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Anushree Appandairajan
Oct 12, 20204 min read

Don't Scroll Away Your Boredom

Boredom: An emotion we are far too familiar with since the start of the COVID lockdown. The pandemic has left many of us spending weeks at home with nothing to do. But boredom has many benefits which we don't usually have the liberty to explore thanks to our fast-paced lives.



What is boredom?

John Eastwood, an associate professor at the department of psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada, defines boredom as the "uncomfortable feeling of wanting but being unable to engage in satisfying activity."

"I think people misunderstand boredom. They think it's simply borne out of the absence of things to do. It's really important to emphasize that is not the case... The bored person knows there's things to do. The problem is they can't muster up an actionable desire."


Boredom is a signal, much like pain. It tells us that we are not engaging our brain enough. Benefits we gain from boredom depends on how we respond to this signal.

"Boredom can be this initial push that some people are able to use adaptively to engage in creative or innovative activities. But it won't directly lead to those things," he said.


Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida, reminds us to be wary of what activity we do. There are two questions to ask when searching for something to ease the boredom: Is it meaningful? Will I feel successful after completing it?

She described boredom as "a dashboard light that goes off that says, 'Hey what you're doing either isn't meaningful or you're not doing it well and something needs to change.'"


But is boredom necessary? Why has boredom not been wiped out by evolution? Let's find out.


Why do we get bored?

Boredom is necessary for survival which is why we still experience this feeling. Suppose we never get bored and we're constantly distracted by trees we wouldn't notice the lion approaching us.

Moreover, if we are never bored we will be in a constant state of excitement, which does sound incredibly exhausting.


"If you imagine a life without boredom, we'd never get used to anything. We'd never habituate to anything. Everything would be constantly exciting for us. We'd be like toddlers thrilled by the rainfall, puddles and leaves falling. We'd never get anything done," says UK psychologist Sandi Mann.


To understand how boredom benefits us, we must first understand what happens in our brain.


What happens in our brain when we get bored?

When we get bored while doing a monotonous task, a network in our brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN) is activated. The DMN is the largest of the many networks in our brain. It exhibits strong low-frequency oscillations when we are not actively doing a task or when we are bored. This allows our brain to wander while doing mundane tasks like folding the laundry or walking back home from work. It is now that we start daydreaming and making creative connections and associations. This is when we start gaining the benefits of boredom.

What are these benefits that we've been talking about all along? Read below!


Benefits of Boredom

Makes you more creative

Being bored can lead to some of our most creative thoughts. In a study by Sandi Mann, researchers gave subjects various boring tasks to complete and then asked them to use their creative thinking. Those who had the most boring task — reading the phone book — came up with the most creative uses for plastic cups (a standard test of divergent thinking).

Mann says that boredom encourages wandering of the mind, leading them to more associative and creative ways of thinking.


Pushes us to switch paths and change goals

Professor Andreas Elpidorou explains that boredom "acts as a regulatory state that keeps one in line with one's projects.

"In the absence of boredom, one would remain trapped in unfulfilling situations, and miss out on many emotionally, cognitively, and socially rewarding experiences. Boredom is both a warning that we are not doing what we want to be doing and a 'push' that motivates us to switch goals and projects," he writes.


Makes us more goal-oriented

When we are busy, we are so preoccupied with the present that we never plan for the future. In a process known as "autobiographical planning," people most frequently plan and anticipate their future goals while daydreaming.


Fixes our moral compass

When we are bored, our perceived meaning of our actions is lost on us. Boredom makes people more likely to engage in prosocial behaviours like donating to charity and signing up for blood donations to help re-establish feelings of self-meaning.


What not to do

If you are under COVID-related lockdown you are probably very bored. It is important to not judge others, or yourself, for being bored.

Westgate says, "We have this idea that feeling bored says something not so great about who you are as a person, and that's not the right way to think about it.

"Boredom is usually adaptive. It stops us from being stuck in our house all the time. That's actively working against us right now. This is the one time, where no, I'm stuck at home and I need to stay here. It [boredom] is a totally natural feeling to have."

Do not scroll away the boredom or resort to other meaningless activities, it will only make you more susceptible to future boredom.


"I think the problem before lockdown was that we just didn't have enough (boredom), the problem now might be too much -- but we can use that boredom to come up with creative solutions," Mann says.

This lockdown is a rare opportunity, don't miss it! Pick up a hobby that you've always admired from afar, redo your room, paint, dance, and let your mind wander free.


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