We have all experienced boredom.  Sitting in a class where the teacher is droning on about a topic you don’t care about, you may find yourself daydreaming or staring at a clock that doesn’t seem to be moving.  Waiting for a delayed flight to take off at the airport, you may search in vain for something to distract you.

 What is boredom?

Boredom is unpleasant and physically painful.  It can make you angry and frustrated.  Boredom can also influence your actions in negative ways.  Bored people are prone to overeat, for example.

How does boredom work?

Attention plays an important role in creating boredom.  In particular, there are a few conditions that need to be met for people to feel bored.

1. People need to have a reasonable level of psychological energy or arousal to feel bored.  When they have high arousal, though, they have energy they would like to devote to something, but they cannot find anything engaging.

2. Boredom typically occurs when people have trouble focusing their attention and they believe the reason for this difficulty is in the environment.  The stress of waiting for a delayed flight often makes it hard to concentrate, and so your mind jumps from one thing to another.  You assume that this is caused by the environment, and so you feel boredom.

3. Bored people often try to amuse themselves by daydreaming and letting their mind wander.  The more your mind wanders, the more bored you feel.  The idea is that you recognize that this daydreaming is meant to occupy your mind, and so you realize that the situation is boring.

4. One more key element of boredom is control.  Boredom often occurs when you have little control over your situation.  Boredom happens when you are unable to change the situation.

5. A real problem caused by boredom is that it leads you to dislike the things that are the object of boredom.   These effects can be a particular problem in school settings. These negative feelings can actually impair later performance.  Stress can decrease people’s ability to pay attention and can narrow people’s working memory capacity.   So, boredom can create long-term difficulties for students.

What can you do about boredom? 

  • Obviously, there are times when you are stuck.  If you are listening to a lecture that you cannot leave, then you just need to find a way to get through it.
  • When you have some control, though, use your understanding of boredom to help you out.
  • If you can, try to do a meditation exercise to lower your arousal level.  If you can lower your arousal, it will help you to feel less bored.
  • Keep some music handy.  Music you enjoy can crowd out distractions in the environment.  It can also influence your mood in positive ways to counteract the pain of being bored.

Source:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201209/what-is-boredom