The Missing Piece: How Boredom Unveils Humanity’s Need for Jesus

A young boy sits on his living room couch, staring out the window. Nearby is his new Nintendo Switch 2, and his iPhone lies within reach. Outside is a snowy wonderland, straight from the pages of a picture book. Part of him wants to grab a coat and hat, run outside, and wander into the white wilderness with his dog. However, another part of him says, "But then you'd have to get up, get ready, and go outside only to feel cold and tired and ready to come back in." That voice is coupled with another that seems almost subconscious. The urge to simply reach over, grab the phone, and open Instagram wins the internal struggle, and the young teen settles in for what could be hours of meaningless scrolling. However, right before he could get sucked into a myriad of videos and games waiting to grab his attention, a text from his teacher pops up. It's an article investigating boredom. He figures he has nothing else better to do, so he opens it and is introduced to a world only just beginning to be discovered by modern society.

As this young teen will discover, boredom is a relatively new topic of debate compared to other influential issues of today, but its effects are felt by all. Whether it's long July days spent in summer heat, or staring at a blank document waiting for words for your new essay to appear, it is a controversial but universal feeling of dissatisfaction, drowsiness, or wanting something you can’t define. Boredom is associated with bad habits, harmful ideas, or even just pure laziness. However, it's also been known to produce bursts of creativity, and from that creativity and play come wonderful things that humanity can literally only daydream about. So, which one is it? Is this a dangerous feeling of dissatisfaction or lethargy, or is it a tool meant to be used? Well, in short, it's both. Boredom isn’t inherently helpful or harmful. Instead, it points to the only thing that can fully satisfy the human heart: the one true God. It’s a tool meant to be used, and it’s our response that dictates whether or not experiencing boredom is an opportunity for growth.

While many people think boredom is difficult to define or describe, scientists have actually discovered different types of boredom. The first is “state boredom” and is what most people normally experience when waiting at the DMV, for example. This is simply feeling bored in the moment, while “trait boredom" is boredom is felt often enough by someone that it becomes one of their emotional characteristics or qualities. Those with trait boredom often have a chronic lack of agency, or a lack of being able to take action to prevent feeling bored (Gorelik & Eastwood, 2023). While boredom can be different for different types of people, there are four situations that typically make people feel bored, which are described as “the four horsemen of boredom”. These consist of monotony, purposeless activity, constraint from a purposeful or fulfilling activity, and failure to find a balance between what we'd like to do and what we're able to do (Dankert & Eastwood, 2020, p. 31). For example, a video game with only one action (like jumping) might be considered monotonous and would become boring after a while. Another situation that might be considered boring within these four scenarios could be attempting to scale a rock wall that’s only for professional climbers. One might like to scale it, but most people would be unable to climb even a few feet. In this situation, there would be no way to find a balance between wanting to climb the wall and being actually able to climb it, causing boredom. However, purposeless activity is probably what first comes to mind when people think of something being boring. A common example of this would be sitting in line at the DMV. It’s unimportant and isn’t helping fulfill the reason someone might be there.

While certain situations like these can induce feeling bored, it's something that has been present since the Fall, especially since it could be described as feeling unsatisfied. But how has this shown up through history and how have people dealt with it? An early documentation of the idea of boredom shows up in the book of Ecclesiastes. In the first chapter, the author writes, "All things are full of weariness, a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing" (English Standard Bible, 2016). This verse distinctly describes this sense of dissatisfaction and being unfulfilled. It also hints at that feeling of lethargy that accompanies boredom. Moving into the Middle Ages, boredom came to be thought of differently. Until this time, no one had actually put a name to this feeling. At first, people during this period called boredom "acedia." They considered acedia a sin because, from their point of view, someone who was bored didn't appropriately value God's creation. After this idea was formed, people continued to think negatively of this emotion, such as anthropologist Theodor Waitz saying it stopped humanity's train of thought, and philosopher William James describing it as an exchange of quality for quantity (Dankert & Eastwood, 2020, pp. 7-8). But history’s purpose isn’t just to help us realize the background of boredom. It should also help us gain a broader understanding of how people have discussed this topic and how that influences our ideas about it today.

