Why is boredom terrifying?
Not a question that comes up frequently, but just think. Think about what boredom actually does.
From experience, boredom changes people. Not for the better either; no, boredom makes people bad. It makes people angry, grumpy and intolerable.
It makes people desperate.
And desperation is, in itself, a terrifying mind process. Desperation leads to crime, it leads to war, it leads to murder.
Now obviously, I'm not saying that sitting still in an exam room for two and a half hours is going to make someone a murderer. But it is going to change them.
Think back on all the different ways to reach Boredom; a wet Sunday, waiting for a bus, an exam, a long car drive etc. What was the main part of being in the Boredom Phase?
It wasn't tapping your fingers on your knees.
It wasn't staring out of the window.
It wasn't tapping your feet.
It was the pure desire for the boredom to end; the overwheling want. For you to reach your destination; for the bus to arrive; for the exam to end.
It changes you.
Firstly, it will play with your emotions. Makes you angry. It makes you agitated and restless.
[It also makes you annoying - who else hates foot-tappers and quiet-hummers in exams?]
No-one has ever been happy whilst bored, the two states of mind are not synonymous. Boredom only changes humans for the worst; it makes us intolerable.
I hate being around bored people because they don't talk properly, they often swear increasingly frequently, and personally, I dislike being around grumpy people anyway.
Secondly, it plays with your mind. Once Boredom has its fingernails deep in your emotions, it'll let your mind wander. It'll allow it into a realm which psychologists would deem wrong.
Boredom darkens the mind.
If bored on a long car journey, you want it to be over - so you want the driver to go faster. There's no thought about whose lives are in danger by doing so, you just want it to end.
The same for waiting for a bus - the bus must go faster to reach you; skipping traffic lights and zebra crossings. The boredom must end.
And what student hasn't wished for a fire-drill [or an actual fire] to halt an exam?
Boredom is actually a deep, dark and twisted subject matter to study. Yet it seems, on the face of it, that most people don't consider looking at boredom. Why?
Because it's boring
Ironic isn't it?
Even thinking about Boredom is boring; thus we don't.
And with our emotions and thoughts ever changing so, it seems that as a race, we want to avoid Boredom as much as possible.
Don't believe me?
Television, Radio, Video Games, Books, Magazines, Board Games, Word Puzzles, Drawing....the Internet - all of these things are unnecessary entities. So why do they exist?
Recreation. Pass-times. Hobbies. Fun.
And what's Fun's greatest and opposite enemy?
Boredom.
So let's move into the really deep and scientific stuff. With all this in mind, is boredom something we are bred or developed to loathe? Be honest, if you know a boring event is coming up, you won't exactly be filled with optimism and enthusiasm.
But why is this?
Boredom in itself doesn't hurt anyone. It just exists as a void between two happenings - the line between A and B. Yet everyone seems to despise this line; children especially.
Hence, I ask why, and would actually love a theory.
Is it because we begin life with nine months in a small space doing absolutely nothing and we'd like to make up for it?
Did evolution (or God for a kind of balanced argument) land us with ridiculously short attention spans?
It is just another kind of basic, underlying fear? The fear of nothingness, stretching out into infinity and offering nothing but isolation?
[I did warn you it was deep]
So that's my case. This random thought came up in an equally random conversation with a close friend of mine; but like so many of these inspirations, that little idea can be focused on and developed.
And to be honest, after a lot of thought, I don't have an answer to the question "is boredom terrifying". If someone could provide one, or just an in-depth discussion about this topic, I'd be greatly interested and grateful.
Keep your brains working, and we end on a final note from the 2010 Christmas episode of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. The Doctor, thinking aloud, ponders:
"How did boredom ever get invented?"
Peace out.
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