On boredom
Valuable for individuals, risky for brands.
About 5 or 6 years ago a coworker told me that I am the world’s most boring person. She has probably forgotten about it by now – I would be surprised if she hadn’t. But I still think about it from time to time.
First of all, I was offended. Secondly, I took pride in it.
Being the world’s most something is a pretty impressive achievement in my books. And being the world’s most boring person definitely is a very interesting property.
It’s just like talking about the smallest uninteresting number in some ways.
Although – there is a notable difference between uninteresting and boring.
I don’t want to bore you with that tangent though.
This memory comes to me every now and then. Mostly in social settings. I have gotten used to it and I greet it like an old acquaintance. A quick nod of acknowledgement and we are on our separate ways.
But you know what? I know the statement to be true. Some of the time.
And I have come to accept that it is not a bad thing at all. Altogether that observation is rather uninteresting.
Being reminded of this recently again, I also realised I have some thoughts on boredom. Thoughts regarding my private life as well as my work.
Whenever I said that I was bored as a kid my Mom replied “Langeweile ist der Schlaf der Seele” (“Boredom is the sleep of the soul") – she attributed that quote to Walter Benjamin. I can not find a source for that – so going forward I will attribute it to my Mom.
The wording is a bit weird coming from my Mom though – she doesn’t usually talk about the soul as such. Boredom is the sleep of the mind would sound a lot less interesting – I like it the way it is.
“Boredom is the sleep of the soul”
Obviously that sentence stuck with me. I wouldn’t be writing about it if it hadn’t
I think of it and about it often. I carry it with me every day.
We need sleep. It is one of those things that protect us from our ever ongoing demise. 8 hours of sleep after a long day resets the timer and allows us to go on for another day. Sometimes less will do – but the value of high quality sleep, and enough of it, is only going up in our society. And I’m here for it.
Gone are the times of not-enough-sleep as a status symbol. And that’s not just my age speaking.
If my Mom is correct, boredom is just as essential for a well rested mind as sleep is. Looking into it - there has been quite a bit of research on this topic. Not surprisingly, it also got quite a bit of additional attention during the pandemic.
The german word for boredom – Langeweile – captures the feeling perfectly. Literally long-while – it describes the state in which time does not seem to be moving forward.
It is one of the weirder things. How many times did I wish I could stop time? Yet, never did I enjoy the long while boredom provides.
A small sliver of eternity.
“When, to the Moment then, I say:
‘Ah, stay a while! You are so lovely!’
Then you can grasp me: then you may,
Then, to my ruin, I’ll go gladly!”
“Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen:
Verweile doch! du bist so schön!
Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen,
Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!”
I do not enjoy boredom. I enjoy the short while more. And to be honest – I do not seek it out. Ever. Yet I can’t escape.
And just as with sleep, I feel like I might need to change that.
Boredom does not find me because there is a lack of entertaining options – there is always so much to do and see and experience. When it finds me it makes sure that everything accessible to me just magically becomes boring. Forcing me into a struggle to create.
I doubt boredom itself will ever be a proper status symbol. But surprisingly it actually is tied to the socio-economic status of a person.
In short: persistent boredom is more prevalent among people with less means.
Intuitively that makes sense to me – they have less space to act on that drive to explore.
So why do I think boredom holds a great value to any individual?
Boredom sparks creativity. And I love creativity.
Brands aren’t quite people
If brand X was a person, how would they behave?
That is a common question when it comes to branded communications. It helps to equip the brand with a consistent yet natural character.
Brands aren’t people though. They can’t feel boredom.
Their relationship to boredom is different. And as with many topics related to advertising there’s a perfect Ogilvy quote about it.
There really isn’t much to add to that quote. In my eyes it’s pretty perfect.
Do not bore your customers. Do not bore your potential customers. If you managed to cultivate an audience – do not bore them.
Everybody agrees to this on the surface level, I think. As always with brevity the statement is incomplete though. And what I can add are my thoughts on the consequences if we agree that his statement is true.
For some reason the general conclusion drawn from this is that we need to be entertaining in order to avoid being boring. But providing amusement is not the only way to be interesting.
You don’t need to be entertaining, but be interesting.
This is one of the few cases where there is a shortcut - short but tough. Be honest.
Just as there are structural reasons for boredom in people, there are structural reasons for boring brands.
The people in charge of communications aren’t really in charge and they do not have enough space to act.
Being boring provides safety in the short term. Long term, it will f*ck up your brand.
Dear brands, never go for the boring way. Give your people some space.
Being boring is the bigger risk.