So what exactly have scientists and philosophers said about boredom? Starting with the Romans, the ancient philosopher Seneca was the first to describe boredom as feeling "nauseous" or "empty" (Dankert & Eastwood, 2020, p. 6). The word nauseous here might refer to that frustrating, even physically unpleasant gut feeling that comes when we just can’t figure out what we want or how we should spend our time. This feeling of emptiness might also relate to this idea of uselessness or meaninglessness we experience. That's an interesting perspective to take. Not unsatisfied, not restless, but empty, as if needing to be contented by something. More philosophers throughout the years have also spoken on this idea. Leo Tolstoy defined boredom as "the desire for desires" (TEDx Talks, 2023). In other words, people long to want something but never quite can scratch the itch of knowing what it is. Scientist, mathematician, and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit
quietly in a room alone" (1958/1670). Pascal’s idea here says that something is wrong with mankind that we can’t be content with sitting quietly by ourselves. What is interesting about all of these ideas is that they recognize that something is inherently missing in humanity’s experience on Earth, causing problems and making us feel this internal conflict of desires, and that feeling isn't always a good thing. We want something, but we can't figure out what it is.

These famous philosophers and scientists have strong thoughts on boredom, but everyday people experience this feeling as much as anyone. They might not be known for their new ideas, but their experiences can teach us even more than any great thinker of history. One of these people with an incredible story is Laura Ingalls Wilder. My parents have often taught me valuable lessons based on her life, especially how different hers was from mine. Her story is incredible, especially the parts she's shared in her book, The Long Winter. In her novel, she tells the story of how her family lived through a winter of continual blizzards, barely surviving due to starvation and freezing temperatures. Because of the constant blizzards experienced by the Ingalls family, they were confined to their house from October through May. Months of long days spent in their inadequate house in town must have been insufferable, having both nothing to do and attempting to survive the winter at the same time. Barely able to convince themselves out of their warm beds, then being forced to sit idly by the fire all day, the Ingalls family treasured every bit of activity they could get. Even the few times mail came, they had a decision to make. Pushing off their boredom until later and enjoying the instant gratification of opening up all the magazines and letters was all too tempting until after dinner, when Ma says, “But girls. . . I have an idea. What do you think of saving my church papers and your bundle of Youth’s Companions to open on Christmas day?” Mary replies, saying “I think it is a good idea. It will help us to learn self denial.” Laura quickly states her mind, simply saying, “I don’t want to.” However, without delay she’s humbled as her sister says, “Nobody does. . . but it’s good for us.” Laura concludes the narrative of her experience, stating, “Sometimes Laura did not even want to be good” (Wilder, 1971, p. 174). We’ve all felt like this: knowing what we should do and yet reluctant to actually follow through. Nevertheless, that is what the Ingalls family did. They saved those precious magazines and papers until Christmas, and when it came time to open them, they poured through them for days, and the wait became worthwhile.

This time not only caused Laura and her family to grow in patience, but it also made them turn to introspection as a source for mental activity. Defined by the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, introspection is “the careful examination of your own thoughts, feelings, and reasons for behaving in a particular way” (n.d.). In addition to making activities for themselves while kept indoors, the Ingalls family thought about their experiences and how it was affecting them under a biblical framework. While introspection may seem irrelevant to our everyday lives, it's actually an amazing way to learn about ourselves and the world around us through careful thought. This time grew Laura’s character and turned her into a more patient, contented, and happy version of herself. She was forced to learn how to wait patiently and enjoy the little things. Boredom existed before the modern world, but people used it to grow their character and test their patience. Just like it was for Laura Ingalls and her family, boredom can be a tool we use to help ourselves grow. The alternative is much worse: thrusting us indoors and shoving phones into our hands to keep our brains occupied, where there is no growth as the end result, only increased boredom.

While experiences and theories about boredom have existed for centuries, modern ideas are starting to change people’s framework for how to think about this emotion. For example, scientists have discovered that people's brains are hardwired to have two different settings: defend mode and discover mode. Discover mode is activated when people seek out new experiences, similar to a happy dog always excited for the next walk or toy. Defend mode is the complete opposite. People who are in defend mode tend to be more afraid or cautious around new ideas, people, experiences, etc. Instead of the glass being half full, and the world being full of new opportunities, it's half empty, and there are potential threats everywhere. Those in discover mode tend to be happier and more outgoing; ready for new ideas or experiences. Those in defend mode lean towards feeling threatened and anxious. Humans adapt to different situations by changing from discover mode to defend mode or vice versa. Generally, we want to tend towards being in discover mode, but still be able to switch back if needed (Haidt, 2024, p. 69). What is interesting is that boredom can actually trigger discover mode to be turned on. By not feeling satisfied with their present situation, people can be led to explore new ideas that might satisfy them, which can cause the human brain to develop creative thinking and problem- solving skills.

