boredom
Once upon a time, boredom served as a blank canvas, which resulted in a masterpiece metaphorically and not as a bug in the system. On literal terms, boredom used to spark creativity, which was the birth of many ideas, inventions, innovations, art forms, etc. Boredom these days is generally treated as a glitch. It serves as a pit that can be easily filled with dust and dirt, which is entertainment.
It is infamous that Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree, and an apple fell on his head, leading to the discovery of many important theories related to gravity. However, most people don’t know that during his isolation during the Great Plague, he thought about theories related to gravity and other things. Either way, it was boredom that sparked his creativity.
Same way, boredom proved good for Agatha Christie and Frankenstein writer Mary Shelley. She thought of this idea during a ghost story writing competition. This competition was held because they couldn’t go out due to poor weather.
The next such story is about J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. It was thought of during her train journey. She didn’t have a paper and a pen. She was too shy to ask for them. She started brainstorming on her way, and this is how this character was created. Boredom played a vital role here, too.
One common ground in all these stories is ‘boredom’. Is it that simple that we get bored, we create a masterpiece? No, of course not. But it sure helps to kick-start the journey to a masterpiece. Nowadays boredom is something which is something which can be ‘treated’ when it wasn’t an illness in the first place. It is just highly misunderstood. Each person in this world can create things. But most people don’t want to think beyond horizons. What is the reason?
The reason is the entertainment sources that we all have. It is in all kinds of forms, TV, social media, movies, etc. We get bored, we start scrolling our phones. We are more invested in social media influencers’ lives than ours. Why is entertainment source now limited not only but also things which just wouldn’t make sense to our ancestors, but also why we would even watch that. Why do we care about what people did or how they spent their day? Why not switch off the phone and spend your day your way?
I would also like to add how the weirdest source of entertainment, AKA social media, generalizes things. I mean that nobody wants to try anything new; they are so used to the existing lifestyle. They have resisted the urge to go on an adventure, both literally and figuratively. Instead of some quiet time and a precious moment to think, we have started finding entertainment everywhere. We watch influencers live instead of living. We know more about what strangers have going on in their lives than we know about ourselves.
The courage to explore, to wander into boredom, to challenge it, it’s all fading. Go on, stop scrolling your phone. I don’t know if you might have noticed, but if you compare the older movies or books with the current ones, you’ll notice that the weirdness is gone. There are so many movies, books that push us to see something new. But they are not as famous as things that are getting recognition.
It is time to bring it back, not as a curse but as a gift. Boredom is not a villain in your story; it is that side character that helps you grow. Don’t kill boredom. Don’t run away from it. Be bored. Let your mind wander. Create something. Feel something. Think about something.
By: Pragya Bharti
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