Boredom Is Dying A Not-So-Boring Death

A philosophical exploration of boredom from the perspectives of Byung-Chul Han, Bertrand Russell, and Søren Kierkegaard.

“Boredom: the desire for desires.” - Leo Tolstoy

Boredom has always fascinated me because it seems to be going extinct.

Toddlers on iPads inside of restaurants, commuters glued to their phones whilst taking the subway or the bus, and our general, society-wide obsession with constant stimuli and information are examples of this. Boredom, it seems to me, is dying a not-so-boring death.

With this in mind, is a world devoid of boredom something that we should be genuinely concerned about? Is it even worth worrying about the fact that our ability to tolerate boredom is slowly deteriorating? To answer this question, we’ll be exploring ideas from three different philosophers, two of whom considered boredom to be important and valuable, and one who thought it did nothing but cause misery and suffering.

Based on your philosophical perspective, boredom can either be something that has played an integral role within civilizational development or an aspect of life that has brought us a ton of misery and serves no use. We’ll be navigating the topic of boredom by taking a look at the perspectives of Byung-Chul Han, Bertrand Russell, and Søren Kierkegaard.

For Bertrand Russell, boredom is a necessary part of any happy and fulfilled life, as the ability to ‘endure boredom’ means that we’re able enjoy the exciting parts of human existence without getting desensitized to excitement itself. For Byung-Chul Han, boredom is quite important, as it catalyzes ‘deep, contemplative attention’. This deep contemplation has been fuelling all of humanity’s progress since the dawn of our species, and therefore boredom has played a crucial role within civilizational development. Boredom spurs creativity and change, but according to Han, our current society is obsessed with ‘excess stimuli and information’. This has destroyed our tolerance for boredom itself, simultaneously diminishing our capacity for creativity and human progress along with it. Lastly, for Søren Kierkegaard, boredom is something that is dangerous and must be taken seriously. He takes more of a critical stance towards boredom as opposed to Russell and Han, and he goes on to expand upon the idea that boredom stems from an ‘absence of meaning’ rather than an ‘absence of stimuli’ as we commonly believe. As this post will show, he also provides us with some wisdom on how to avoid boredom and its negative effects.

Now that I’ve given you a little bit of a preview of what’s to come, let’s dive in.

Byung-Chul Han

Although Byung-Chul Han hasn’t discussed boredom extensively, he does dedicate a chapter within The Burnout Society to discussing the topic. He starts the chapter by stating that we live in a society which has an excess of ‘stimuli, information, and impulses’. As a result of this, we’ve all become excellent multitaskers. For Han however, this is problematic, as he believes that multitasking does not represent ‘civilizational progress’ and that it brings us down to the level of ‘wild animals’.

Han states that multitasking is a great skill to have if you’re trying to survive in the wild, which is why many animals are skilled multitaskers.

“An animal busy with eating must also attend to other tasks. For example, it must hold rivals away from its prey. It must constantly be on the looking, lest it be eaten while eating…In the wild, the animal is forced to divide its attention between various activities. That is why animals are incapable of contemplative immersion -- either they are eating or they are copulating. The animal cannot immerse itself contemplatively in what it is facing because it must also process background events.” - The Burnout Society, pg. 12

He goes on to state that, as a society of multitaskers who are always preoccupied with dozens of ‘background tasks’, we’re becoming less and less contemplative and more like wild animals simply trying to survive. As stated by Han; “recent human developments and the structural change of wakefulness are bringing human society deeper and deeper into the wilderness”.

Han stresses the fact that all of humanity’s cultural achievements, including philosophy itself, has been a product of ‘deep, contemplative attention’. This deep form of contemplation is being lost in today’s world due to our obsession with excess stimuli and information. Han refers to this as ‘hyper attention’, which he defines as ‘a rash change of focus between different tasks, sources of information, and processes’. In other words, today’s world has a low tolerance for boredom.

