The
Boredom Proneness Scale† is the best-known of the various
metrics for quantifying one’s propensity to
ennui. High-scorers who are ‘understretched, unmotivated and
bored in the world of work in the 21
st century’ may in danger of ‘
boreout’
[PDF]. While
boredom needn’t be perceived in an exclusively negative light (one might imagine a
perfect boredom akin to the notion of
dolce far niente), ‘
boredom [PDF] and
boredom proneness […] have been linked to a long list of negative outcomes in adults, including, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and loneliness […], impulsiveness […], elevated rates of alcohol dependence […], negative affect […], pathological gambling […] and higher rates of psychopathology in general.’ Historians of
boredom have noted the relatively recent
advent [NY TIMES] of the term, coinciding with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, but our more distant ancestors were not free of the related
afflictions [PDF] of
horror loci, tædium vitæ, acedia,
mal du siècle, etc.
[more inside]
posted by misteraitch
on Feb 13, 2013 -
40 comments
