Suffering instead of being bored to feel like you have a life

    It's Sunday morning. You slept in after a long week and are no longer sleep-deprived. You envision yourself completing all of your homework, chores, and errands. But, you decide to pull out your phone and scroll through endless content online that trains your short-term memory and kills your long-term memory. You aren't enjoying the act particularly - you're actually really bored. However, you don't want to start doing your work, although you know there will be consequences. So, to relieve yourself of this boredom, you keep scrolling for a chance you will find something online that will allow you to spiral down in it as it encapsulates your mind. You put your phone down when you get a headache, then back at your phone only to realize it is already past noon! You groggily get up, brush your teeth, and go to the kitchen to make lunch since it's too late for breakfast. It's Sunday, right?! You should be enjoying the day, performing each action in a pleasant and laid-back manner. TV or no TV while eating? You gaslight yourself into believing that watching TV is what you are "supposed" to be doing on a Sunday. All of a sudden, it's 4 pm, and you haven't started any of your work yet, and your mind is frantically pacing around, consumed with stress. Sound familiar?

    Boredom. Gotta love it! Beautiful things can sprout from it, but more often than not, they don't, and we as humans are trapped in a cycle of hating it, wanting to conquer it, but doing so in a harmful way. James Danckert, who is a cognitive neuroscientist, and John D. Eastwood, who is a clinical psychologist, state that "Boredom is sending us a message…and it's anticipatory, a call to act. But boredom is biological, and our strategies for dealing with it are subject to paradox" (Danckert). This paradox they mention is how humans typically fight it by doing things that invoke some form of harm. When bored, we have the freedom to make a good or bad decision, but often lean towards the bad one. That's why you often find yourself going down the black hole of the internet or doing meaningless things you have many other things to do.

Here is the thing: when you are bored, you are left with an uneasy feeling, not knowing what to do. You worry that you are wasting time by not doing anything, a discomforting thought like no other. However, you have something to worry about when you are in pain. You have something to focus on. People live for action. Happiness dies down quickly, so you have nothing to be interested in after it does. Pain typically lasts longer and is harder to fight through than happiness (although I don't think many people would want to fight through joy), so boredom generally leads to pain rather than enjoyment. Humans constantly need to undergo some form of suffering to make them feel as if they are full of life - like they have something to fight through and possibly overcome, something to live for. When people are bored, they crave some action or instability, revealing that they prefer to suffer than remain in an uneventful state of mind, though this has negative consequences.

A study was done on 177 Australian university students surveyed to determine how their education style affected their boredom level and how their boredom levels influenced their test scores. Those who were taking a university program that offers an open curriculum, where students can choose most of their classes, claimed to be less bored than those pursuing a program with a closed curriculum, where they cannot select all of their classes. Low rates of boredom resulted in higher test scores, and higher rates resulted in lower test scores (Ghensi). Clearly, constantly being bored has its consequences.

Let's take a look at Meursault from The Stranger. He never had a true passion or a goal he could work on. He lacked in academics and adapting because he had no way of learning to empathize and no desire to learn. Due to his stubbornness to feel anything, he willingly kept shutting emotions from his mind. He says, "In a way, they seemed to be arguing the case as if it had nothing to do with me. Everything was happening without my participation. My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking my opinion" (Camus). Readers typically think that Mersault is emotionally absent and couldn't care less about what happens in his life, but he might subconsciously be bored. He says, "But all the long speeches, all the interminable days and hours that people had spent talking about my soul, had me left with the impression of a colorless swirling river that was making me dizzy" (Camus). So much is happening to him, but he avoids everything as he does not know how to fight his battles and has such an existential view of life. He forces himself into a state of boredom while he knows of everything life is throwing his way. In other words, he cannot process and act upon so many things at once, so he neglects them and instead lives without purpose. He does not realize it, but that gets to his head, so he impulsively does terrible things.

It turns out that Meursault has Asperger's syndrome, a disorder that is part of the autism spectrum. Symptoms of Asperger's are poor communication/interaction skills, limited outward expressions, altered speech, and specific and obsessive routines (“Asperger’s Syndrome”). This symptom was unknown and undefined when The Stranger was created. Albert Camus based this off of his friend, Galindo, after observing his peculiar behavior, meaning Meursault was the first diagnosed character (Shuster).

Willy Loman from "Death of a Salesman" also has disorders sprouting from boredom: senile dementia and bipolar disorder (“We are all salesmen now”). He does not need to pursue his flawed version of the American Dream. However, without the Dream, he has nothing to do. Without the Dream, he has nothing else to live for. So, he chooses to intoxicate himself with the glorified American Dream to make sure that his life is worth something; so that he doesn't have moments where he is relaxed or existing to simply exist. And how did that turn out? He frequently gets hallucinations and is overall constantly unhappy. Additionally, not only does he prefer this state of suffering, but he inflicts it upon others as well. He wronged Linda. He hurt Biff. He hurt Charley. He has probably hurt many others without realizing it, all because he was afraid of not having anything to do with his time.

There are better ways to overcome boredom. There is a difference between forcefully undergoing suffering and being challenged, and challenging yourself is always healthier. Being challenged does not mean you cannot be happy. Being bored does not mean you cannot be happy. People resort to suffering in lieu of being bored because they are afraid, and there are many healthy ways to face your fears. In his novel Taming Fear in the Age of Covid, Winfried Sedhoff elaborates on a 7-step process to tackle all sorts of fears and turning the "fear monster to a friend" (Sedhoff), especially if those fears turn into anxiety disorders or other disorders like it did for Meursault and Willy Loman. It consists of various mindset changes, habits, and physical methods to create a healthy outlet for boredom. This book is primarily for fears and anxiety enhanced due to Covid, but the ones in the book are similar to the ones Meursault and Willy Loman displayed. Here is a short video advertisement for the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUmr_-Tv_jA

In one way or another, whether on a large scale or not, everyone can relate to finding slight pleasure in suffering rather than not doing anything. I can relate to the example at the beginning of this blog, where I get lost in the social media void because I don't want to do my work sometimes but don't want to be bored. Though I have ample time to finish my work and know the consequences of saving it until the last minute, I spend too much time doing miscellaneous things (on and off my phone) that could be more relevant and helpful to my life. Then, I end up with little time to do my work and stress through it. Whenever that happens, I sometimes don't know what I am doing, so I don't learn anything. Meursault feels the need to not care about the many things happening to him but lacks a purpose in life, leading him to inconsiderately do horrible things, such as shooting the Arab. Willy Loman uses the American Dream to have something to live for. This becomes so toxic that he cannot handle boredom or rejection from his Dream, negatively affecting his mental health, just like Meursault. That being said, though it is difficult, it is vital to find healthy ways out of boredom and have a goal to challenge yourself rather than put yourself through suffering in these situations - you wouldn't want to end up like Meursault or Willy, would you?