1In a recent study participants were placed in a room for between 6 and 15 minutes.
2They were given nothing except a button that they knew would shock them if they pressed it.
3They were asked to entertain themselves with their thoughts,
4but they could self administer the shock if they so chose.
5So what happened?
6Well, 25% of women and 67% of men shocked themselves.
7This is despite the fact that they had previously told the experimenters that they would pay money to avoid the shock.
8Apparently they'd rather experience physical pain than just be bored;
9to have nothing to keep them occupied but their thoughts.
10But they are not alone.
11Around 95% of American adults report participating in some leisure activities over the past 24 hours.
12But only 17% say they spent any time at all just relaxing and thinking,
13because that apparently is boring, and being bored is unpleasant.
14So what is boredom?
15Well, contrary to popular belief, it's not when you have absolutely nothing to do.
16It's just when none of the options you have available to you appeal to you.
17Boredom is characterized by a lack of concentration, restlessness, but also feeling lethargic.
18It's really a state of being underwhelmed.
19And there are now more ways than ever to avoid boredom.
20With Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube,
21not to mention my chronic news I have, waiting in line, sitting in a coffee shop, stopped at a traffic light.
22Many people reach for their phones to stave off boredom, and nowhere is sacred.
23Do you ever just let yourself be bored?
24No, no, I generally don't.
25But are we losing anything by avoiding boredom?
26Well, scientific research says yes,
27and what we're losing is important.
28When you're bored your mind wanders.
29That's only natural.
30The state of boredom is one where your attention is not focused on anything in particular.
31Researchers have shown this mind wandering is useful for creativity.
32They gave study participants a random boring task.
33The most boring one: reading the phone book.
34Then, they asked participants to be creative;
35generate as many ideas as they could for what you could do with a plastic cup.
36Those in the most boring read the phone book condition generated the most creative solutions compared to less bored controls.
37A major reason many researchers suspect that we experience boredom is because it gives you an indicator of your current state.
38I mean, if you find yourself feeling bored, you know something about that situation isn't working for you.
39Let me ask you this.
40When you're in class and you're a bit bored do you ever just pull out your phone and have a look at stuff?
41Yeah. All the time.
42So the paradox of boredom is that it makes you feel tired, sluggish and just disinterested.
43But it may actually spur you to action.
44It may get you to make changes that would be positive for your life.
45And changes like getting this guy's legs out of my face.
46That would be perfect.
47In the absence of boredom, one would remain trapped in unfulfilling situations
48and miss out on many emotionally, cognitively and socially rewarding experiences.
49Boredom is both a warning that we're not doing what we wanna be doing,
50and a push that motivates us to switch goals and projects.
51Studies have also shown that boredom may make you more altruistic.
52Perhaps the acute sense of aimlessness you experience when you're bored gets out of control, and makes you question what you're doing with your life as a whole.
53But the silver lining is that it may trigger you to think about others and what you can do to help them.
54And that provides an immediate and concrete purpose to a life that might momentarily feel like it's lacking one.
55You know, studies designed to induce boredom have shown that more bored participants are more likely to donate to charity, or to give blood.
56Can I ask what led you to donate blood today?
57I had free time in my hands. You know, just, waiting for 2 hours, an hour and a half or so.
58So apparently the opportunity to do meaningful, even if unpleasant activities have more value if you're bored than if you're not.
59Similarly, this aimless state seems to cultivate thoughts about what you want to do with your life.
60To think of your life as a story and consider where you want it to go in the future.
61This is called autobiographical planning.
62When given tasks that only use a fraction of mental capacity,
63study participants frequently thought of the future and their plans for it.
64In this way being bored is essential for goal-setting.
65If your brain is always consumed with other stimuli,
66you'll rarely ponder the bigger picture
67and set long-term goals for yourself and consider how to achieve them.
68Does a phone get rid of your boredom?
69Yeah, actually, thinking about it, it does.
70So every time you're waiting for something,
71you have a decision to make which seems like a tiny one.
72Pull out your phone for a few seconds or minutes, or just be bored;
73experience only your thoughts.
74It seems like an insignificant decision.
75And if you don't give it much thought the obvious action is to see what's new on your app of choice.
76And in making that decision you are alleviating a moment of boredom.
77But you are also likely making yourself less creative, less altruistic, less likely to assess your current state and less likely to set goals for your future.
78In short, you are the real world example of someone shocking themselves to avoid the unpleasantness of boredom.
79Except in your case, the pain goes much deeper to the very nature of who you are, and who you will become.
80So think carefully before pressing that button.