On Boredom

In the modern technological civilisation, most of us probably get bored every day. If we get bored easily, it is perhaps because we at heart wish to escape from the monotonous everyday rituals. Exhausted by working in a compressed environment of corporate waters and engaging in the same orgies of gossip, we may realise there is something that needs to be changed, though we hardly know what precisely that "something" is. We need a break to get away from the habitual, not just from the tedium of the curtains and dinning tables our homes hints at, but also a break to get away from ourselves.

Aside from the everyday rituals, our sense of boredom largely stems from the web technology. Not only it conspires to kill our ability to be patient and unstimulated, it has also become the major anchor of distractions. One might be easily considered extraordinary if he could focus on a conversation with his best friend on MSN for more than five minutes, let alone the possibility of an intimate friendship. Moreover, bombarded with images and Youtube videos, the web has risked summoning our long-forgotten archaic suspicion of words and restoring our deep admiration for cave paintings. It hampers our semantic instinct. It's a miracle if you are still reading.

If we are suffering from the epidemic of boredom, it is because we can no longer possibly appreciate the value of being bored. Rather than making rooms for us to indulge in daydreams, boredom throws us back on the reality, the notion of the here and now, urging us to realise what is it that we really want in life. If we walk in any franchise American bookshops, most of the best-selling books are easily categorised into the self-help genre, normally about how we boast up our low self-esteem or how to become the next Bill Gates and Steve Job. The danger of modern society precisely lies in our ability to be overly optimistic because we can no longer derive pleasure from the darkest moods. If we could never endure loneliness, we might never understand the value of friendship. Likewise, if we could not entertain periods of boredom, we might not be able to understand the value of excitement and stimulation.

It is, perhaps, why we are more productive in the mood of boredom instead of the state of being occupied. Boredom allows us to realise what remains vacuous in our lives, reminding us that perhaps a change is needed. It drifts us away from a succession of well-known tasks and enforces a contemplative habit of mind. In the age of the internet, boredom is much needed.

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