Do you get bored?

Actually yes, frequently, and almost always at the same time. I get extremely bored from mid-afternoon to early evening almost every day, and not for lack of things to do, but mostly for lack of motivation to do anything. There are plenty of things around the house I could do, plenty of projects to work on, plenty of things to get around to fixing, plenty of games I could be playing, and I have people I could talk to, but during that time of day most days I'm just motivationally exhausted and don't have it in me to actually do anything. I get bored, but usually can't push myself to start anything until evening proper, so I just sit there and mostly space out or take a nap, or maybe find some long video recommended on youtube and half pay attention to it.

I'd imagine it's to do with my energy level. I usually have plenty of energy in the morning and plenty at night, but mid-day I tend to run out.

(For context, late 30s, sedentary job that I enjoy, and reasonable diet with daily exercise. Not really in shape or out of shape. I pay some reasonable level of attention to my health but wouldn't call myself a gym rat or anything. No social media use, closest I get is Tildes and YouTube.)

This is something that I've been mulling over with my therapist for a while actually. The idea of boredom is almost scary to me sometimes, and as such I've structured my life to have as little downtime as possible. But sometimes I definitely feel like I miss it a lot.

For context, I feel like I'm one of the younger members here that post regularly. (I'm only aware of one other person who posts regularly that's younger than me at least, judging by some of the other census-style posts I've seen on here. Obviously I could be wrong!) I'm 28, so I grew up with a young childhood of no easy way to access the internet, but around high school that changed. I feel like that gives me a slightly interesting perspective of the way boredom was then and now.

Maybe I'm nostalgic, but I feel like the boredom pre internet was very different. I feel like I was always able to come up with new things to keep me entertained. I feel like I had to do different things to keep me entertained, and as such I've been able to do so many different things that I have stories for. I remember starting a band in middle school (and getting a couple of gigs!), I organized paintball tournaments and started a locally recognized company in high school. All of this, I can probalby attribute to the fact that I was bored and looking for a sense of identity. (I can probably also attribute it to not having as much responsibilities like paying taxes or working a 9-5, but I was also a generally good student so potato potato)

Nowadays, I feel like boredom is easily "cured". Like you said, in a post internet society we have unlimited entertainment and can easily vegetate and just consume without feeling the need to create. That's what I'm most disappointed by, tbh. I feel like somewhere along the way, I lost my desire to create and only consume, and I've been longing to get back to it. But at the same time, I've also become afraid of the boredom that gave me the space to create. As such, I've been taking so, so many vacations, been going on dates, taking care of my dog, etc, and the only time that I feel that boredom and creativity is in the late hours of the night, where nothing is happening or grabbing my attention. But even then, I can just click on a Youtube video and just turn my brain off.

I feel like that's why I connect so hard with my favorite movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once, where they touch on the idea of "in a world where you have access to everything, sometimes it's okay to just sit there and enjoy the time you have"

I think you're absolutely right that there's basically infinite interesting stimulus. For that reason, as I've matured I've come to realize that whenever I'm feeling bored, it's actually the anhedonia of impending depression.

I interpret boredom as a feeling that I’ve been focused on doing the same thing for too long without making progress, and maybe I should try something else. Of course, it’s just a feeling and it can be wrong! Maybe more persistence would pay off? But often, that feeling is telling me something, and I do try to take a break and do something else for a while.

Regarding Internet addiction, I do have a bad case of it, but it’s still the case that eventually I get bored, feeling like I’ve reached “the end of the Internet,” which just means there’s not much left that I want to read from my usual sources.

I think the same will be true of everyone eventually? The problem is often we make a minimal effort to fix it: changing the channel on the TV, trying something new within the same video game, or trying to find another song in our collections that we’re not bored with yet, rather than doing something really different. And we keep going back to the same sources of entertainment rather than being sufficiently bored with them to stop and move on.

The trouble is that searching for something genuinely different often doesn’t pay off as immediately as trying a new variation of something you already enjoy. It can be uncomfortable. You need some persistence and tolerance for boredom to do that search. (And this is why sequels are popular.)

