Boredom’s great

All play and no work would, however, bother the parents — especially mother, who would have to attend to us at home. So once she tried to pack me and my sibling off to an art class. The experiment lasted a week. All in all, though, vacations were a time for recuperating from school; of just being on one’s own and doing nothing. Or, to put it another way, pursuing boredom.

When I recently read about Dr Richard Ralley’s research on boredom, I couldn’t have felt more vindicated. According to this professor at Britain’s Edge Hill University, boredom — especially in times of vacation — is good for kids, as it helps conserve energy and gears them up for the tough session ahead. Ergo, kids should be left to their own devices.

But come summer and I see parents frantically figuring out which hobby class to send their kids to. With parents in tow, kids are hopping from golf to art to theatre and music classes. And age seems to be no bar. Even one-and-a-half-year olds are enrolled at art class!

In this instant coffee, instant gratification age, everyone seems to be forgetting the importance of ruminating — of watching the world go by, of just standing around and staring. Forget kids, even adults don’t appreciate the feeling of “doing nothing”. Left to our own without work, we begin to feel unproductive, and this seems to depress us.

Time then to seriously consider the joys of boredom. And, who knows, it may even make life more meaningful. For starters, let’s circulate more copies of Ralley’s work out here.

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