Boredom increase in teens: Maybe due to technological advances that divorce individuals from traditional sources of meaning, including social relationshiops, meaningful work, & stable routines and communities

Westgate, Erin C. 2020. “Lost by Definition: Why Boredom Matters for Psychology and Society.” PsyArXiv. July 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/q9fd5

Abstract: Long overlooked, boredom has drawn increasing attention across multiple subfields of psychology (including clinical, developmental, educational, cognitive, and industrial/organizational psychology), as well as economics, philosophy, neuroscience, and animal cognition. In this paper, we review and integrate this work by providing a social psychological perspective on boredom as an emotion, and its role in signaling the need for change to restore successful attention in meaningful activity. In doing so, we discuss the implications of that approach for understanding boredom cross-culturally and cross-species, and identify opportunities for targeted interventions to reduce boredom and improve well-being.

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Boredom increase in teens: Maybe due to technological advances that divorce individuals from traditional sources of meaning, including social relationshiops, meaningful work, & stable routines and communities.