I read that boredom is an under-researched topic. Whether that’s true or not, I didn’t know this when I set out to research it. My curiosity was purely born out of observing people, mostly young people, constantly glued to their screens. Hence, my goal was to dig into what boredom feels like in this fully digital era and to understand how this generation is managing it.
My first realisation upon getting to the field and gathering my data was that talking about boredom is, shockingly, a boring task, particularly for respondents. This is because the topic of boredom is such a slippery and vague concept that one may struggle to remember or know which angle to grab it from, especially at a time when most of us are forgetting how to be bored. Or at an interesting time when boredom is easily escapable.
On the 10th of April, 2026, after compiling the first version of my short research questions, I set out to the relatively quiet campus of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and asked students to answer a few quick prompts on my phone. The campus was still scanty, as students had not fully resumed. I chose the evening because students are more relaxed and less likely to be rushing anywhere, which made it easier for them to engage with the prompts. And it worked. Of the 33 students I approached that night, every one of them responded. There was no rejection at all.
On the 15th, I conducted my first semi-structured interview with a master’s student. On the 16th, I had another semi-structured interview, this time with a lecturer on the same topic. That same day, 69 people responded to my questionnaire, bringing me to my 100-participant target. It was a fulfilling day.
With the little time I had spent in the field, I began to notice that people have slightly different understandings of what boredom is and often struggle to put it into words.
For example, this was my first question to my first interviewee, Peter (not his real name):
Me: When was the last time you were bored?
Peter: 2011/2012. Simply because where I stayed, everybody was always indoors. Mind your business, until I got into higher institution where I mixed with people. That was the last time I can vividly remember being bored, around 2010/2011 before I gained admission.
I found this response surprising, so I followed up with a question that wasn’t originally listed:
Me: Just to be sure, what does being bored mean to you?
Peter: Boredom is when you experience no disturbance. No intrusion into your privacy. You’re just left alone. And most times, being bored helps you think critically, to think outside the box. Your mind is stable because there’s no disturbance. You’re just left to yourself.
I am still making sense of these early findings. This is very much a work in progress.
While my initial goal was to understand how boredom, and the way it is managed, might affect or even rewire the brain from a neurological or psychological standpoint, I am beginning to see that boredom may be as much a philosophical concern as it is a scientific one.
These early interactions are already raising deeper, more existential questions:
It’s still the early stage; I am not drawing conclusions. I am still listening, still collecting, and still trying to understand what these early signals are pointing toward.
What is becoming clear, however, is that boredom is not as simple as a lack of activity. It appears to sit somewhere between attention, awareness, and environment, and may mean different things depending on how and where one grows up.
For now, I’m still exploring and having fun with the fieldwork and my findings. I will keep following where the data leads.
Thank you for stopping by!