There is no escaping boredom. Although there is a way out that seems easy: at the slightest hint of tedium, the first reflex is to grab the phone and dive into it. scrol The endless flow of information offered by platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok can take 10, 15, 20 minutes, with everything from videos of cats looking in the mirror for the first time to reviews of viral supermarket products. Eventually, with more or less effort, the algorithm’s suction takes its toll and the device is set aside. Then, surprise, the feeling of boredom not only persists, but has intensified.
Social media and smartphones may make life a little easier and more entertaining, but science shows that this is not always the case. The voracious way in which digital content is consumed, compulsively jumping from one video to another, paradoxically intensifies boredom. The latest study on the subject It was published last August in the magazine of the American Psychological AssociationThe research followed 1,200 people during seven experiments in which they freely browsed social media, skipping through a video and bouncing to others. In these instances of binge-watching, participants reported higher levels of boredom than when they were told they could only watch a single 10-minute video. They also reported less satisfaction and a reduced attention span.
Katy Tam, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto Scarborough and co-author of the research, says that “boredom arises when there is a gap between how engaged we are with an activity and how engaged we want to be.” She adds that we go on social media in search of “novelty and satisfaction,” but so much is consumed in such a short time that a user rarely manages to engage with the content and, as a result, ends up even more bored. Surveys and cohort studies conducted in the United States They found that between 2008 and 2020 the feeling of boredom increased among young people.
Tam is not the only one interested in describing the boredom of the 21st century. In the last two decades, the volume of scientific publications addressing the topic has also increased. In 2021, the Spanish philosopher Josefa Ros Velasco founded, together with other colleagues, the International Society for Boredom Studiesa collective of more than 150 researchers from disciplines ranging from sociology to psychology to zoology, who share their findings on boredom.
Some years later, academics such as Ros Velasco have already obtained some answers. “We get bored because we are using our energy in activities or situations that for us do not have enough value. We feel that we are wasting time, that it is a scarce and improbable commodity,” she explains. Boredom has a function and has always had one throughout the evolutionary development of the human being. “Already in the last century, the philosopher Hans Blumenberg spoke of boredom in our ancestors, in prehistory, as a driving force that impels us to do new things. Sometimes wonderful results can come from that force, such as the invention of myths or religion, at other times misfortunes also arise, but boredom has always pushed us to look for something different,” says the philosopher.
Scientific evidence indicates that the ability to get bored in a species represents an evolutionary advantage because it allows an individual to leave situations to introduce concrete changes in its context. This led to the Homo sapiens became a being with a great capacity for adaptation and learning. “Thanks to boredom, humans have always felt driven to explore other niches,” Ros Velasco emphasizes. In addition, the fact that other animal species get boredlike dogs, only confirms their usefulness, scientists say.
Why do we get bored?
In a world as hyperconnected and saturated with stimuli as today’s—where more than 500 hours of new content in different languages are uploaded to YouTube every minute—the big question seems to be why boredom is so common. James Danckert, neuroscientist and co-author of Out of my skull: the psychology of boredomdirects in Canada the only laboratory in the world Danckert is a researcher working to understand the mechanisms and brain states that cause boredom. Her research has helped us better understand what lies behind a sensation that is as everyday as it is indecipherable. “We get bored because we need signals that tell us if we are using our brain resources optimally,” explains Danckert. “Their purpose is to lead you to take action, to push you to explore and find something more meaningful.”
The response to boredom is individual and depends on the culture, education and circumstances in which one is immersed at the time of making the decision, Danckert explains. Understanding why some people are more prone to boredom is another of the great unknowns studied in his laboratory. The answers are still fragile, but according to the researchers, Latest studies It is likely that issues of physiology and psychology of each individual play a role. What the neuroscientist can affirm is that “boredom is neither good nor bad, nor does it do the hard work of figuring out what to do with it.” Ros Velasco delves a little deeper into this: “If one finds oneself in a very limited context, with few options, it is more likely that the reaction to boredom will be extreme, maladaptive or dysfunctional.” That is why it can translate into addictive behaviors that are harmful to oneself and others. The “negative” aspect of boredom, Katy Tam points out, is in how people choose to react to it and not in their own nature.
To deal with this feeling in a healthy way, says Tam, you can start with something very concrete: paying attention. To do this, you don’t even have to make the effort to leave social media. “Whether it’s watching a TikTok video, or whatever you do, being aware of it can help you find meaning,” she says. Ros Velasco contributes from a philosophical perspective and suggests that “daring to think” and “doing the exercise of knowing yourself” could generate better conditions to expand the catalog of personal options with which to combat boredom. “It’s important to look for long-term alternatives and not just stick with the options that are there for everyone or that are good for half an hour and in the end don’t mean anything to you,” she recommends. Experts agree that there is no easy solution, but at least boredom can be used to think of one.
