Bored Out of My Mind, Body and Spirit
“Boredom Comes From a Boring Mind” (Metallica)
In 1975, “don’t leave home without it” referred to your American Express credit card. In 2014, it has taken on a whole new meaning, personal electronics. Cell phones, laptops, tablets, GPS, and gaming devices, our electronic tethers keep us connected, like the Star Trek Borg, we are all a part the collective. Our lives have become bound together by an entanglement of electronics. The very items intended to entertain, assist and even protect us are also harmful if not used with care. Technology is accelerating the degradation of society; mind, body and spirit, as boredom becomes a chronic societal infirmity.
The spirit is the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power. Out of love, parents have an innate desire to nurture their child. So, it would stand to reason, that when faced with the “I’m bored” report, they jump to action with structured activity or a technology device instead of encouraging the …show more content…
The first known use of boredom dates back to 1852, and is defined as “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.” Bill Wasik discusses his evolution to boredom in his essay entitled, “My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project.” Bill coined the term “Flash Mob”. Influenced by Stanley Milgram, through the use of technology, he executed a total of 6 successful whimsical social experiments whose only goal was to attract a crowd. Milgram elegantly documented the essences of herd behavior, what economists call a “bandwagon affect”; the instinctive tendency of the human animal to rely on the actions of others in choosing its own course of action, thanks to a fear of missing out. We get interested in what we see others getting interested in (Wasik, 522). Suffering with what Wasik refers to as acute boredom, the MOB Project was born. Ironically, it was also the cause of its fall just 4 months and 7 days later
“Boredom Comes From a Boring Mind” (Metallica)
In 1975, “don’t leave home without it” referred to your American Express credit card. In 2014, it has taken on a whole new meaning, personal electronics. Cell phones, laptops, tablets, GPS, and gaming devices, our electronic tethers keep us connected, like the Star Trek Borg, we are all a part the collective. Our lives have become bound together by an entanglement of electronics. The very items intended to entertain, assist and even protect us are also harmful if not used with care. Technology is accelerating the degradation of society; mind, body and spirit, as boredom becomes a chronic societal infirmity.
The spirit is the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power. Out of love, parents have an innate desire to nurture their child. So, it would stand to reason, that when faced with the “I’m bored” report, they jump to action with structured activity or a technology device instead of encouraging the …show more content…
The first known use of boredom dates back to 1852, and is defined as “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.” Bill Wasik discusses his evolution to boredom in his essay entitled, “My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project.” Bill coined the term “Flash Mob”. Influenced by Stanley Milgram, through the use of technology, he executed a total of 6 successful whimsical social experiments whose only goal was to attract a crowd. Milgram elegantly documented the essences of herd behavior, what economists call a “bandwagon affect”; the instinctive tendency of the human animal to rely on the actions of others in choosing its own course of action, thanks to a fear of missing out. We get interested in what we see others getting interested in (Wasik, 522). Suffering with what Wasik refers to as acute boredom, the MOB Project was born. Ironically, it was also the cause of its fall just 4 months and 7 days later