Boredom can be excruciating. You watch the minutes tick by, aimlessly flicking channels or re-reading the same posts in your social media feeds, all the while knowing something better is out there.
And these days, with lockdown orders imposed on much of Canada due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, it seems like there are a lot of bored people out there.
While being bored is very uncomfortable, experts say, it doesn’t have to be all bad. “It helps us self-regulate. It helps us manage our pursuit of meaningful goals in our lives,” said James Danckert, a psychology professor at the University of Waterloo and co-author of the upcoming book Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom.