为什么我们会如此无聊？

为什么我们会如此无聊？

It amazes me when people proclaim that they are bored. Actually, it amazes me that I am ever bored, or that any of us are. With so much to occupy us these days, boredom should be a relic of a bygone age – an age devoid of the internet, social media, multi-channel TV, 24-hour shopping, multiplex cinemas, game consoles, texting and whatever other myriad possibilities are available these days to entertain us.

当有人和我说他们很无聊的时候，我感到很惊讶。事实上，我也为我自己亦或是任何一个人的无聊而诧异。我们有那么多事要做，无聊应该是过去时代的遗迹了。过去的那个时代没有网络，没有社交媒体，没有多国电视频道，没有24小时购物，没有游戏机，没有短信息，等等我们这个时代拥有的其他各种各样的娱乐方式。

Yet despite the plethora of high-intensity entertainment constantly at our disposal, we are still bored. Up to half of us are “often bored” at home or at school, while more than two- thirds of us are chronically bored at work. We are bored by paperwork, by the commute and by dull meetings. TV is boring, as is Facebook and other social media. We spend our weekends at dull parties, watching tedious films or listening to our spouses drone on about their day. Our kids are bored – bored of school, of homework and even of school holidays.

然而即便可供挑选的娱乐方式如此丰富，我们仍会觉得无聊。在家或在校的人，有一半“经常感到无聊”，而工作的人有三分之二长期处于无聊中。我们为文书工作感到无聊，为每天的通勤感到无聊，为无趣的会议感到无聊。电视令人无聊，脸书和其他社交媒体同样也无聊。我们的周末在无聊的派对中、 乏味的电影中、伴侣的啐啐念中消磨。孩子们也很无聊--厌烦学习、厌烦作业甚至厌烦放假。

There are a number of explanations for our ennui. This, in fact, is part of the problem – we are overstimulated. The more entertained we are the more entertainment we need in order to feel satisfied . The more we fill our world with fast-moving, high-intensity, ever-changing stimulation, the more we get used to that and the less tolerant we become of lower levels.

对于我们的无聊，存在着很多解释。事实上，这是问题的一部分--我们对此高估了。我们愈高兴，我们就愈需要更多的娱乐来满足自己。我们愈用更多的快速移动的、高强度的、不断变化的刺激来填补我们的世界，我们就愈习惯如此，愈变得难以忍受低级的刺激。

Thus slower-paced activities, such as reading reports, sitting in meetings, attending lectures or studying for exams, bore us because we are accustomed to faster-paced amusements.

因此，那些相对慢节奏的活动，如阅读、开会、参加讲座或是准备考试，都会让我们感到烦躁，因为我们已经习惯了快节奏的娱乐方式。

Our attention spans are now thought to be less than that of a goldfish (eight seconds). We are hard-wired to seek novelty, which produces a hit of dopamine, that feel-good chemical, in our brains. As soon as a new stimulus is noticed, however, it is no longer new, and after a while it bores us. To get that same pleasurable dopamine hit we seek fresh sources of distraction.

据认为，如今我们注意力的持续时间甚至比不过一只金鱼(金鱼注意力持续时间为8秒)。我们总是寻求新鲜事物，这会产生一种多巴胺(人脑内的一种化学物质，让人感到兴奋快乐)。然而，只要一种新的刺激被发现，它就不再是新的，过了一段时间，它将令我们感到厌倦。为了获得同样令人愉快的多巴胺，我们就会寻求新的注意力分散来源。

Our increasing reliance on screentime is also to blame. Although we seem to live in a varied and exciting world with a wealth of entertainment at our fingertips, this is actually the problem. Many of these amusements are obtained in remarkably similar ways – via our fingers. We spend much of our work life now tapping away at our keyboard. We then look for stimulation (watching movies, reading books, catching the news, interacting with friends) via the internet or our phone, which means more tapping. On average we spend six to seven hours in front of our phone, tablet, computer and TV screens every day.

对"屏幕时间"的依赖也应该为我们的无聊买单。虽然我们生活的世界不断变化，充满刺激，有着丰富的指尖娱乐方式，但是这恰恰就是问题所在。很多娱乐的获得都是通过极其相似的方式--就是动动手指。我们工作生活的大部分时间都在键盘上流走。接着，借助互联网或是手机，我们寻找刺激（看电影、看书、浏览新闻、与朋友聊天），这意味着我们更多的时间都花在敲击键盘上。平均每天，我们有6到7个小时都待在手机前、平板前、电脑前以及电视屏幕前。

All this is simply becoming boring. Instead of performing varied activities that engage different neural systems (sport, knitting, painting, cooking, etc) to relieve our tedium, we fall back on the same screen-tapping schema for much of our day. The irony is that while our mobile devices should allow us to fill every moment, our means of obtaining that entertainment has become so repetitive and routine that it’s a source of boredom in itself.

所有这些让我们变得无聊。我们每天大部分时光都与键盘、屏幕为伍，不再参加其他各种各样的活动，这些活动占用不同的中立系统（运动、编织、画画、烹饪等）来缓解我们的烦闷。讽刺的是，我们的移动设备是为了让我们每一刻都变得充实，然而我们获得娱乐的方式变得如此单一，而它本身也成为了无聊的根源。

Does any of this matter? Research suggests that chronic boredom is responsible for a profusion of negative outcomes such as overeating, gambling, truancy, antisocial behaviour, drug use, accidents, risk taking and much more. We need less, not more, stimulation and novelty.

这些重要吗？研究建议，长期的无聊感将会造成很多不良后果，如反应过激、赌博、旷课、反社会行为、吸毒、意外、冒险等等。所以我们需要更少而非更多的刺激和新鲜事物。

It seems paradoxical, but feeling bored in the short term will make us less bored in the long term.

这似乎有些自相矛盾，但是短期的无聊会让我们长期没那么无聊。