Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Sushan]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

[LuckyR]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

I believe that the author is referring specifically to a particular situation, namely folks who routinely complain that they are bored, implying that they deserve to be actively entertained (and if they're not, they are therefore bored). I agree such people bring nothing to the table. They're commonly described as "empty buckets" who demand to be filled. They are, of course boring.

[stevie]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Doesn't make sense to me. "Being bored" is a psychotherapeutically relevant phenomenon.

[Pattern-chaser]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Doesn't "being bored" just refer to a perceived lack of stimulation?

[Gee]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

[JDBowden]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

Teenagers are not bored these days (from our modern perspective). They are the least bored generation the world has ever seen, ever (so far). They have instant, immediate, and (especially) unlimited access to media 25/8/366. Their senses are never dimmed to the point where they are now overstimulated. A child/teen nowadays does not "know" what real boredom objectively is. Just look at them in public (or anyone for that matter really) while waiting in a line. The inability to simply, wait, is too much to bare. Phones, txts, whatever to avoid the "boredom" that we encounter for an OMG amount of, 3 minutes.

I often think about the following: Suppressing and denying human emotions I feel is bad on any level as they are natural emotions and must be "released." So, if boredom is a natural emotion, and it is chronically suppressed/denied at a nanosecond's notice, this too is detrimental. Being bored would take us back to neutral in our overstimulated world.

Over stimulation can be video games visually and audibly, dopamine levels sexually speaking with various forms of porn, and the one that personally frightens me is the upcoming Metaverse.... We have now entered a time where we are "SOOOO BORED" with REAL life, that we need to enter a fake, overstimulated sensory world to do our "normal tasks" because of our over stimulation to the point where it is unsupportable/unlivable.

We no longer can distinguish what is real life vs. what we have on a screen in front of us.

[Gee]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

Teenagers are not bored these days (from our modern perspective). They are the least bored generation the world has ever seen, ever (so far). They have instant, immediate, and (especially) unlimited access to media 25/8/366. Their senses are never dimmed to the point where they are now overstimulated. A child/teen nowadays does not "know" what real boredom objectively is. Just look at them in public (or anyone for that matter really) while waiting in a line. The inability to simply, wait, is too much to bare. Phones, txts, whatever to avoid the "boredom" that we encounter for an OMG amount of, 3 minutes.

I often think about the following: Suppressing and denying human emotions I feel is bad on any level as they are natural emotions and must be "released." So, if boredom is a natural emotion, and it is chronically suppressed/denied at a nanosecond's notice, this too is detrimental. Being bored would take us back to neutral in our overstimulated world.

Over stimulation can be video games visually and audibly, dopamine levels sexually speaking with various forms of porn, and the one that personally frightens me is the upcoming Metaverse.... We have now entered a time where we are "SOOOO BORED" with REAL life, that we need to enter a fake, overstimulated sensory world to do our "normal tasks" because of our over stimulation to the point where it is unsupportable/unlivable.

We no longer can distinguish what is real life vs. what we have on a screen in front of us.

You bring up some interesting and valid points, but I would add to your ideas.

In order for someone to be bored or boring, they have to be focused on their "self", which would be why they generally don't have much to bring to the table. Boredom is self-involved. So why do teenagers have a reputation for being bored/boring? That would be because the teen years are the ones where we are very involved with identifying who we are, who we want to emulate, who we want to be, in short it is a time when we scrutinize the "self" in preparation for adulthood. In some ways it is much like the terrible twos.

Two-year-olds are known for being difficult, which is where the idea of the "terrible twos" came from. Little ones spend the first two years of their lives learning how to accommodate the wishes of their care giver, then when they turn two, the start to learn how to disagree, oppose, and generally become a pain in the backside. This learning is necessary because without it, they would never learn how to disagree or say no when it is appropriate. They would grow up to be wimps.

So what lessons are teens missing out on when they spend most of their time being overly stimulated? What would this do to their self-image? Is the suicide rate part of this? What about relationships with others? Can relationships with technology replace relationships with people? Would they lose the ability to comfort themselves? A lot to consider.

Gee

[Belindi]

There is a difference between the ennui of a creative person who is depressed,and stupidity.

[Sushan]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

I believe that the author is referring specifically to a particular situation, namely folks who routinely complain that they are bored, implying that they deserve to be actively entertained (and if they're not, they are therefore bored). I agree such people bring nothing to the table. They're commonly described as "empty buckets" who demand to be filled. They are, of course boring.

We can find a lot of things to make ourselves entertained or atleast engaged in something rather than feeling bored or useless. If someone says he/she cannot do that, then either he/she is too lazy, or is having a real problem like an illness. But entertaining one's own self sometimes will give nothing to entertain others, and some people may remain so for most of the times during their lifetime. And the society tend to name such people as 'boring' which I feel like quite unfair.

[Sushan]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Doesn't make sense to me. "Being bored" is a psychotherapeutically relevant phenomenon.

I am not sure whether the feeling of being bored is exact or relative. But I think a person can simply feel bored comparing his/her state to no one or nothing outside his/her own self.

[Sushan]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Doesn't "being bored" just refer to a perceived lack of stimulation?

Maybe yes. But it is not necessary to be stimulated at all times. And if that it true, as per thid author, we should either be stimulated always or accept ourselves as boring selves.

[Sushan]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

Teenagers claim that they are bored due to the numerous reasons that you mentioned, although what they feel is not being bored but the frustration of not being able to what they like. If someone is completely out of tasks that he/she can entertain him/herself, then he/she will have to turn towards someone else to avoid getting bored.

