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Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

bath.ac.uk

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Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#111

Post by Zircom »

fblp wrote: post #100
highspeedbus wrote: post #27

There's a brazillian song called Tédio (Boredom) that was popular in the 80's. It talks about not withstanding boredom inside home, while life goes on out there. It's curious how the depicted feeling is so unrelatable today. I think boredom is a real force that pushes ourselves to the edge, to hopefully make a change in life, like going out to see real people. Social media creates this cozy, safe place to keep your m…

I'd like to hear this song. But i searched for Tédio and couldn't find it. Can you find it?

https://youtu.be/hv1Hnmt1GBo

You're 'search engine prompting' needs some work, next time try "tédio Brazil song" :p

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#113

Post by tarboreus »

Buttons840 wrote: post #96
Buttons840 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers with social media are so extremely reactive. Literally within half a second I can react to my boredom and find new content. I've noticed myself beginning to read a sentence, get bored half-way through, switch tabs, look over the new recommendations, do it again 30 seconds later. Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.

One trick I've found to help with this is to live-stream. I once streamed a game on Twitch, nobody really watched, but it forced me to sit down and actually play the game for a good 2 or 3 hours. It was draining, gloriously draining and satisfying. You can stream programming and other personal projects as well. It doesn't matter if you get many viewers or not, just forcing yourself to maintain a consistent course of…

Playing the game was what was draining?

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#114

Post by makeitdouble »

highspeedbus wrote: post #27

There's a brazillian song called Tédio (Boredom) that was popular in the 80's. It talks about not withstanding boredom inside home, while life goes on out there. It's curious how the depicted feeling is so unrelatable today. I think boredom is a real force that pushes ourselves to the edge, to hopefully make a change in life, like going out to see real people. Social media creates this cozy, safe place to keep your m…

> to hopefully make a change in life, like going out to see real people.

I’m fascinated by this narrative on the “real” people outside. I wonder how having more people working remote could change that cultural landscape, and how much time it will take for people to go over the dichotomy of “real” vs “online”.

There are wonderful people with tons of insight and many things to share in the “outside” world. But thing is, they are also online and will share their life philosophy or their new hiking gears in reddit threads as well.

Went to a cafe last week and after a bunch of talk with the owner, he went to ask for my Twitter account and who I was following in the same cultural sphere. And it’s not like we stopped being real the moment we moved our focus to what happens online.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#115

Post by themitigating »

Tagbert wrote: post #72
themitigating wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV and video games are also an option but as you implied you may not always have access to them. However in what situation prior to the internet would a person be forced to be bored. Waiting at the DMV? I guess what I'm saying is it's pretty rare that someone wouldn't have an escape from bordem, even before phones.

Even sitting at home you could get bored. Yes, you would have TV but "nothing is on" and you might have books but nothing "seems right". None of those activities were as carefully tailored to bring you in and actively work to keep you engaged as social media does today.

I claim that tv is designed is keep you watching.

"Next time on.."

"Tonight at 11, what will your kid gay"

Also people used to watch so much TV is was a regular news item (youtube that). Remember the saying "TV will rot your brain".

Yes, more stuff on your phone, easier access but these are levels what threshold did it pass to become an issue?

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#116

Post by alfiedotwtf »

Buttons840 wrote: post #78
yazboo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a difference of degree not kind. The constant audiovisual stimulus running through the internet is much more powerful than any of those things, and more widely available. Cable TV was close. It was always on in the room, but you had to be in the room, and you had to negotiate with your cohabitants over what to have on, or else you could go somewhere and be bored. There are no constraints anymore, with exceptions…

Computers with social media are so extremely reactive. Literally within half a second I can react to my boredom and find new content. I've noticed myself beginning to read a sentence, get bored half-way through, switch tabs, look over the new recommendations, do it again 30 seconds later. Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.

> Never bored, and yet never really entertained or satisfied.

Social media in a nutshell

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#117

Post by themitigating »

mrbombastic wrote: post #46
themitigating wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV and video games are also an option but as you implied you may not always have access to them. However in what situation prior to the internet would a person be forced to be bored. Waiting at the DMV? I guess what I'm saying is it's pretty rare that someone wouldn't have an escape from bordem, even before phones.

road trips, standing in line anywhere (toll booth, amusement park, gas station, grocery store etc), riding the subway, waiting room at a doctor’s office, riding in a cab, waiting between customers at your retail job, power outages, camping trips, I am sure I could think of many more.

For the above you could -listen to music -talk to someone -read a book, magazine, or newspaper -text people (I assume we mean no social media, not no phones)

Now my nitpicks

- How long do you wait for gas? It's also an activity (assuming you aren't using full service)

-Camping is an activity

Sure you can come up with a scenarios where people are forced to be bored. Like waiting in a doctors office that you went to by yourself and they don't offer any reading material. Seems rare.

Let me offer another one: solitary confinement, what happens to people left alone with their own thoughts? They often go crazy.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#118

Post by makeitdouble »

kstenerud wrote: post #79
dahart wrote: post #73

> “Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development.” Is there historical evidence, from before social media or computers existed, that boredom made people productive or creative? I am worried about my kids never ever being bored, and the points in the article are tempting to believe,…

Boredom is what led to pretty much every project I've ever done. I usually have a list in my head of things that could be made better, but they never come to anything until I have a lengthy period of nothing to do. Latest example: I had to take all my vacation time this year or else I'd lose it. I got so bored that I built this over the past weeks: https://github.com/kstenerud/kbnf

I don’t know anything about your job, so it’s pure assumptions, but aren’t you using your creative input to solve problems in your job as well ?

Basically, your hobby projects are probably more freeing and unbounded, but are they more _creative_ than the work you’re be doing in your paid time ?

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#119

Post by wst_ »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #75
12345hn6789 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different than closing your phone, screen shotting a FB post, pausing your video? Really. Even live streams, for the most part, are able to be paused and watched at a later date albiet without chat interaction. I fail to see the difference.

If you fall asleep during a video, now you'll have no idea where you were. Similarly if I lose concentration watching a video, I now have to either go back or hope I didn't miss anything important. If I lose concentration while reading, the page is still there, I just have to skim it until I find where i went on a tangent.

You still need to skim the page. The same way you can skim video to find the place you remember. I don't see a lot of difference here.

Re: Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom

#120

Post by makeitdouble »

dahart wrote: post #73

> “Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development.” Is there historical evidence, from before social media or computers existed, that boredom made people productive or creative? I am worried about my kids never ever being bored, and the points in the article are tempting to believe,…

Anecdotally, I do a lot less personal projects and wild exploration since spending much more time on the net every day. This resonates to other people’s comments I think.

On the other hand, when looking back at what I was doing a decade or two ago, they were dumber, clunkier and just less interesting things overall. My personal take is that the barrier to invest time into something is now a lot higher, but the results are to me much more fulfilling and impacting.

Doing stuff out of pure boredom wasn’t as efficient and engaging as doing stuff that I long thought about and actively create time to execute on.

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