Another very frequent theme seen in the modern world is the rise of technology. It's constantly being built to grab our attention, which will make us more bored in general because our brains are being re-wired to always be seeking that one thing that satisfies our busy minds. Technology does this by temporarily satisfying our brains by watching videos or playing video games that take little to no work on our end. A large part of modern society tells us that we should be constantly productive. When we’re on our phone, we feel like we’re doing something, even if what we’re actually doing is one of the most unproductive activities. Some say that boredom is humanity's failure to act for itself in life, and that if we're bored it's because we need to make our mark, and we should avoid being like a floating cork in the ocean instead of a boat plowing through it (TEDx Talks, 2023). In other words, some believe that we need to be always in action, and boredom is just a way of letting us know we're not being productive enough. By constantly being active, we might avoid boredom. Similar to this theory, it's also been seen that boredom driven by leisure time pushes up internet addiction in older teens (Dankert & Eastwood, 2020, p. 153). In short, people are finding that boredom can be helpful but also that modern culture is turning it into something that can cause more and more harm. So what are some specific examples of pieces of modern society that are affecting boredom?

While there are other ways modern society is changing how boredom is influencing us, technology is probably one of the biggest factors affecting emotions of boredom today. Just 20 years ago, the iPhone wasn't invented yet, but today, billions of people have access to smartphones. Digital media or time online has drastically changed how people occupy themselves. Boredom drives us to phones and other technology as a way to pacify that conflict of desires, but it never solves the problem. It just pushes off the time when we feel bored again (TEDx Talks, 2023). We then go back to our phones, turning boredom into a habit that drives up smartphone and technology use that actually just makes us more bored than before. This makes it difficult to break the cycle and figure out how to use boredom to our advantage if it seems to make us turn to our phones continually. Not only that, it’s been shown that boredom is closely tied to smartphone use also because it shortens and disrupts attention or focus directed towards another task. In a study done at the University of Toronto in 2024, researchers wrote:

Whereas people feel bored when they fail to stay focused, digital devices bombard people with distracting signals and notifications throughout a day. It is reported that, on a typical day, young people receive a median of 237 notifications on their phones. These notifications disrupt attention, slow reaction times, worsen task performance, and prompt people to turn away from their current activities to check their phones (Tam & Inzlicht, 2024).

This can worsen performance for students because they are retraining their minds to listen to distractions (such as smartphone notifications) and shift their attention to or from their designated job. This inattention activates boredom, which pushes us to our phones, further decreases inattention, and leaves us feeling more bored than ever.

Yet another reason why smartphone or computer use is so harmful to boredom, and thus to productivity in today's culture, is because these devices train people to see previously engaging tasks as less stimulating. Because digital media is created to capture the user's attention, things like videos are becoming increasingly shorter and more packed with visual and auditory information. This increases people's desire for this mental, emotional, or social activity, especially since designers for digital media are constantly updating apps and re-designing them to control our focus and attention. Some people aren't even entertained by one screen anymore. A practice called "second screening" is when people have both the TV running while interacting with a digital device (Tam & Inzlicht, 2024). One screen isn't good enough - people now need two in order to fully feel satisfied, at least for the moment. Technology has negatively impacted the role of boredom in our lives and will continue to shorten our attention span and focus and make life less enjoyable than God designed it to be. Being productive and learning how to handle boredom while juggling the use of our devices wisely is difficult, especially when studies and researchers can seem to say opposite things about how to balance working with boredom.

