Even the Wall Street Journal Takes Notice of Boredom
It was nice of the author of a page one Wall Street Journal article about a December 11 event in London
“Understandably,” said Caruba, “the bulk of the article reflected the event’s theme that boredom might be beneficial, if only to tune out the incessant overload of stimulation everyone experiences these days, but I disagree.”
Caruba, a former journalist and longtime public relations counselor founded The Boring Institute in 1984 as a media spoof and recently announced its annual list of “The Most Boring Celebrities of the Year.” In the years since then, however, Caruba became an expert on boredom and, today, the Institute maintains a blog with much of it devoted to warning against the dangers of boredom and offering advice on how to avoid it.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the event’s organizer, James Ward, 29 years old, “works for a DVD distribution and production company” and the article focused the event’s seven hours of deliberately boring presentations by twenty speakers to an audience of some two hundred people who actually paid for the privilege.
A London-based public relations practitioner, Hamish Thompson, said, “It is quintessentially English to look at something dull and find it interesting.”
Caruba is more concerned that “Americans at almost every age level sit through countless boring hours in school rooms, in college, attending endless business meetings, and at any one of the thousands of conferences held throughout the year.”
“Schools are virtual boredom factories and this accounts for an appallingly high dropout rate,” said Caruba, “while most business meetings are widely regarded as a waste of time.”
“Americans are so bored much of the time they seek diversion by paying attention to sports of every description or just mindlessly watching hours of television programming that often borders on the idiotic,” said Caruba.
Other Americans, however, find ways to avoid boredom that are far more beneficial. “Americans are some of the greatest hobbyists in the world and they frequently start or belong to organizations of others who share their particular hobby. Others love the outdoor life as avid walkers, joggers, hikers, mountain climbers, campers, hunters and fishers.”
The downside of American life, said Caruba, “are the many people who turn to alcohol and drugs to avoid having to cope with problems in their lives, creating a host of problems for others around them and for society in general.”
Caruba cites crime in America
Caruba, a founding member of the National Book Critics Circle, is encouraged that so many Americans take pleasure in reading. “New technology will encourage more people to read and make books even more accessible,” says Caruba. He posts a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction at Bookviews.com.
Best known these days as a commentator on politics and issues ranging from energy to national security, Caruba’s daily blog, factsnotfiction.blogspot.com, is shared by national and international news and opinion websites and blogs.
“At any age, from infancy to the senior years, it is essential for everyone to keep mentally engaged with the world,” said Caruba. “Boredom is your mind telling you that you are not feeding it and growing its capacity to learn. Failure to do this will cause your mind to find often self-destructive ways to deal with it.”
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