Han considers boredom to be ‘the peak of mental relaxation’ just as sleep is the ‘high point of bodily relaxation’ for our physical bodies. It has a sort of essential, healing property to it. For Han, boredom is not only a crucial part of deep contemplation, but it also plays an integral role within creativity, both of which are essential for human progress. Boredom is a foundational part of creative and cultural progress, as you can’t produce humanity’s next great piece of art or write an influential literary work if your mind is racing and trying to do 5 things at once. As Robert M. Pirsig once said; “boredom always precedes a period of great creativity”. 

As illustrated by Han in the following quote, a tolerance for boredom spurs contemplation, creativity, and ultimately progress. A low tolerance for boredom however, does nothing but contain us to our old ways. This is because boredom allows for a period of contemplation within which we can not only reflect upon the root of our problems and the boredom itself, but also develop carefully thought out solutions. This is in contrast to the ‘quick fixes’ and instant gratification approach that someone with a low tolerance for boredom may try to implement.

“If a person experiences boredom while walking and has no tolerance for this state, he will move restlessly in fits and starts or go this way and that. However, someone with a greater tolerance for boredom will recognize, after a while, that walking as such is what bores him. Consequently, he will be impelled to find a kind of movement that is entirely different.” - The Burnout Society, pg. 14

For Han, a society that has a low tolerance for boredom unintentionally also restricts its capacity for creativity, contemplation, and development.

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell dedicated an entire chapter to the topic of boredom within his book The Conquest of Happiness. Although he does acknowledge the negative aspects of boredom, Russell goes on to highlight that it isn’t all terrible. From his point of view, boredom has various beneficial qualities, and he even states that boredom may be a necessary component within any happy and fulfilled life.

Russell remarks that excitement is the opposite of boredom, and therefore a life free of boredom is typically full of excitement. The problem with this however, is that a life ‘full of excitement’ and devoid of boredom usually results in an individual who is unable to endure boredom itself. The term ‘excitement’ can also mean an excess of stimuli and information, therefore making Russell’s claim quite applicable in the modern age. Our day-to-day lives are chock full of excess stimuli, or ‘excitement’ as Russell calls it (e.g. constantly checking our phones, the rise of ‘easy to digest’ forms of media such as TikTok videos, etc), which has resulted in us losing the ability to endure or tolerate boredom (and subsequently benefit from it as well).

Russell goes on to highlight that when an individual lives a life ‘full of excitement’, it results in their ‘palate’ for pleasure being damaged. In other words, our ability to experience and enjoy pleasure becomes severely diminished. This is because within a life full of excitement, stronger and stronger stimuli is required for someone to feel content or fulfilled as time goes on. It’s sort of like caffeine tolerance; if you drink coffee on a daily basis for months, you’ll eventually need two or three coffees just to feel the same ‘buzz’ you did when you first started drinking. According to Russell, ‘excitement’ or excess stimuli is no different.

In Russell’s view, boredom safeguards us from destroying our ‘pleasure palate’. It acts almost as a sort of counterbalance, allowing us to properly enjoy excitement without overdoing it. Without boredom, we’d all become akin to someone who’s dependent on caffeine; requiring more and more ‘excitement’ each time just to feel pleasure or the stimuli that we’re craving, until we get to a point where no stimuli, no matter how pleasurable, is satisfactory.

“There is an element of boredom which is inseparable from the avoidance of too much excitement, and too much excitement not only undermines the health, but dulls the palate for every kind of pleasure, substituting titillations for profound organic satisfactions, cleverness for wisdom, and jagged surprises for beauty… A certain amount of it (excitement) is wholesome, but like almost everything else, the matter is quantitative. Too little may produce morbid cravings, too much will produce exhaustion. A certain power of enduring boredom is therefore essential to a happy life and is one of the things that ought to be taught to the young.” - The Conquest of Happiness, pg. 62

Russell also goes on to highlight the fact that boredom is a universal part of anything that is great or remarkable. Anyone who’s lived a remarkable life, any great piece of art or literature, and anything else, all has an element of ‘boringness’ to it.