So if modern culture and technology have such a big influence on boredom, how should people handle this complicated emotion? Believe it or not, God’s Word can actually tell us a lot about how to deal with this, especially when it isn't leading to something productive. The author of Ecclesiastes writes about boredom, describing it as unsatisfying, wearying, etc. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “God has put eternity into man’s heart.” This tells us that we aren't satisfied on this earth because we're not actually supposed to be. We can only feel fully fulfilled when we’re with God, and because of sin, we can’t be fully with him while we’re on Earth. This is an interesting perspective as we've seen from Seneca, Tolstoy, and Pascal already. Their ideas about boredom communicate that the reason we feel a sort of emptiness that wants to be filled is because we are missing something, and that missing piece is Jesus. Not only that, but these three aren’t even Christians! They acknowledge that humanity is missing a vital part of its being, and yet their own ideas or religions don’t fill that gap. As Christians, we know that because we’re sinners, we're separated from God, and He is the only thing capable of fully satisfying us. Seneca, Tolstoy, and Pascal didn’t know the God who fills that emptiness but simply admitted that humanity can’t figure out how to fill that space by themselves. C.S. Lewis puts it this way: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world" (1943). The sad thing is, people don't always understand the source of boredom, so their reactions can actually get them farther away from feeling fully satisfied through Jesus. For example, boredom can also lead to laziness, but the Bible still has wisdom to offer in this situation, especially in Proverbs. Proverbs 12:11 says, "Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense” In other words, the need to sustain ourselves is perfectly fine; that’s how humanity was created. We have to do that through hard work, either by making our own food, or by making money in order to buy it. But if we just sat around, doing nothing, lazily waiting for that need for sustenance to be filled, we’re not helping the situation. Hunger tells us we need to eat. Fear tells us something is dangerous. Pain tells us we’re being hurt. We’re given emotions and feelings
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because they tell us something about ourselves or the world we live in. Our dissatisfaction that causes boredom isn’t the root of the problem - it’s what we do with it.

This raises another interesting question. If boredom can be used in the wrong way, how else does laziness fit into the picture? Are they connected, and does procrastination have anything to do with it? Boredom and laziness are very interconnected ideas, but the biggest difference is that while boredom can happen to anybody at any time, laziness is a choice. Itis defined as the quality of being "unwilling to work or be active; doing as little as possible” (Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, n.d.). Now, it's okay to feel lazy. To be lazy is another situation. Being lazy is giving into feelings of lethargy that make us want to be unproductive or avoid things that we should be doing. Boredom can be the result of feeling idle, but it can also be what pushes us to become lazy. When we have this conflict of desires - wanting to do something and nothing at the same time - then we often just do the easiest thing, like sitting watching Instagram reels or doing anything but the thing that we know is important or helpful. Many people today struggle with this; I know I have. Being a senior in high school can often mean late nights and long days filled with juggling a job and school. But days that I feel bored can become days where I do everything but school. I can become so lazy I'll do anything to procrastinate my work. I'll even deep clean the car just so I don't have to do the hard job of spending the mental energy of completing physics practice problems. From personal experience, it's a definite struggle, but like Proverbs tells us, boredom can be God telling us we need to be productive. Whether that be switching school subjects or moving to a different Humanities book, it's okay to change the pace. On the other hand, it's not okay to let that change of pace spiral into anything but productivity, even if that's procrastination that gets the car clean. Knowing how to deal with boredom so that it doesn’t hurt productivity is difficult, but important nonetheless.

While the Bible can provide endless passages on weariness, laziness, or even on living in the present, it also paints a vivid picture of what could be called the opposite of boredom: contentment. This is different from satisfaction. Contentment is learning to be okay with not being fully satisfied with your circumstances. So what does biblical contentment look like? In Luke 2, Jesus is brought to the temple in order to present him to God as an infant. There he and his parents meet with Simeon, an old man in the temple. When the author describes him, he says: “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” While most people focus on Simeon's encounter with Jesus, what is also incredible to see is this man's contentment while waiting. He’s waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” which had been eagerly hoped for for hundreds of years. People today can barely wait for anything, whether it be standing in a line at the DMV or just for the microwave to be done warming up their dinner. Simeon anticipated his Savior's appearance for years, and while waiting wasn't easy, he tested his character by learning contentment. When he finally met with Jesus, he was overwhelmed with joy, knowing that he had fought the good fight and was rewarded with a gift beyond his wildest imaginings: coming face-to-face with the Savior of the universe before his death.

