So I’ve been thinking about boredom lately. After doing the same thing repeatedly, I started wondering,
Why does everything feel good at first, but then slowly turns into boredom once things become easy?
That led me to do some reading and self-reflection.
Here's what I found and how it connects with my own life.
Let me make it simple, these are the questions I asked myself, and maybe they'll make it easier for you to understand too.
What is boredom?
Boredom is a feeling, just like any other feeling, that arises in the brain through a complex interplay between different neural networks and brain regions.
(For my non-science friends whose brains start to shut down when they hear words like "neural network": think of it this way, your brain works like a team of different departments constantly talking to each other. They're thinking, feeling, remembering, and deciding all at once so you can function smoothly in everyday life.)
The parts of the brain involved in boredom are mostly related to attention, emotion, and self-reflection.
How does boredom show up in real life?
Let me explain it with an example. Imagine you're learning to code. In the first month, you're exploring new things daily, experimenting, and giving it your full attention. It's fresh and exciting. But over time, you master the basics. Now you're just playing the same game, writing the same type of code every day. It’s like eating the same food every day and only changing the spices a little.
When the activity becomes repetitive, the attention network in your brain becomes less stimulated, making it harder to stay focused. At the same time, your executive control network—responsible for goal driven actions also slows down. As your engagement drops, the default mode network (DMN) becomes more active.
The DMN is the part of the brain that kicks in when you’re introspecting, daydreaming, or reflecting on yourself. Your brain stops paying attention to the outside world and turns inward. That’s when boredom creeps in.
Some other parts that play a role:
Insula: Helps you recognize internal body signals—like when you’re bored.
Amygdala: Handles negative emotions and acts like an internal alarm system.
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex: Pushes you to seek something new or more interesting.
Also, during boredom, your brain’s alpha waves shift, especially in areas related to memory and attention, making you less alert and more disconnected.
So, now that we understand boredom, what are its pros and cons? And how do people deal with it today?
Pros of boredom
Boredom gives you time to reflect. It forces you to ask questions like: Why am I feeling empty? Why does this not feel fulfilling anymore?
Whenever I feel bored, I try to pause and look at what’s causing it. I remember a concept, I think it’s from Ikigai, about how if a task is too easy, you feel bored. If it's too hard, you lose motivation. But when it matches your skill level just right, you feel challenged and engaged. That’s when you feel driven.
So boredom sometimes tells you to adjust. You either make the task a little more exciting, or you find a new way to approach it. I used to get bored writing the same kind of stuff every day. I thought maybe I should learn something new, video editing, coding, or something else. So I started researching and reading to make my writing feel fresh again. I started small projects like building a DM creator, something different from my usual routine.
In the same way, boredom can push you to explore new things.
Cons of boredom
On the flip side, when people don’t find meaning or excitement in their work, they start escaping. Some escape into distractions, some into addictions, drugs, alcohol, or anything that gives them a quick “high.”
It's not that boredom directly causes crime or destruction. But when people feel frustrated, empty, and without purpose, it creates a dangerous space. Especially when there's no work or structure in life, people can lose themselves.
Boredom can deeply affect your mental health. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and a feeling that life is meaningless. And that slowly destroys you from the inside.
How people escape boredom in today’s world
A lot of people can’t even sit in silence anymore. You’ll notice it, someone's in the middle of a conversation but still scrolling on their phone. Or they’ve always got one earbud in, even in public. It's like they can’t be alone with their thoughts, even for five minutes.
We always need something to stimulate us. It becomes a habit, like a drug. Can’t feel good in the moment? Just inject some dopamine by scrolling through Instagram or watching a reel.
Even during conversations, people get distracted. If something doesn’t seem interesting for even a few seconds, they check out mentally and go back to their phones.
It’s not that we hate boredom, we’re scared of being alone with ourselves.
So in the end, I just want to say this, don’t always run after stimulation. Try sitting with yourself. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when nothing exciting is happening.
Let your mind wander.
You don’t always have to control it.
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
— Blaise Pascal
References
Inside the Bored Brain: Unlocking the Power of the Default Mode Network – PsyPost
The Bored Brain: A Neuroscience Perspective – Frontiers in Neuroscience
This was an interesting and easy read, Vidhan. No chance of slipping into boredom halfway through it. I particularly liked your analogy to a team of different departments talking to each other in the brain. Reminds me of an old cartoon where inside a human’s brain they were controlled by little creatures, each with different tasks to do.
Very interesting read, Vidhan. And monotony will do it, won't it, haha!