I cherish getting bored. It means I'm done processing the thoughts in my head sufficiently.

I deliberately will drive without listening to something. I will go for a run without listening to something, or work out without doing something, I'll do chores and else at the same time.

I don't want to lose the ability to do one thing at a time, to concentrate on one thing for a long period of time.

It's not often I get bored, because I can still entertain myself without outside stimulus. I don't always need to be entertained.

I do definitely get bored. But not because of the lack of things to do. I have a lot of things that I have to do and things I want to do.

Just in the middle of work (that I enjoy) today, I suddenly stopped and said "I'm bored". And then looked for some music to play in the background while I keep working.

Thing is, I don't think boredom is bad or good. I've always thought of it as a neutral thing that humans experience from time to time. I can't imagine being switched on all the time. I also require downtime.

The reason I think boredom is neutral is because I also often can go for long stretches of time without feeling bored. Again, there's just too many things I want to do and no time to do them.

I think you can both be bored while having a lot to keep you occupied. It's like opening a fridge full of food and saying "There's nothing to eat".

I adopted the internet pretty early. Earlier than a lot of my peers and was very into technology. But for most of my childhood, other people didn't have computers or the internet.

I just wanted to say that I simultaneously had both a no internet and with internet childhood.

But I'm still not addicted to the internet. I'm addicted to being connected and being able to communicate easily. But I'm rarely on social media and I don't enjoy playing mobile or social games. I like being left alone when I'm home.

And I honestly don't think having access to entertainment and information at my fingertips have reduced my creative output. Instead, it has increased it.

I've recently been trying to build a diorama and a lot of googling was done because I didn't know what I was doing. It would have been hell to figure out these things on my own.

And I often enjoy staring at things and observing them. I like looking out the window when I'm in a vehicle. I was at the doctor's recently and stared at their certificates and ceiling. Random things are intetesting to look at. My phone tends to get forgotten by this time.

So yeah. I have no issues with being able to find something interesting to do and look at while keeping boredom at bay.

This does not have anything to do with the internet or using my phone. I have many distractions regardless of technology available.

But I also do experience boredom from time to time but It's not due to lack of stimuli. Just a regular human emotion thing.

Not sure if that made sense at all. It's really late for me and I'm half asleep. I apologize for the terrible writing in advance. Good night/day/afternoon.

I think about this often in the context of parenting our 10 year old. I believe it depends alot on a person's personality as well as level of self-control. For example are you the type of person who can take a random nap during a slow day, or do you feel anxious about wasting time. There's obviously also a privilege component, some people simply don't have a spare moment to feel bored.

As an only child my kid rarely gets bored, but not for lack of opportunity. She has use of my wife's old phone (wifi only) but it's limited to an hour per day. As a PC gamer I also handed down my old gaming rig which remains locked until permission is granted (when a block of time becomes available and her behaviour has been acceptable). Otherwise we share the single tv in our livingroom with adults having priority over content choice.

When my kid would get bored she instead opts to roleplay with toys, read, play with the cat, or draw and colour. These moments are admittedly fairly rare as she is very busy with activities like soccer and bouldering, we don't force them at all, they are her interests and she wants to do them.

I'd like to claim credit for her ability to stay productive and not succumb to boredom but honestly I don't know how much is nature or nurture. Given unfettered access to her PC for example, she could happily waste away 5 hours watching shorts and playing Roblox. I don't expect kids to have that level of self-control though, I still struggle with that as an adult.

I am worried about the next few years as she'll get her own phone and laptop for school. I wonder how to help her make that transition to unlimited access and content.

I rarely feel bored anymore. My life is infinitely more busy and pc gaming as a hobby will happily devour any extra time I can spare. I do try and challenge myself as much as possible and acknowledge these small victories. If I get takeout, I'll resist the urge to pull out my phone while waiting, instead making a conscious effort to be present and open to making eye contact or even conversation. Elevator rides, waiting for appointments, in line at the grocery store.. there are plenty of small moments where I fight with myself to remain present and feel momentarily bored, and though sometimes anxiety-inducing, I usually walk away feeling more grounded and happy.

