Consumer Boredom: Boredom as a Subliminal Mood of Consumer Capitalism

A Philosophy of Boredom

The phenomenon of boredom

Boredom remains a poorly understood phenomenon despite its evident association with dysfunctional behavior and mental health problems. However, little research has been devoted to the topic, and the bulk of studies have almost exclusively been quantitative in design. For this reason, a qualitative, interpretive phenomenological study was carried out, during which ten participants were asked for...

In Place of Boredom

On the Function of Boredom

Boredom is frequently considered inconsequential and has received relatively little research attention. We argue that boredom has important implications for human functioning, based on emotion theory and empirical evidence. Specifically, we argue that boredom motivates pursuit of new goals when the previous goal is no longer beneficial. Exploring alternate goals and experiences allows the attai...

The bright side of boredom

Boredom proneness is commonly assessed and measured using self-report scales and questionnaires. The only full-scale measure of boredom that has been extensively used to assess boredom proneness is the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS) (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986). BPS takes boredom proneness to be the tendency to experience boredom in a wide range of situations (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986). Although...