Faye seemed to suggest in my Guestbook recently that the things I wrote about in "Being Tickled Pink" were the height of boredom. Being bored at the time I read her message, I naturally began to give serious consideration to the definition and symptoms of boredom.

Boredom is when you do something because you have nothing better or more exciting to do. It is an uncomfortable state of wishing you had something better to do, while simultaneously not having the energy to fulfil that desire. You therefore compromise by settling for the first distraction that comes to hand, even if it prolongs the state of boredom.

It is important to distinguish between "boredom" and "boring". "Boredom", a noun, emanates from a feeling you have about yourself, while "boring", an adjective, is a quality of something beyond yourself. It is an unfortunate error that many of my students make when they say, "I am very boring!" Most times I correct them, but occasionally I think a student is inadvertently right in describing himself in this way, and let the error stand.

Symptoms of boredom include: restlessness (when desire and lack of energy are in conflict); watching a TV programme you hate; watching a movie you've seen before, not because you like it, but because that's all that's on; cleaning the house, the car, or the clothes; ironing; bombing another country; reading this.

Boredom, like death, is a state of decomposition.

24 January 2003

Dion Marc Delport

Comment on this article in my Guestbook

Back to Dion's Home Page