5 ms·
Bored to Death
- xenophanes 17y agoCorrelation between boredom and death does not mean boredom causes death. It could just be that, for example, unhappiness causes: 1) boredom 2) alcoholism
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- ShabbyDoo 17y agoCausation? Did they really have a large enough sample size of bored people who otherwise took great care of themselves to show this?
- xenophanes 17y agoHow would a large sample size have made correlation = causation?
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Groxx 17y agoYou can't have a large enough sample size, because an external variable could be causing both boredom and death. Say, a hormonal imbalance that leads to heart failure. Boredom doesn't have to have anything to do with being a cause of death to have a 100% correlation in such a situation. Studies along these lines necessarily ignore external variables, because you can't account for them all.
- ashishbharthi 17y agoNot sure about death but I have observed one common behaviour among my relatives and friends that once a person retires his/her health starts deteriorating or in other words they starts complaining about health problems more.
- lsb 17y agoWhen you're bored, you're sedentary, and when you're sedentary, you're out of shape, and when you're out of shape, you're much less healthy.
- frossie 17y agoI think that is a stretch. For every person who is sedentary when they are bored, there's a person bored by exercise and least bored when sitting in front of their computer/book/writing/etc.
- TheSOB88 17y agoHow can you be bored by exercise? You can be bored by the premise of exercise, sure, but all the chemicals and adrenalines and whatnot make sure you're not bored when you're actually doing it.
- frossie 17y agoHow can you be bored by exercise? Easily. What, am I the only person on the planet? I get bored because (a) I'd rather be doing something else and (b) as for the endorphins, there are a lot of sedentary ways to release them, like lying around in the sun, or eating spicy food and (c) not all people respond to endorphins in the same way anyway, otherwise the world would be full of joggers. Also, I get bored by the whole pre-exercise/post-exercise hassle, like having to go to a gym, or shower afterwards, and so on. EPID, and all that.
- patio11 17y agoWhat, am I the only person on the planet? Even with the endomorphin rush from exercise, I still feel like I'm watching paint dry, because of the lack of mental stimulation. It varies with what I'm doing, too -- less taxing exercises like riding a bike or walking let me zone out into mental exercises (I used to do WoW talent builds at the gym... bad habits die hard), but if it is something I have to keep my brain on to avoid physical injury then "Don't drop this 20 kilogram weight on your foot" is the only thing keeping me awake.
- dkarl 17y agoI wonder if boredom could be a proxy for depression in this case. Boredom is a normal state, but people who aren't depressed escape boredom by seeking out stimulation. Depression makes it harder to pursue activities that offer an escape from boredom and harder to enjoy the activities that you do engage in.
- pbhjpbhj 17y agoA couple of days ago there was a story about a guy in a coma for I think about 11 years (from 11 to 22, or thereabouts). He was conscious and described on his awaking how a day when a fly landed on the ceiling within his gaze was a good day as there was something more interesting than normal. Frightening. Watson, google that for me there's a good chap.