• Replies 16 replies
  • Subscribers 87 subscribers
  • Views 4068 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Painful bordom

Peter

You know I read somewhere that given the choice of being given an electric shock or sitting in boring silence alone and unstimulated for a period of time many people prefer the shock. This was a psychology experiment that was run some time ago. Have you ever experienced intense prolonged deep boredom. Boredom so deep it could almost be described as pain? I have to say I think I can. As a home schooled child before the internet quite a lot of my life felt like that. It must be rare these days now kids have iphones etc and can 'do an internet' whenever they want.

Here's the tragic dichotomy. I would consider my self an extrovert. I enjoy being around people. But most people are so incredibly boring. I mean so so boring. Life is quite boring. I remember working for the civil service dealing with forms and reports that said nothing. Or worse that said what could have been summarised in 3 graphs and 2 paragraphs in several pages. I grew to hate the term 'high level.' It's civil service code for 'ignore all the important details and make unwarranted assumptions.' All I was doing we regurgitating old work applied to new problems that in most cases they weren't best fit to answer. The boredom was agonising.

Am I alone? Am I the only one who finds most every day conversations and jobs so mind agonisingly boring? I thought this was how most autistic people feel?

Parents

  • I'd be wary of placing much faith in studies like the 'electric shock' one you mentioned. Often, such surveys are later found to be flawed in some manner. And, of course, a debatable statistic can always be summoned-up to support a preordained position or opinion (for example, political poll results frequently seem a bit dubious to me because relatively few people are asked for their views).

    The novelist Martin Amis once wrote that every human being who is alone with another will eventually find their thoughts leading to the torture of that person; the late author Colin Wilson told a tale about two bored men marooned in a cabin for months - in time, they were so bored that they drew swords and tried to kill each other...just to end the ennui; both of these silly, extreme examples were used by the writers to introduce whatever larger points they'd already decided to make. Their premises - and, therefore, their wider conclusions -  were flawed at worst, arguable at best...just like Corbett's claim that only 20% of people are truly capable of leading others (merely an arbitrary, biased conclusion of no substance) and the study which concluded that 40% of Americans are illiterate (the actual figure was 14% - still not ideal, still debatable, but a big difference to 40%).

  • in reply to Steven

    I mean I'm just using it to justify what I've personally experienced to be true. That boredom is a form of psychological harm. I don't need a study to confirm it, but I thought it might put things in context for people. Of course if you are aware of any research debunking the assertion that boredom is a form of psychological harm be my guest to reference it. But the point of this thread isn't really arguing that, it more about is the effect worse for autistic people.

  • in reply to Peter

    You're right, Peter - my post was irrelevant and basically pointless.

  • in reply to Peter

    Honestly, it's fine. Slight smile I'm too prone to getting so wrapped-up in my own concerns and interests that I overlook the most important aspects of threads like yours.

  • in reply to Steven

    I mean, now I feel bad; irrelevant comments can be the seeds of fruitful discussions. I'm just saying it doesn't really change my original point you see.

Reply Children