📘 Part 3: Boredom

This episode's vocabulary

Doom scroll (verb) – To spend an excessive amount of time on a screen absorbing large quantities of negative news. → When I feel bored, I often just doom scroll on my phone, which only makes me feel worse.

Daydream (verb) – To be lost in pleasant thoughts about something you would prefer to be doing. → Instead of working, he spent the afternoon daydreaming about his summer holiday.

Manner of delivery (noun phrase) – The way in which someone speaks or presents information. → The speaker had important things to say, but his poor manner of delivery made the audience lose interest.

Impulsive (adjective) – Acting or done without forethought. → Young people can be impulsive, often making decisions without considering the consequences.

Attention span (noun phrase) – The length of time for which a person is able to concentrate on a particular activity or subject. → Many people find that their attention span is shorter now due to constant digital distractions.

Demanding (adjective) – Requiring much skill or effort. → Learning a new language is a demanding task that requires consistent practice.

Take your mind off (something) (idiom) – To stop you from worrying or thinking about a problem or pain. → Watching a comedy is a good way to take your mind off your problems for a while.

Mindless gossip (noun phrase) – Trivial and meaningless talk about other people's private lives. → I avoid getting involved in mindless gossip at the office because it's unproductive.

Break the tedium (idiom) – To do something to make a boring situation more interesting. → We played some music to break the tedium of the long car journey.

Dull as dishwater (idiom) – Extremely boring and uninteresting. → His lecture was as dull as dishwater, and half the audience fell asleep.

Overworked (adjective) – Having to work too much. → The reason the service is slow is because the staff are overworked and underpaid.

Underpaid (adjective) – Paid less than is deserved for the work one does. → Many essential workers are severely underpaid for the crucial jobs they do.

Draw someone's attention (phrasal verb) – To attract someone's interest. → A good teacher knows how to draw students' attention and keep them engaged.

Terminally boring (adjective phrase) – Extremely and hopelessly boring, with no chance of changing. → Some people are just terminally boring, and there's nothing you can do to make them more interesting.

Beat boredom (idiom) – To overcome the feeling of being bored. → Picking up a new hobby is a great way to beat boredom.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What can people do when they feel bored?

Rory: I suppose that depends on the means that you have at your disposal, doesn't it? If you have internet access, then you can just doom scroll provided it's situationally appropriate. Failing that, you could just read a book and daydream.

Maria: Why aren't young people willing to listen to the experiences of older people?

Rory: Well, older people can be really boring to listen to sometimes, can't they? I mean, with the greatest respect, they might have all the life experience in the world, but if their manner of delivery is poor, then I can see why some youngsters would just ignore them. Of course, the other side of this equation is that young people tend to be a bit more impulsive and full of energy, so they may just not have the attention span to sit still and listen.

Maria: And what makes you say that?

Rory: It's just my personal experience really, having seen young people around the world fail to listen because they weren't engaged or just too in their heads to care about the advice they're getting.

Maria: Why do most children think education is boring?

Rory: Well, most teachers are boring, aren't they? And why wouldn't they be? They've got to consider the needs of at least a couple of dozen kids at the same time. So you're bound to slip up at some point. And on top of that, learning is a, well, it's pretty demanding in terms of cognition and the energy needed to focus. So no wonder they don't like it at times.

Maria: Do you think that can change?

Rory: Yes, with good and more teachers, definitely. That way, they would have more ideas to draw on and fewer kids to divide their attention between.

Maria: Do most people think news about celebrities is boring?

Rory: Well, evidently not going by all the magazines and news stories about them and all the gossip and drama surrounding them. I'm not sure why though, maybe it's just a quick way to take your mind off your own problems.

Maria: Has that always been true?

Rory: Maybe not for celebrities specifically, but for people's lives in general, yeah, I think people always want to know what's going on with others around them, even if it's just mindless gossip to break the tedium of day-to-day life.

Maria: Why do some young people feel bored when talking with old people?

Rory: Well, for the reasons I mentioned before, I suppose, they just don't have the attention spans for it. And they might not have been brought up very well.

Maria: And can you explain it further?

Rory: Yeah, if your parents haven't taught you how to sit politely and listen to others or ask them questions to take the edge off a bit, even when they're as dull as dishwater, that's probably going to result in them not having the best of times.

Maria: Why are some teachers' classes boring?

Rory: Well, if I'm being charitable to the teachers, it could be because they are overworked or underpaid, or the subject matter could have a very heavy cognitive load, and if I'm being less charitable, it might just be because they have no idea what they're doing and how to draw students' attention. It could be both and more, really.

Maria: Are there any solutions?

Rory: That depends on the cause of the problem. Some people are just terminally boring and there's no way to break them out of that habit and mindset. But again, being optimistic, they could just get appropriate training and support and they should be fine.