Simeon isn't the only person in this chapter who portrays biblical contentment. In the same chapter, just after Luke describes Jesus' encounter with Simeon, he writes about a similar experience with the prophetess Anna. Anna is described as a widow "advanced in years.” She is said to have lived in the temple since she was widowed. Luke says, “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” While Simeon is often focused on as the main point in this part of the chapter, Anna portrays his same characteristics with just as much devotion. Who can imagine waiting for spiritual rescue for decades, secluding yourself in the temple and living this kind of self-induced monastic life, yet maintaining biblical contentment? Anna did this out of both God-given patience and a focus on what was most important, staying undistracted from other pleasures, entertainment, even basic luxuries of life in order to pay attention to what matters most. This prophetess and righteous old man from Luke 2 make an excellent example of what the Bible says about contentment with life, even those that seem tedious, long, or even boring.

However, the road to living contentedly with difficult circumstances isn’t easy. Yet God still provides examples of how to struggle through learning to be content. Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, desperately wanted a child but was unable to have one. She cried out to the Lord, praying again and again, but yet waited patiently through her tedious, hard, maybe even boring circumstances. She focused on what mattered: her relationship with God. She was oppressed by her husband's second wife, who had children and taunted her. During her yearly visit to the Tabernacle, she cried out to the Lord to bless her and grant her deepest desires. The prophet Eli saw her and prayed with her, and she promised God that if she was given a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord's service. Her patience was rewarded, and she was blessed with a child. Her desire was granted through her son Samuel, and she kept her promise of giving him over to Eli to be a servant of God. Before Samuel, she waited in torment yet kept her eyes focused on her ultimate goal, though her desires were still unfulfilled.

This principle of contentment and focus on what matters most is illustrated well by Psalm 37:4. This passage says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This verse perfectly expresses the same idea found in Luke 2. In short, it says that when humanity is distracted and inattentive to the most important piece of our lives - a personal relationship with our Creator - we will never be fully satisfied or content. Pursuing worldly pleasures is not what we were made to do; we were made to seek this relationship with God as our primary focus, and only after that will He fulfill our deepest desires. Worldly pleasures won't satisfy by themselves; they're meant to be a gift of love from God that only add to the full contentment we've already been blessed with.

While we should seek biblical contentment, it might seem like boredom has the potential to negatively affect a lot of things. However, it also has the possibility of being helpful. For example, it can lead to character growth. Remember the four horsemen of boredom? These help make up what could be called a boring situation. Winston Churchill, the famous British leader during most of World War Two, had an unfortunate and boring childhood. His parents, both because of character flaws and their influence in social circles and politics, were never around, and Churchill's father even expressed disappointment in him. His life in boarding school was difficult since he didn't enjoy most of his subjects and was often punished. He said of his school days:

I had hardly ever been asked to learn anything which seemed of the slightest use or interest or allowed to play any game which was amusing. In retrospect those years form not only the least agreeable, but also the only barren and unhappy period of my life (Winston, n.d.).

However, after his later military service and higher education, he rose through the ranks of British politics and became one of the most influential men of his decade. What could be called a "boring" childhood eventually led to his creativity, imagination, cheer, and intelligence in his career. He took an unhappy situation and turned it into one that harnessed his willpower and strengths. Boredom and its four causes can seem harmful, but it's humanity's decision on how to deal with this morally neutral emotion that dictates the outcome. Boredom is not harmful by itself, but our response to it can give it that damaging potential, such as turning to technology. Churchill's childhood shows that boredom can be used as a force for good and isn't an objectively damaging emotion.

Where else can this idea of using boredom wisely be applied? Many students like me face the problem of boredom in the classroom or at home and solve it by either daydreaming, doodling, or occupying themselves with things other than schoolwork. A study was conducted in India where a group of students had their brain activity monitored throughout the day and during different activities. Surprisingly, class time was the time of day when their brain activity was lowest, even lower than during sleep! The highest activity recorded was when students had the freedom to talk and socialize. The directors running the study then realized that instead of trying to make students less bored, they could make class less boring. They continued by changing class time into more of a discussion and tutoring time, where students talked amongst themselves and solved problems together. This spiked their brain activity, and they learned at much faster rates than students in any other schools in India. Their goal was to pass the notorious IET exam, which only about 10% of students in India passed. The group from the study had a 90% pass rate. This educational system is now being used across the country (TEDx Talks, 2019).

