What is boredom? I mean, what is it?!?

Answer 1

Boredom comes from the word
Bore- synonymous with weary,tedious repetition,fatigue,tire,plague,trouble,worry,annoy..and
the the suffix,
...dom qualificative defining the said state e.g Kingdom,Christendom etc.
Boredom is a state of being bored,fed-up,ennui,tedious,weariness,dullness and what have you.
It is therefore a state of I've had it ,when nothing seems to be interesting anymore,everything is dull and mundane and the person looks for some exciting or perhaps something different.It may seem like the end of the world to the person in a state of boredom that no one really like to be in a state of boredom.Nevertheless,the poet Billy Collins hails boredom saying"boredom is paradise,it's the blessed absence of what the world offers as interesting i.e the lures of fashion,media,and other people." And he went ahead to call boredom "mother of creativity."

Answer 2

Wow - good question!

I thought about it for myself and my personal answer is...

It is a sensation in your body, a state of mind....

It seems that our mind is automatically and continually working, it can't stop. Always something is bubbling up, it's a body function like the heart pumping. It has a certain "speed" when looking at the timeline (not sure how to express that better).

The mind however always needs something to "chew" on while it si bubbling. When you are at work it is busy, when you read it is busy, when you do something fun with your friends it is kept busy - and that creates a feel of "satisfaction" and the sensation of "boredom" does not happen.

But when you don't do anything - it just can't slow down and it starts looking for something to do, it creates feelings of "boredom" (=give me something to do) and impatience, nervousness to motivate you to do something.

Unless you are trained (or born with the luck) to be able slow your mind down you will have that sensation coming up - which drives you to do something. "Doing" may mean just to do nothing but watch a video, feed the mind.

I am blessed with a mind which can be happy by just staring at waves, it craves for boredom, a state of mind I don't easily generate.
On the other hand when I run into "Real boredom" it motivates me to try new things, create stuff from art to useful things in the house.

So overall I guess boredom is a very useful function of the mind, driving humans on to constantly come up with new things (and sometimes with destruction).

Answer 3

Boredom is an unpleasant state of mind in which one interprets one's environment as dull, tedious, and lacking stimuli. There is an inherent hopelessness in boredom; people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances it is accepted as an inevitable suffering to be endured. A common way to escape boredom is through creative thoughts or daydreaming.

Time often seems to move more slowly to someone who experiences boredom; this results from the way in which the human mind measures the passage of time, combined with the infrequency of events perceived as notable

Answer 4

Boredom is a motivating incentive. Boredom is the opposite of stress. When you're under a great deal of stress, say in a life-threatening situation, you're under a lot of stress. This motivates us to do something about the situation, e.g. run away, freeze (panic) or attack.

Then there's the state in between boredom and stress - we're feeling content. We just want to stay in this state, but since we need different state at different times of the day, and also things happen TO us, our internal state of stress will constantly change. Our need for stress is constantly changing. When your sleeping, you're not bored, but you're stil at a very low level of internal stress many times during your sleep.

Boredom is the opposite of stress. We're having a too low state of stress in comperance with what we want (need) to have. This motivates us TO DO something. If you're just bored enough, you'll do something to raise your internal state of stress. This might be trivial stuff, like going to the movies or seeing some friends, or for some people, more extreme stuff, like parachuting. Some people do more easily get bored than others (this do not depend on intelligence). Some people do like their environment more quiet, and do less of these extreme stuff to raise their internal state of stress.

Answer 5

Boredom is an unpleasant state of mind in which one interprets one's environment as dull, tedious, and lacking stimuli. There is an inherent hopelessness in boredom; people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances it is accepted as an inevitable suffering to be endured. A common way to escape boredom is through creative thoughts or daydreaming.

Answer 6

Boredom is when people of low intelligence run out of pre programmed instruction and their brain goes into a state of "Hunting". That is why cults flourish and are jam packed with sub-intelligent super morons. For example Madonna. Yes, She! did you know that according to the Sunday Times, she and Guy tried to sell Kabbalah water to the nuclear industry to use to disperse spent nuclear fuel? That's what I mean by pre -programmed instruction.You would have thought Guy was cleverer. Wrong. Well, when you get bored, always reduce your generous estimate of your IQ. Be good now and sleep well.

Answer 7

Boredom is the struggle against an unstimulating situation.

Answer 8

Are you on your own computer are are you using your mates? If you have your own you should never have the feeling of boredom

Answer 9

Sunday.

Answer 10

It's the only reason I'm sitting here answering this question.