Very, very interesting. Might I understand it as boredom being an evolutionary signal that something(s) specific need to be changed and that specific something(s) change is as an individual/small group matter to start? Hard for people to do alone, especially for children?
Yep! Or well, yes, boredom is a signal something needs to change, although I actually think what needs to change is not always specific and also not always social. BUT it is often social for humans, because human beings have built a society as their environment and are a very social species. As you say, changing one's environment on one's own is especially hard for children!
Maybe a better word for specific is personal, without distinguishing among inner, social and environmental. Leaving the specific for the individual trial and error.
Very, very interesting. Might I understand it as boredom being an evolutionary signal that something(s) specific need to be changed and that specific something(s) change is as an individual/small group matter to start? Hard for people to do alone, especially for children?
Yep! Or well, yes, boredom is a signal something needs to change, although I actually think what needs to change is not always specific and also not always social. BUT it is often social for humans, because human beings have built a society as their environment and are a very social species. As you say, changing one's environment on one's own is especially hard for children!
You might find this interesting--in predictive processing neuroscience boredom is probably part of the answer to the "dark room" problem, which is the question of why animals don't just seek out incredibly boring but stable environments. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661320300589#:~:text=Predictive%20Processing%20theories%20hold%20that,predictable%20environments%20where%20nothing%20happens.
Maybe a better word for specific is personal, without distinguishing among inner, social and environmental. Leaving the specific for the individual trial and error.
"by placing oneself in highly predictable environments where nothing happens." Reminds me of Talking Heads' "Heaven."
Thanks for the article.