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Why do we experience boredom?

the ego creates stories about who you are, and everything else in your 'life'. your boredom is part of that story, your ambitions for the future are your desire to fulfill and maintain the story you have about who you are; memories, the past, these are all the ego has. it is your dictator.
connotation, prejudice, offense, whatever
 
Hehe love this painting ;)
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Something has to change; undeniable dilemma. Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear. Constant over stimulation numbs me, but I would not want you any other way.

It's not enough! I need more. Nothing seems to satisfy! I don't want it; I just need it - to breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.
 
i believe that it is because we have evolved to have this feeling of boredom when we are not utilizing our brains properly, that it's a mechanism which makes up feel uncomfortable when we're not doing anything which is there to stop us just sitting around. And that we evolved this way as it helps further the species. Like we have urges to have sex, or have maternal instincts. These are the genetic traits that we have evolved to have because it furthers the species. In the same way making us uncomfortable when we do nothing, if it works as it should and makes us do something productive or at least that stimulates our brains even a little (if watching tv takes away the boredom over staring at a wall then at least it's keeping the mind active), that is furthering the species

My theory assumes a lot i know but it's just what came straight out of my head when i read the question. I WOULD LOVE AND BE HONOURED IF YOU WOULD COMMENT ON MY THEORY. Discussion that helps strengthen or refute it, or questions would all be very helpful.
 
^ I wonder if maybe Southpark wasn't spot on with the line, 'People don't like marijuana because it makes you content to be bored.'

I can see how in many human social situations, past and present, a person who was content to not be doing anything productive (for any reason / by any mechanism), would quickly be denigrated as a burden to the greater group, and if he continued the behavior, probably shunned. Being content to not do / say / think much really only flies in modern individualist cultures, which seem to be a fairly new phenomenon, that most of humanity still doesn't describe to (Western colonial legacy bedamned!) If you live in a group-oriented set of values, other people's asses are riding on each individual's actions. I don't think I really need to explain any further why a person who tends toward boredom would be considered inherently problematic.

Whether the baggage of bored=bad is a genetic predisposition or a memetic legacy is really a moot argument, because the effect is the same. It's this base emotional response that anti-marijuana activists have working in their favor.
 
2muchpain - I think you're right!

MDAO - I get what you're saying. But the social consequences and the personal urges of boredom are different things, right? I don't mean to be pedantic, but it seems like you interchanged the external view of someone else's boredom with the internal experience of it. I'm content saying that boredom is an intrinsic emotion; viewing it as something like sadness, which is first a behavioural urge before a social action, boredom is genetic. I think it's like 2muchpain describes. And I don't think this is a moot thing to say (who are you calling moot?! :D), since all one has to do is look and see whether boredom is confined to a culture to discriminate.
 
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^ definitely one of the worst. i think it is tied right into anxiety, depression, it can be called "existential angst" or ennui, etc. etc., it is a suicidal emotion like soul-rot
 
Christopher Biggins said:
I think boredom is the worst pain in the world. It literally drives me crazy/depressed. I think thats why I do drugs to avoid being bored and thus my mind tearing myself apart hating the world.

Anyone else think boredom is the worst pain in the world?
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Boredom sucks, no doubt. But of all the pains of life, I would say its one of the lightest in terms of intensity. (For me, at least.)

Compare it to the pain of losing a loved one or friend, and I don't think there's really much comparison; I would take boredom any day.
 
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To push us to seek new stimuli. It's evolutionary. An agitation that kicks us out of a groove.
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Yeah.

i believe that it is because we have evolved to have this feeling of boredom when we are not utilizing our brains properly, that it's a mechanism which makes up feel uncomfortable when we're not doing anything which is there to stop us just sitting around. And that we evolved this way as it helps further the species. Like we have urges to have sex, or have maternal instincts. These are the genetic traits that we have evolved to have because it furthers the species. In the same way making us uncomfortable when we do nothing, if it works as it should and makes us do something productive or at least that stimulates our brains even a little (if watching tv takes away the boredom over staring at a wall then at least it's keeping the mind active), that is furthering the species
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And yeah. It seems fairly obvious to me that boredom would be a trait selected for. Not least because any clan of humans that did get bored, and were driven to be constantly trying to improve their situation, would pretty quickly advance above and wipe out those who just lounged around in their caves all day.
 
Boredom is your lack of initiative to change your thoughts about your surroundings. Sensory deprivation is not boring and this requires nothing. Your mind makes the fun; takes it all in swishes it around and spits it onto your skull screen; that brain of yours is bound to come up with something to do... LOOK AROUND YOU. Keep that imagination sharp, you may need it someday.

As Bill Lee always said "The junky's never bored, he can sit in a chair for 8 hrs staring at his shoe; listening into himself."

Kg Kennedy
 
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