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Boredom, the Degradation of Social Interaction, & the Lack of Leisure


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 * //Caption: Boredom, poor social interaction, and the lack of leisure are all factors that fuel the destructive cycle of mass consumption, instant gratification, and self-interest. This may also have impacts on the quality of life by encouraging people to use drugs, be unmotivated, and possess the inability to understand other people.// ||

Boredom is a behavioral and cultural phenomenon that is generally widely recognized in first world countries. It is defined as an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any activity or is not interested in their surroundings. Boredom is a major factor impacting diverse areas of a person's life and the development of an individual. People who were not bored often were found to have better performance in a wide variety of aspects of their lives, including their career, education, and autonomy **[001].** In comparison, boredom has been studied as being related to drug abuse among teens **[002]** and the unsustainable dependence on the pharmaceutical industry. It has also been proposed as a cause of pathological gambling behavior. A study found results consistent with the hypothesis that pathological gamblers seek stimulation to avoid states of boredom and depression **[003].** Here the problem will be approached as the lack adequate facilities, avenues, and time for recreation, leisure, and social activity. This could be approached as a sustainability problem due to not only from its direct effects of activities like drug abuse and depression, but also to the problems associated with the degradation of social interactions in the modern area. This then is associated with the dependence on consumption as an avenue to seek overall happiness, the sustainability issue that is instant gratification, and the lack of involvement and motivation in issues pertinent to living in modern day society.

In the United States and Canada, the degradation of social interactions due to insufficient leisure avenues has allowed a cultural dependence on mass consumption. Today, children are growing up indoors and glued to the television, video games, or the Internet, allowing them to think only under certain pre-existing constraints and where they are constantly bombarded with advertisements and propaganda, instead of experiencing the childhoods their parents had where kids once played games that fostered and cultured imaginations, creative thinking, and the ability to be motivated. Instead of emerging as innovators they are vegetating into consumers. The lack of healthy interactions among people have transformed them into self-centered individuals, where now everyone believes they are entitled to the life they think they deserve, lied to by advertisements and perceptions of what would make them happy. This has fostered into a convenient existence that revolves around the fantasy of winning the lottery or attempting to develop one big idea like selling “the cube” to make billions.

This thoroughly developed boredom, change in social dynamics, and lack of leisure is unhealthy and unsustainable in the long run. The lack of motivation itself could kill any hopes for sustainable change or interest in environmental concerns. However, the implementation of leisure and recreation facilities and time set aside for these programs and hobby clubs would solve the issue by not only nurturing a close-knit and happier community, but also one in which has a lot more diverse skills, all of which could be utilized to achieve greater sustainability overall.

Bibliography & Annotations:


 * __ 001 __** Sommers, Jennifer, and Stephen J. Vodanovich. "Boredom Proneness: Its Relationship to Psychological- and Physical-health Symptoms." //Journal of Clinical Psychology// 56.1 (2000): 149-55. Web.

2. Stephen J. Vodanovich works at UWF, has a PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and has recently written papers about culture and gender differences in boredom proneness.

3. The main argument of the text is that “boredom proneness may be an important element to consider when assessing symptom reporting” in psychiatric patients.

4. A) It is noted that there are “positive correlations between boredom and substance abuse and eating disorders” B) Examples of monotonous labor causing increased reports of visual, musculoskeletal, and emotional-health complaints are provided. C) A sample of students completed various boredom questionnaires.

5. A) “high levels of boredom proneness are related to a greater frequency of symptom reporting.” B) “The results also indicate a significant relationship between boredom proneness and a negative social orientation” C) “individuals with high BPS scores may be overly focused on themselves (or their internal states) and therefore be more likely to perceive that problems may exist.”

6. The suggested links between boredom and various reported symptoms are supported by the evidence given.

7. A) The relationship between boredom and health. B) The relationship between boredom and performance.


 * __002__** Iso-Ahola, Seppo E., and Edward D. Crowley. "Adolescent Substance Abuse and Leisure Boredom." //Journal of Leisure Research// 23.3 (1991): 260-71. //APA PsycNET//. 201. Web. .

2. Seppo E. Iso-Ahola works at UMd, has a PhD in Sports Psychology, and has recently written papers about Social psychological factors in athletic performance.

3. The main argument of the text is that “substance abusers are significantly more bored with leisure than non-substance abusers”

4. A) An experiment involving substance abusers and non-substance abusers was shown to support the main hypothesis. B) If leisure activities fail to satisfy the need of substance abusers for optimal arousal, leisure boredom results, and drug use may be the only alternative. C) Supporting studies are cited.

5. A) “ The findings suggest that a more experiential approach in treating adolescent substance abusers may be a preferable method for handling substance abuse than traditional cognitive and more passive approaches.” B) “If leisure activities fail to satisfy the need of substance abusers for optimal arousal, leisure boredom results, and drug use may be the only alternative.” C) “substance abusers' participation frequency was significantly greater on the activities of football, baseball, gymnastics, skateboarding, rollerskating, attending concerts, and taking a drive; non-substance abusing subjects scored significantly higher on the activities of reading, playing tennis, and going to movies.”

6. A link between boredom and substance abuse supports my thesis that boredom leads to social ills.

7. The relationships between boredom and gambling, and boredom and addiction are two references that I used.


 * __003__** Carriere, J., J. Cheyne, and D. Smilek. "Everyday Attention Lapses and Memory Failures: The Affective Consequences of Mindlessness." //Consciousness and Cognition// 17.3 (2008): 835-47. //Science Direct//. Web. .

2. Jonathan S A Carriere works at the University of Waterloo studying age trends for failures of sustained attention.

3. The paper “examines some of the potential long-term consequences of momentary everyday attention lapses”

4. A) It is noted that “A lack of conscious awareness of one’s actions, signaled by the propensity to experience brief lapses of attention and related memory failures, is thus seen as having significant consequences in terms of long-term affective well-being.” B) Attention-related cognitive errors might contribute to memory failures

5. A) “A model with attention lapses as a common cause of all other variables and with memory failures as a partial mediator between attention lapses and affective dysfunction provided a well-fitting model for the data” B) “future research on the potential for boredom to play a causal role in the onset of depression would be a worthwhile endeavor.”

6. The suggested links between attention lapses, boredom, and depression are supported by the evidence given.

7. A) The relationship between reported boredom and depression. B) The inverse relationship between reported attention lapses and depression.