The educators participating in this study saw something extremely important. Instead of blaming the feeling of boredom for high fail rates, they asked the essential question of: "Is this trying to tell students and teachers something?" The answer was yes, and soon teachers found a way to use that boredom to help students learn more quickly and with more attentiveness. The same principle can be used in schools and homes across the globe. Instead of blaming the student, situation, or topic for being bored or boring, maybe the trick is to use the boredom to spur creativity when it comes to changing class structure, dynamics, and even the way students are being taught.

Another way boredom could be used to help productivity is inside our own school system. Boredom has been shown to stimulate creative thinking, but that creative thinking happens during downtime (TEDx Talks, 2019). In schools, especially those for elementary education, teachers often don’t build in downtime. Whether because it’s easier to keep them busy or because of school rules, students are left feeling bored because they don’t have a wholesome outlet for their mental and physical energy. Building in downtime would give students the opportunity to put that boredom to creative uses. Not only that, sometimes even especially gifted students aren't incentivized by their work, so they become bored. Teachers simply aren’t aware that the students need more mental stimulation than they're getting and see them just as another struggling student. High performers in this setting are often under-educated and can become lazy because they have a lack of educational nurturing (Kanevsky & Keighley, 2003). Instead of being shown the why, they're only supposed to know the what and how of the lesson being taught. Without a doubt this would produce bored and uninterested students who just need downtime and educational care in order to do well in the American school system.

Now, instead of imagining a world without boredom (as we know, we would be imagining heaven since only Jesus can fully satisfy), imagine a world where instead of laziness, procrastination, technology addictions, and more, boredom drove people to use their God-given talents. This could include producing new and engaging content for schools, giving room for teachers to educate creatively, and turning to God for contentment even in difficult or boring circumstances. These are just a few ways everyday, normal life could change because of knowing what boredom is and how to handle it. Instead of kids growing up on iPads learning
how to play video games, they grow up learning how to build a fort in the woods or care for a garden. Teens that spend their time on their phones, crowding out the world with constant music through ever-present headphones might learn microbiology, how a 3D printer works, or start playing kickball with friends. That would be a much more colorful world, don't you think?

So what happened to the young teen reading that article on boredom? He learned that his phone didn’t fully satisfy him, and it just intensified his discontentment and dissatisfaction. Instead, he decided to pursue the only thing that will give him lasting peace - his Creator, who knows him personally. It might be hard to reset the habits he'd made, but it would be worth it. He sent a quick text to his teacher, thanking her for the insightful article, set his phone on the counter, and picked up his coat and hat. Finally, he put the leash on his dog, whose tail wagged at his feet, and ran outdoors to start exploring a creation that points to the only one who can fully satisfy the desires of the human heart.

References

Dankert, J, & Eastwood, J. (2020). Out of My Skull. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10. 4159/9780674247079

English Standard Bible. (2016). Crossway Bibles. (Original work published 2001) Gorelik, D., & Eastwood, J. D. (2024). Trait Boredom as a Lack of Agency: A Theoretical

Model and a New Assessment Tool. Assessment, 31(2), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911231161780

Haidt, J. (2024). The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.

Kanevsky, L., & Keighley, T. (2003). To produce or not to produce? Understanding boredom and the honor in underachievement. Roeper Review, 26(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783190309554235

Lewis, C. 1943. Mere Christianity. Macmillan Publishing Company.

Oxford Advanced American Dictionary (n.d.) Introspection. In oxford advanced American dictionary. Retrieved May 3, 2026, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/introspection?q=introspection

Oxford Advanced American Dictionary (n.d.) Laziness. In oxford advanced American dictionary. Retrieved May 1, 2026, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/lazy

Pascal, B. (1958). Pascal's Pensées. (A. Krailsheimer, Trans.). Penguin Group. (1670).

Tam, K. Y. Y., & Inzlicht, M. (2024). People are increasingly bored in our digital age. Communications psychology, 2(1), 106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00155-9

TEDx Talks. (August 7, 2023). What Boredom Teaches Us | James Dankert. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncIwhKk3smM

TEDx Talks. (June 25, 2019). Why are we so bored in classrooms. | Akshay Saxena. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLoLDv7VNg0

Wilder, L. (1971). The Long Winter. HarperCollins Publishers.

Winston Churchill’s Early Years. n.d. https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/winston-churchIll-early-life.htm