Haven't we all been bored sometime? Lots of money to be made enticing bored people to PLAY. Like this screenshot below when I typed in bored and got sent to "Bored? Press the Bored Button!" website.
We must have a lot of boredom in our society, as there are hundreds of websites that will help one reduce, remove, and banish boredom. And there are lots of websites dealing with it socially and psychologically. And consider this: there is medical language too - "to cure boredom."
Is it a medical condition? Well, here's something I never knew. There are medical origins and implications. Healthline says there are physical causes:
inadequate rest or nutrition
low levels of mental stimulation
lack of choice or control over your daily activities
lack of diversified recreational interests
poor perception of time
Look at that last one - having a poor perception of time. It is termed "time blindness" where a person has difficulty in perceiving how quickly time passes and in managing time effectively - lateness, trouble estimating tasks, difficulties in planning or meeting deadlines.
And there are medical causes: ADHD, autism, depression, neurological impairment due to brain injury, cognitive processing differences. And this medical term? Dyschronometria. It is a condition of cerebellar dysfunction where an individual cannot accurately estimate the amount of time that has passed. Things can be complicated, can't they?
And I had thought it was closely related to existentialism, life's purpose, etc. But the roots of boredom are ancient - the Greeks had the word acedia.
Who do we credit with popularizing the word boredom? Charles Dickens and his novel Bleak House. Wouldn't that be an experience? To read Bleak House and A Christmas Carol at the same time - you know, something like 5 pages of Bleak House, 5 Pages of Christmas Carol? That would be a good way to scramble the mind.
My theory was that we would pinpoint the industrial revolution as bringing in alienation on top of boredom. And that flowed into existentialism. It is closely tied to boredom - listlessness seems quite equivalent to meaninglessness and that was at the heart of the existentialist movement of the mid-20th century. However, existentialism really dealt with freedom and purpose and the struggle for self-creation. Where it got to today seems odd to me. Every threat to "being alive" is considered existential. We've reduced it to a simpler thing from the angst of the 20th century.
And that's what I see on the internet with boredom. It now is a simple story - play a game. Maybe we prefer it that way.
There's no alpenglow images of Niagara's escarpment. You'd think with its span of 725 kilometres, someone would have gotten a good shot of alpenglow. Especially at the Bruce Peninsula. But that's not what's available on the internet.
There are lots of sunrise and sunset shots of Niagara Falls - and they are amazing. Doesn't this look as good as alpenglow?
As I looked through the images, some aren't correct - the falls are not "falling" as they should be. So I look closer at the image and what do I see? It says AI-generated. I am confused how an AI-generated image copying something has got it so inaccurate.
Isn't this an amazing ground cover with its contrast of colours and shapes? This was in Christchurch, New Zealand in the botanical garden.
