Kind: captions
Language: en
part of this video was sponsored by
LastPass stick around to the end for a
word from our sponsor in a recent study
participants were placed in a room for
between 6 and 15 minutes they were given
nothing except a button that they knew
would shock them if they pressed it they
were asked to entertain themselves with
their thoughts but they could self
administer the shock if they so chose so
what happened well 25% of women and 67%
of men shocked themselves this is
despite the fact that they had
previously told the experimenters that
they would pay money to avoid the shock
apparently they'd rather experience
physical pain than just be bored to have
nothing to keep them occupied but their
thoughts but they are not alone around
95 percent of American adults report
participating in some leisure activities
over the past 24 hours but only 17% say
they spent any time at all just relaxing
and thinking because that apparently is
boring and being bored is unpleasant so
what is boredom well contrary to popular
belief it's not when you have absolutely
nothing to do it's just when none of the
options you have available to you appeal
to you
boredom is characterized by a lack of
concentration restlessness but also
feeling lethargic it's really a state of
being underwhelmed and there are now
more ways than ever to avoid boredom
with Facebook Twitter Instagram snapchat
YouTube not to mention my chronic news
have waiting in line sitting in a coffee
shop stopped at a traffic light many
people reach for their phones to stave
off boredom and nowhere is sacred do you
ever just let yourself be bored no no I
generally don't but are we losing
anything by avoiding boredom well
scientific research says yes and what
we're losing is important when you're
bored your mind wanders that's only
natural the state of boredom is one
where your attention is not focused on
anything in particular researchers have
shown this mind wandering is useful for
creativity they gave study participants
a random boring task the most boring one
reading the phone book then they asked
participants to be creative generate as
many ideas as they could for what you
could do with a plastic cup those in the
most boring read the phone book
condition generated the most creative
solutions compared to less bored
controls a major reason many researchers
suspect that we experience boredom is
because it gives you an indicator of
your current state I mean if you find
yourself feeling bored you know
something about that situation isn't
working for you let me ask you this when
you're in class and you're a bit bored
do you ever just pull out your phone and
have a look at stuff yeah hold on
so the paradox of boredom is that it
makes you feel tired sluggish and just
disinterested but it may actually spur
you to action it may get you to make
changes that would be positive for your
life and changes like getting this guy's
legs out of my face that would be
perfect
in the absence of boredom one would
remain trapped in unfulfilled situations
and miss out on many emotionally
cognitively and socially rewarding
experiences boredom is both a warning
that we're not doing what we want to be
doing and a push that motivates us to
switch goals and projects studies have
also shown that boredom may make you
more altruistic perhaps the acute sense
of aimlessness you experience when
you're bored gets out of control and
makes you question what you're doing
with your life as a whole but the silver
lining is that it may trigger you to
think about others and what you can do
to help them and that provides an
immediate and concrete purpose to a life
that might momentarily feel like it's
lacking one you know studies designed to
induce boredom have shown that more
bored participants are more likely to
donate to charity or to give blood can I
ask what led you to donate blood today
at free time my hands were sore so
apparently the opportunity to do
meaningful even if unpleasant activities
have more value if you're bored than if
you're not
similarly this aimless state seems to
cultivate thoughts about what you want
to do with your life
to think of your life as a story and
consider where you want it to go in the
future this is called autobiographical
planning when given tasks that only use
a fraction of mental capacity study
participants frequently thought of the
future and their plans for it in this
way being bored is essential for
goal-setting if your brain is always
consumed with other stimuli you'll
rarely ponder the bigger picture and set
long-term goals for yourself and
consider how to achieve them does a
phone get rid of your boredom
yeah actually thinking about it it does
so every time you're waiting for
something you have a decision to make
which seems like a tiny one pull out
your phone for a few seconds or minutes
or just be bored experience only your
thoughts it seems like an insignificant
decision and if you don't give it much
thought the obvious action is to see
what's new on your app of choice and in
making that decision
you are alleviating a moment of boredom
but you are also likely making yourself
less creative less altruistic less
likely to assess your current state and
less likely to set goals for your future
in short you are the real world example
of someone shocking themselves to avoid
the unpleasantness of boredom except in
your case the pain goes much deeper to
the very nature of who you are and who
you will become
so think carefully before pressing that
button so being bored is apparently
something our brains need to do
something our brains don't need to do is
remember lots of random passwords which
is why the sponsor of this video is
LastPass LastPass is a password manager
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or write it down look for one forget
your passwords reset them all of that
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put your passwords on autopilot with
LastPass and that way you can free up
your valuable brain space for just being
bored and thinking about your life
rather than remembering your passwords
now LastPass has multi-factor
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keys multi-factor authentication and one
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the description