Lately I've been letting myself get bored, just a little. There was a Veritasium video on why boredom is actually good for the psyche, and that has stayed in my mind for a while now.

So I've been doing small things like:

• My phone was low on battery in the airport, so I plugged my battery pack in. Since my partner also depended on that battery pack, I decided to not waste energy so I turned my phone off while it charged. It was a boring 30 minutes, but I people-watched a little and got an idea for my expense tracking app (which I can't wait to get back to work on once I'm home).
• When going to the toilet at home, I leave my phone on the desk, it's boring but I spend way less time in there, my legs don't hurt as much, and I now know what all our shower gel bottles contain :)
• When going to the neighborhood grocery store, I leave my phone home and take my smartwatch only since I can take calls and pay with it. That means I can't play Pokemon GO the entire time (which I would usually do).

I usually have a smorgasbord of thoughts going on in my head, so having these moments gives my mind a chance to take over and organize/deal with some of them. I do feel the need for my daily doomscroll session very quickly, though.

It's been interesting to read through the responses so far (and thanks @R3qn65 for teaching me a new word - anhedonia!). I'm not someone who succumbs to boredom easily because I can find ways to occupy myself or calm myself to a point where I'm cat-napping (although I think of it as dog-napping, but that's a whole other post). Like R3qn65 mentioned, I see boredom as the onset of melancholy, so I try to keep myself reasonably busy without overwhelming myself with stimulus. But I understand that people perceive and experience boredom, and conversely activity, differently.

Thinking aloud here, it seems like people experience boredom differently and respond to it differently, but what we're really experiencing are different perspectives on the passage of time.

Basically, I could break things down this way:

• Is time passing in even or uneven increments? - Perhaps a person has a deadline or responsibility requiring my attention and their activity or inactivity impacts the perceived speed that time passes. But during intervals of inactivity, the sense of speed slows and can cause stress, impatience, etc. Similarly, interruptions to a person's routine or workflow would also make time feel like it's passing unevenly.

• Is time filled with subjectively unimportant things? - A person lacks control over what's happening or has no interest in what's happening and feel unfulfilled. Therefore they observe an amount of time as being inconsequential, passing slowly, or that the time spent was unfulfilling. Outside of mandatory activities (work, picking kids up from activities, etc.) it's really down to their motivation to fill that time with alternatives they feel are worthwhile.

• Is time a void that must be filled? - An individual's personality or mental state requires a strong sense of fulfillment due to the amount of time they are confronted with, otherwise they will feel guilty/depressed/etc. Similarly, an individual might feel like they're being held back from doing the thing that they want to do or feel is more fulfilling -- such as being stuck in traffic or sitting in on a meeting that doesn't even impact your department.

But I wonder if there are things that specifically trigger a sense of boredom in day to day life (ignoring mental health catalysts).
I'll posit that boredom can be categorized by:

• Lack of internal or external motivation: That's the mental or emotional thing we experience when nothing is specifically threatening us (a physical threat or a deadline at work), nor is there a responsibility requiring action. In the modern world we, at times, have the luxury of doing nothing, but also no immediate benefit to doing nothing (so some people choose a nap, because there's an inherent benefit).

• Lack of sensory stimulus: If you've ever been out in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing to do, it's this. Arguably also includes being a passenger or otherwise being unable to engage in routine behaviors (not just a person's routine). But also I would imagine my neurodivergent friends experience a lack of sensory stimulus on a completely different time scale than I do, so I think there's a micro and macro element to this.

• Lack of fulfillment: Scrolling endlessly without enjoyment or fulfillment is surely a definition of boredom. I think that, in the example of kids being tethered to the internet all day, people aren't necessary un-bored by having content at their fingertips if there lacks context, fulfillment, or a path towards something that they can be motivated by. I think that despite the literal sensory stimulus of social media and the web, people aren't actually being mentally stimulated, so they feel a lack of fulfillment with the way they're spending their time.

Anything else I'm missing?

I used to, back when I was young. Growing up in the countryside with only a couple OTA TV channels and towards the late 90s, occasional family computer time unavoidably made for a lot of slow time, and yes, boredom.