“All great books contain boring portions, and all great lives contain uninteresting stretches.” - The Conquest of Happiness, pg. 63

In my opinion, Russell’s message here is quite simple; if all remarkable and great things within this world contain an element of boredom, it would probably be harmful to want to avoid boredom altogether. Although we may not realize it or be able to pinpoint what it is, there’s something special and useful about boredom, and this is why even the greatest of people have ‘uninteresting’ stretches of life and why every remarkable piece of literature, film, media, or anything else contains ‘boring portions’.

Søren Kierkegaard

In contrast to Bertrand Russell and Byung-Chul Han, Søren Kierkegaard takes a bit more of a critical stance on boredom. For him, boredom isn’t something that should be glossed over and ignored. Kierkegaard emphasizes the fact that boredom has the potential to be quite harmful. 

Kierkegaard draws attention to the fact that boredom is something that arises from an absence of meaning. This is in contrast to the commonly held belief that boredom is a product of a lack of stimulation. 

One of my favorite points from Kierkegaard is his remarks on the paradoxical nature of boredom itself. He states that boredom, despite being full of emptiness and ‘sedation’, somehow has the powerful ability to catalyze ‘motion’. It’s actually quite weird when you think about it. Various lively activities and creative pursuits can be inspired by boredom, an experience which is dull and empty by nature.

“It is very curious that boredom, which itself has such a calm and sedate nature, can have such a capacity to initiate motion. The effect that boredom brings about is absolutely magical, but this effect is not of attraction but of repulsion.” - Either/Or, Crop Rotation

Boredom is something that catalyzes ‘motion’ out of repulsion, which is odd. This is in contrast to desire, which catalyzes action out of attraction - something that’s a bit more understandable. We’re so repulsed by boredom, by its emptiness and dullness, that we become motivated to pursue various remarkable and intricate creative ventures.

Kierkegaard also highlights the fact that we commonly try to escape and combat boredom by endlessly changing our surroundings and the activities that we’re doing. In his view, this is an error.

“One is weary of living in the country and moves to the city; one is weary of one’s native land and goes abroad; one is wear of Europe and goes to America, etc… This method cancels itself and is the spurious infinity.” - Either/Or, Crop Rotation

Kierkegaard states that endlessly changing our scenery won’t actually solve our issue. The idea that boredom is produced by something such as environmental constancy is a fallacy, and all that it leads to is an endless changing of scenery and stimulation. This is because, as stated earlier within this section, Kierkegaard believes that boredom arises when we lack meaning, not when we lack stimulation. If you lack meaning within your life, constantly changing your sources of stimulation or your environment won’t really do anything, as your boredom stems from something much deeper. He states that this is akin to a farmer who simply ‘changes the soil’ on his farm, whereas what he should actually be doing is ‘changing the method of cultivation and the kinds of crops’ that he’s planting.

Kierkegaard goes on to advocate for a principle which he refers to as ‘the sole saving principle in the world’ - limitation. He states that limitation forces us to be more resourceful and appreciative of life itself, which leads to fulfillment.

“The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes. A solitary prisoner for life is extremely resourceful; to him a spider can be a source of great amusement. Think of our school days; we were at an age when there was no esthetic consideration in the choosing of our teachers, and therefore they were often very boring — how resourceful we were then! What fun we had catching a fly, keeping it prisoner under a nutshell, and watching it run around with it.” - Either/Or, Crop Rotation

This is how I interpret these remarks; limiting oneself can actually give us a newfound sense of meaning and fulfillment. If you’re plagued with boredom, it may be that some aspect of your life is too easy or too monotonous, and you’ve lost a sense of meaning. By accepting a new challenge - a new limiting circumstance - the very overcoming of this limit/challenge becomes your newfound sense of meaning. This is perhaps why people find fulfillment in starting a new business, pursuing a completely new career path, or making a variety of other drastic life changes. For Kierkegaard, it’s not environmental circumstances that cause boredom, nor is it the surface-level activities that you do on a daily basis. Instead, boredom arises from a lack of meaning.

According to Kierkegaard, pursuing meaning is the best antidote for boredom.

As always, thanks for reading today’s post and I’ll see you next week.

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