Why are people bored?

Oh. I'm so bored. I'm tired, languid, I can't think of anything to do. Everyone around looks the same. Looks like boredom is the same all over the world. Not really, anthropologist Yasmine Musharabash at Western Australia University in Crawley, Australia, affirmed.

She studied depression in the place of the Warlpiri Aboriginal people in Yuemdumu, in Australia. She found that the concept of indigenous boredom was different from the idea of ​​Westerners. For Warlpiri people, boredom does not mean that there is nothing to do, but that there are not enough people around to make life enjoyable.

(Photo: Jupiterimages) The idea of ​​Western boredom is clearly a product of time. Before the 18th century, Musharabash explained, we are not so bored; The tiredness of the world is only experienced by those who have time to be bored - rich, clergy and unemployed.

But soon everyone felt bored, showing that boredom was rising with the industrialization revolution and the rise of the middle class.

For a long time, boredom is considered a moral problem, a sin, because it can lead to trouble. People have said: " disengaged micro-friendly ". Even today, boredom is something wrong. How can we get bored when we are full of movies, books, music and the Internet at our fingertips?

But the Warlpiri have shown that boredom is not always related to entertainment. In fact, Australian Aboriginal people never say, " I'm bored, " but they just really feel a boring situation when there aren't enough people around. A long-distance car trip may not be boring if the car is full, but it will be extremely boring if alone.

Moreover, the Warlpiri have no words for boredom, and they have used English words to complain about things that lack human interaction. Verifying that the Warlpiri are never bored in a situation that Westerners hate, because these aboriginal people always live with each moment.

Broken car in the middle of the empty road? Don't sit there bored. Let's go sightseeing with your companions. Stuck between long lines of people? It is an opportunity to see people around.

When the scene and people are always changing, the Warlpiri people see no reason to be bored. And that may be the reason why sitting on a chair in a park or cafe watching the world move around is the fastest and most convenient way to destroy boredom.

MT