Boredom, Elena Calomino

Authors Chloe Gong (@thechloegong) and Xiran Jay Zhao (@xiranjayzhao) are both very popular best-selling, Gen Z authors in the young adult genre who share much via their respective TikTok pages.

Boredom

Elena Calomino

What youth does not get bored? In teaching adolescents, boredom is a fact. As parents/teachers, we strive to prevent boredom from rearing its ugly head. Yet boredom is an inevitable – even useful – human emotion (Phillips 76). By better understanding it, we can be better equipped to work with it, not against it. Boredom is defined as, “the state of being bored” while “bore” is, “to cause to feel weariness and restlessness through lack of interest; to cause to feel boredom” (MerriamWebster). The etymology of the word “boredom” comes from the Proto-Indo-European “bhorh,” meaning “hole,” morphing into the later Proto-Germanic “buron,” which was absorbed into Old English’s “borian,” meaning to bore through, to perforate (Etymonline). Then came something called a “boring tool,” which is a type of drill that works very slowly and repetitively. In the late 1700s, this led to “bore” becoming slang for “tiresome” and “boredom” followed (Vocabulary.com). Boredom is important to the study of adolescents because it is a necessary evil. A youth’s boredom is as unpleasant for the teacher or parent as it is for the youth experiencing it. In encountering this youth’s boredom, we see this as something negative, and immediately try to find something for them to do, or to encourage them to find something to “alleviate” this, as if boredom is a syndrome. But, if boredom is inevitable, cannot that mean that it is also a natural, necessary part of development? Freud saw a child’s boredom as an interruption, a transition (Phillips 75), one that can be natural, if we only let it. Winnicott sees boredom as a chance to “find his desire again.” This finding of desire is crucial to development. In being still, the child is free to think, reflect and observe his world. This is an excellent opportunity for creativity to grow, and when this happens, he learns that this “testing of the environment affords satisfactory results” (Phillips 76). In constantly bombarding our children with things to do, we rob them of these things. Once the child finds something to do, he has learned about himself, his interests, his skills, his talents. He also learns that he can trust the world. Therefore, being bored can and does foster crucial development. What happens if a child is never allowed to be bored? Is it not chilling to hear a child say, “I’m not allowed to be bored”? (Phillips 73). This is a child that needs to be allowed to experience boredom to get to know himself, to start to achieve self-awareness through discovering his desires. We must fight the urge to “sabotage it by distraction” and instead “hold” the experience for the child (Phillips 72). Understanding boredom is important to the study of adolescents because in doing so, we realize that it is a chance for growth. Boredom helps us to understand the experience of young people by seeing it as an opportunity to watch them get to know the world – and themselves. For this reason, experiencing boredom is the crux of their well-being. Therefore, we should not despair if our adolescents are bored. If we let it be, it will solve itself, but not solve as if it were a problem, but solve as in a challenge for the youth to find himself and his place in the world. As good parents/teachers, we must let them. Works Cited

Bore Definition and Meaning – Merriam-Webster www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bore Accessed 05 November 2022