

↪wuliheron

Yes, the dictionary, definitely the epitome of the philosophical edge. My shit is man-made, is that therefore unnatural?

It is basic cause and effect, nothing can occur that can not naturally occur. Meaning everything that occurs, naturally occurs.

Jeremiah

↪wuliheron

Replying to your ninja edit.

Up is a direction orientated to my physical location (or whatever point you choose). Natural and unnatural is just an subjective view, which varies from person to person. But up will always be up, as long as you are orientated the same way I am, and that does not change if you call it down, left, right or chicken. However, the meaning of natural and unnatural varies from person to person, and there is no objective measurement for it.

schopenhauer1

↪Jeremiah

As far as boredom being baseline, that is controversial. As far as boredom being a psychological state, I wasn't aware that was controversial. Do you need me to provide academic journals to prove that boredom exists? As an aside, have you never experienced this?

Is Boredom More Significant Than Other Emotions?

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Categories

More Discussions