Ever since I got computer for myself in the early 2000s (and the year after that, an internet connection that I didn't have to take turns on when we upgraded from dial-up to cable), though, it's largely disappeared. Through my teen years I was almost always doing creative graphical work, hacking on something, building something, playing a game, posting on forums, or chatting with someone on AIM/MSN when I wasn't in class. Even at school, I'd frequently be daydreaming about some bit of game design (which would be discussed with a couple of close friends between classes) or a composition for some wallpaper I wanted to create or some program I wanted to build.

This has mostly carried forward to today and has only deepened as I've gained knowledge, experience, and capabilities. It would not be a challenge to keep myself occupied for many years, potentially decades. When I'm not actively working or consuming entertainment my mind is practically always chewing on something or another… I don't really get bored, but as some of the other comments have mentioned I do run out of mental energy and/or initiation energy fairly often, which can sometimes be frustrating. Slow time is important and so I don't mind taking out a 2-3 hours to just chill out with my cat, but if it extends too far beyond this, a sense of discontent wells up because all those things that need doing aren't going to do themselves, y'know?

Yes.

I will sit at my computer with nothing I want to do and just not do much.j

It's a two-fold feeling:

"I should be doing something, ANYTHING"

"I don't know what I want to do, so I'm not going to do anything."

Any qualitative descriptions of it depend on your approach. I view boredom as a good thing, a sort of accidental meditation in the sense that it forces your thinking mind to calm a bit. Thoughts still happen of course, but since they aren't happening in the physical space, you then don't have to do much/anything about them.

The bad side of boredom is it is generally unproductive. You're not doing anything. However I view this as necessary. If one has bad feelings about boredom they should force themselves into boredom more to accustom themselves to it. Not in a meditative sense, but to understand that it's not bad.

I think of my students now, with phones, and wonder if they ever experience boredom anymore because they now have unlimited individualized high-interest content available at their fingertips 24/7.

It seems that distraction has replaced boredom for the newer generations.

I don't remember when last I was genuinely bored either. If I had to guess it would have been somewhere in my tween or early teen years, simply because I would have been more likely to be in situations where I had little to no autonomy. Since then, recognizing my own agency doesn't allow me to be bored, but that has less to do with keeping myself stimulated (external emphasis) and more to do with appreciating the here and now (internal emphasis). In fact, any mention of boredom in a dating profile, for example, is a red flag for me. I think adults who complain of being bored are most likely boring themselves, and I steer clear.

This is the currently pinned comment on a YouTube video it feels like I find a way to refer to on Tildes every chance I get:

I remembered this video a few weeks ago and finally got around to watching it again. The sequence following 23:15 strongly reminded me of a Cioran quote and since I don't remember it being in the game I wanted to share it.

"A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This is indeed a question raised by a human, a busy ape. Far from fleeing monotony, animals crave it, and what they most dread is to see it end. For it ends, only to be replaced by fear, the cause of all activity. Inaction is divine; yet it is against inaction that man has rebelled. Man alone, in nature, is incapable of enduring monotony, man alone wants something to happen at all costs — something, anything.... Thereby he shows himself unworthy of his ancestor: the need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla." - Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

I get intensely bored.

• I have depression
• No energy to do stuff or even enjoy things I actually love, like cooking for loved ones, writing code, reading, even YouTube (or whatever entertainment)
• Intense, sad boredom
• Drinking makes me super affectionate, happy, appreciate time with partner, appreciate entertainment, love to learn again. But obviously it's been horrible for my body
• Can't go on benders because I need to hold down a job to provide. Hangovers are agonizing
• Can't stay drunk - see above
• Repeat from the top

I’ve been thinking about this, recently. I don’t think I was “bored” out of a lack of things to do since my teen years. The only exception is “boredom” in the sense of being forced to do nothing or very tedious, repetitive tasks. Like a long wait without something to read (usually, I got ebooks on my phone which tend to fill longer train rides or sitting in waiting rooms) or having to change one simple thing in a few dozen excel spreadsheets that can’t be automated.