Of course, this is a rhetorical question! It would be like asking someone: “Have you ever sneezed!?” Boredom is like a trademark for the human being, and it defines us more than we think. Someone even said this is what makes people different from animals, our ability to getting bored. How lucky are we? Well, maybe it isn`t so much fun; but we can still enjoy the feeling, or at least try to make the best out of the experience, that also defines us like modern human beings. It`s true: surprisingly enough, boredom seems to be a rather recent feeling. People in ancient times and pagan cultures were less likely to feel bored! They just kind of existed, they were, in space and time, leading their lives, not obsessed with “achieving something” every 5 minutes, and definitely less aware of the space-time dimension.
Their fulfillment lay in the accomplishment of their daily tasks: life and existence were the same thing! And you cannot get bored easily if you don`t have time and space awareness, that`s why animals don`t get bored, in fact. Not so much, anyway! So, thanks Benjamin Franklin, and his “time is money”, and all following the capitalistic mindset, we traded the pursuit of happiness (eudaimonia for Epicurus in the Greek culture, tranquillitas animi for Seneca in the Latin World) and the sanctity of time, with a calculating mentality, I`m not entirely sure how much we gained out of this trade…
Experiencing the emptiness of moments when we are bored makes us want a new time measurement system. Because this time goes by so slowly the watch should follow, and, according to it, go just as slowly! We should find a way to measure the time with a new criterion: how we feel it! How awesome would it be? A watch capable of measuring the time as we feel it, a watch made for our perception of time…just like we do with heat! More or less what Salvador Dali was trying to suggest and described with his gorgeous melting clocks!
I have also found a modern-digital version of them! It`s made by designer Ross McBride and it can be found on normaldesign.net (an awesome website!) check this out…
So, you know when they say, for example at school: “Do this math practice for 40 minutes!” Well, they should say instead, “Do this for 40 minutes of perceived time” So the people that enjoy math can have more real time, and the people who hate it (like me) can finish it sooner! Yet everyone feels like they`ve done the same amount of work…perceived timely speaking! We should have both the traditional clock, useful for “standard measuring” stuff, and the soft-perception time watch!
Like this, we would be still aware of “real time”, useful if we are taken to court for providing an alibi, for example, and use the soft watch to optimize our lives by avoiding boredom. Maybe it would be a bit complicated to organize it, in the beginning: nevertheless the result would be so good for everyone! We should be really think this trough…our lives are already so complicated, and for nothing! This would be a GOOD complication, and such an unbelievable set-free for easily bored people!
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