[Sushan]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

Teenagers are not bored these days (from our modern perspective). They are the least bored generation the world has ever seen, ever (so far). They have instant, immediate, and (especially) unlimited access to media 25/8/366. Their senses are never dimmed to the point where they are now overstimulated. A child/teen nowadays does not "know" what real boredom objectively is. Just look at them in public (or anyone for that matter really) while waiting in a line. The inability to simply, wait, is too much to bare. Phones, txts, whatever to avoid the "boredom" that we encounter for an OMG amount of, 3 minutes.

I often think about the following: Suppressing and denying human emotions I feel is bad on any level as they are natural emotions and must be "released." So, if boredom is a natural emotion, and it is chronically suppressed/denied at a nanosecond's notice, this too is detrimental. Being bored would take us back to neutral in our overstimulated world.

Over stimulation can be video games visually and audibly, dopamine levels sexually speaking with various forms of porn, and the one that personally frightens me is the upcoming Metaverse.... We have now entered a time where we are "SOOOO BORED" with REAL life, that we need to enter a fake, overstimulated sensory world to do our "normal tasks" because of our over stimulation to the point where it is unsupportable/unlivable.

We no longer can distinguish what is real life vs. what we have on a screen in front of us.

I think the teenagers easily get bored with all the stimulation they have at their fingertips. They get everything easily and quickly. So they experience many things within a short period of time. So the finite experiences (although they seem infinite) finish quickly. Then they find themselves in a void needing more. It is like an addiction to a psychoactive substance. I think concepts like metaverse and the virtual reality are attempts on fighting the risk of being bored with the inclusion of infinite possibilities. But we do not know up to when these concepts will hold the humans from getting bored because the human needs grow day by day and the old entertainments get expired with a lightning speed.

[Nick_A]

This topic is about the September 2022 Philosophy Book of the Month, The Not So Great American Novel by James E Doucette

My thoughts about people who are bored is that they have it slightly skewed; they are not bored, they are boring.

(Page 23 - Kindle version)

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

What are the results of a society bored by its own affluence? Is that a sign of progress or the beginning of its destruction?

"So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over--a weary, battered old brontosaurus--and became extinct."
― Malcolm Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge: Religion and Society

[Sushan]

All of us have felt bored even once in our lifetime. But this author gives a different definition for being bored. According to him the problem lies within. Whenever we felt bored we are the ones who have been boring rather than the outside world making us bored. What do you say?

Having raised teenagers, who are always bored, I have discovered the following:

In order to be bored, one must;
want to go somewhere that they can not go;
want to have something that they can not have;
want to do something that they can not do;
want to be something, somewhere, that they can not;
etc., etc., etc.

The cure for boredom is easy and attainable -- just think about someone besides yourself and/or do something for someone else. Works every time. I suspect this is why some people are never bored.

Gee

Teenagers are not bored these days (from our modern perspective). They are the least bored generation the world has ever seen, ever (so far). They have instant, immediate, and (especially) unlimited access to media 25/8/366. Their senses are never dimmed to the point where they are now overstimulated. A child/teen nowadays does not "know" what real boredom objectively is. Just look at them in public (or anyone for that matter really) while waiting in a line. The inability to simply, wait, is too much to bare. Phones, txts, whatever to avoid the "boredom" that we encounter for an OMG amount of, 3 minutes.

I often think about the following: Suppressing and denying human emotions I feel is bad on any level as they are natural emotions and must be "released." So, if boredom is a natural emotion, and it is chronically suppressed/denied at a nanosecond's notice, this too is detrimental. Being bored would take us back to neutral in our overstimulated world.

Over stimulation can be video games visually and audibly, dopamine levels sexually speaking with various forms of porn, and the one that personally frightens me is the upcoming Metaverse.... We have now entered a time where we are "SOOOO BORED" with REAL life, that we need to enter a fake, overstimulated sensory world to do our "normal tasks" because of our over stimulation to the point where it is unsupportable/unlivable.

We no longer can distinguish what is real life vs. what we have on a screen in front of us.

You bring up some interesting and valid points, but I would add to your ideas.

In order for someone to be bored or boring, they have to be focused on their "self", which would be why they generally don't have much to bring to the table. Boredom is self-involved. So why do teenagers have a reputation for being bored/boring? That would be because the teen years are the ones where we are very involved with identifying who we are, who we want to emulate, who we want to be, in short it is a time when we scrutinize the "self" in preparation for adulthood. In some ways it is much like the terrible twos.

Two-year-olds are known for being difficult, which is where the idea of the "terrible twos" came from. Little ones spend the first two years of their lives learning how to accommodate the wishes of their care giver, then when they turn two, the start to learn how to disagree, oppose, and generally become a pain in the backside. This learning is necessary because without it, they would never learn how to disagree or say no when it is appropriate. They would grow up to be wimps.

So what lessons are teens missing out on when they spend most of their time being overly stimulated? What would this do to their self-image? Is the suicide rate part of this? What about relationships with others? Can relationships with technology replace relationships with people? Would they lose the ability to comfort themselves? A lot to consider.

Gee

You have added some good points, and I agree with you. But I think the teenagers easily loose in the attempt to identify themselves simply because peer pressure and trying to be a 'show-off' and a 'star' in their peer groups. All that matters to them is fame, and they go after it. They simply go after regular trends rather than looking inward and trying to understand their own strengths. No matter how you try and no matter who you are to a teenager it will be quite difficult to break his/her chain of thoughts that resonate with what I mentioned above.