"It's just too much": exploring children's views of boredom and strategies to manage feelings of boredom

Abstract

Boredom is a universal phenomenon: everyone has experienced the sense of disengagement and apathy that comes when "there's nothing to do" Children are especially quick to grumble, "I'm bored!", despite an increase in pre-scheduled activities and interactive technologies designed to capture their attention. Are today's children losing an ability to generate their own antidotes to boredom, instead growing more dependent on external sources of increasingly digital and ubiquitous forms of entertainment? Current research indicates that young minds benefit from learning strategies to overcome feelings of boredom. How do children conceptualize boredom and find ways to transform feeling bored into creative play? We conducted five cooperative inquiry sessions with youth (7-13 years old) to explore the role that boredom plays in their lives and techniques to spark imagination and enhance their efforts to overcome boredom. Our findings suggest that boredom in children includes (1) a time dimension, (2) the sense that they lack control or agency, and (3) tangible interactions that prompt transitions from boredom to a more engaged, not-bored state.