[Infowarrior] - Food for thought: The joy of boredom

[Richard Forno]

The Boston Globe
OPINION/IDEAS
The joy of boredom
Don't check that e-mail. Don't answer that phone. Just sit there. You might
be surprised by what happens.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson  |  March 9, 2008

A DECADE AGO, those monotonous minutes were just a fact of life: time
ticking away, as you gazed idly into space, stood in line, or sat in
bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Boredom's doldrums were unavoidable, yet also a primordial soup for some of
life's most quintessentially human moments. Jostled by a stranger's cart in
the express checkout line, thoughts of a loved one might come to mind. A
long drive home after a frustrating day could force ruminations. A pang of
homesickness at the start of a plane ride might put a journey in
perspective.

Increasingly, these empty moments are being saturated with productivity,
communication, and the digital distractions offered by an ever-expanding
array of slick mobile devices. A few years ago, cellphone maker Motorola
even began using the word "microboredom" to describe the ever-smaller slices
of free time from which new mobile technology offers an escape. "Mobisodes,"
two-minute long television episodes of everything from "Lost" to "Prison
Break" made for the cellphone screen, are perfectly tailored for the
microbored. Cellphone games are often designed to last just minutes --
simple, snack-sized diversions like Snake, solitaire, and Tetris. Social
networks like Twitter and Facebook turn every mundane moment between
activities into a chance to broadcast feelings and thoughts; even if it is
just to triple-tap a keypad with the words "I am bored."

But are we too busy twirling through the songs on our iPods -- while
checking e-mail, while changing lanes on the highway -- to consider whether
we are giving up a good thing? We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling
around in a state of restlessness is one of life's greatest luxuries -- one
not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing mere survival.
To be bored is to stop reacting to the external world, and to explore the
internal one. It is in these times of reflection that people often discover
something new, whether it is an epiphany about a relationship or a new
theory about the way the universe works. Granted, many people emerge from
boredom feeling that they have accomplished nothing. But is accomplishment
really the point of life? There is a strong argument that boredom -- so
often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness -- is an
essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science,
and even love.

"If you think of boredom as the prelude to creativity, and loneliness as the
prelude to engagement of the imagination, then they are good things," said
Dr. Edward Hallowell, a Sudbury psychiatrist and author of the book
"CrazyBusy." "They are doorways to something better, as opposed to something
to be abhorred and eradicated immediately."

< - >

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/09/the_joy_of_bored
om?mode=PF