8. Freakonomics
I have a theory is that boredom is like hunger.
For most of human history, food took a lot of work and was difficult to come by. That’s why we have hunger as a built-in biological force of nature.
It’s painful to be hungry. Hunger spurs us to action to go out and capture, harvest or prepare food. Hunger will force us to go to great lengths to get what we need for survival.
If you’ve ever even been the least bit hangry, you know that this gnawing need will shut down social graces and make you single-minded in your pursuit of nourishment.
If you’re famished and you finally get your hands on food, you gorge yourself and eat all the calories you can. You want to take it all in and save what you can for later. It’s an innate drive.
So this brings me to my theory on boredom. I think we have it for some similar built-in biological reason. Boredom, like hunger, isn’t an end in itself — but the unpleasant feeling it produces can actually be beneficial.
Much like hunger, boredom spurred our caveman species to action. Once you’ve been fed, you can only sit around and rest for so long. Boredom will set in long before you get hungry again.
This feeling of boredom will inspire you to do something useful between meals. Maybe you’ll create new tools for hunting, make some babies to propagate the species or leave a cave drawing or two for the next generation.
Our minds don’t like boredom, so we’ll think of something innovative to fill the void. In fact, I wrote about that here after forcing myself to be bored.
Fast forward to today. Now we don’t have to work so hard for our next meals. Instead of hunting down a mammoth, you only need to walk to the fridge, vending machine, or just push a button for food if you have the slightest of hunger pangs. Calories are plentiful in the modern world.
Our hunger, which saved our species, now works against us and we end up overweight.
The same is true of boredom. It once drove us to create, build connections with each other and form societies. Now we banish boredom with busy schedules, digital entertainment and that red notification button that keeps calling to you. I mean, if you’ve made it this far into the article it’s a goddamn miracle because you literally have the sum total of human knowledge just a click away right now. Amusement and distraction are plentiful in the modern world.
Our boredom, which saved our species, now works against us and we end up overwhelmed.
I say both of this as someone who absolutely adores food and digital entertainment. I would not want to live as a caveman or frankly any other time in history. The fact that I can order Taco Bell on my phone is quite possibly one of the pinnacle achievements of mankind.
But just as eating Taco Bell all day wouldn’t be good for me — though it might be awesome for awhile — neither would an endless barrage of streaming media, clicks and notifications.
We’ve had to renegotiate our relationship with food in our modern world, and it hasn’t been easy. We’ll have to do the same with our information diet, and that may be even more difficult.
That’s a topic explored in the new episode of Freakonomics on boredom.
“I really feel like I never really have time to be bored,” says one listener who called into the show. “So what actually happens is if I find a time when I’m bored I have this panic attack. I don’t know what to do with myself.”
It’s a really interesting take, ironically. You can listen to the full episode here.
Or even better, just go be bored for awhile. You might be pleasantly surprised at what happens.
If you’re really bored, you can sign up for my weekly newsletter HERE.
