Author : Hazimul Ahzab Fasya

For more than a year, we have been running online learning. Of course, we agree that what we get is mostly boredom. We can say several reasons why we are bored, but the point remains the same: we are only at home. Before the pandemic, we have usually been busy since the morning to go to college, and we meet a lot of people, we have more agendas to run. But for now, we are just staying at home and doing the same. According to BBC.com, boredom can trigger us to do harmful things, but we can be more sensitive and creative on the plus side. 

According to BBC.com, boredom can trigger us to do harmful things, but we can be more sensitive and creative on the plus side. True, we tend to do something that we do not normally do or do not usually need to do. For example, when we have trouble sleeping at night, we will look for other activities such as watching movies, social media, or at worst, we become overthinking and then crying alone instead of trying to sleep. It is not very good for our health. We can trigger various diseases from staying up late and also overthinking what we have done. Well, crying may be a relief, but if we are bored every night and can only cry to deal with boredom, it can kill us before boredom affects us. The study conducted by the University of Central Lancashire explained that bored adults would increase their mortality rate by 30% in the next three years. The phenomenon is related to people behavior when bored, for example, smoking, drinking alcohol, or even taking drugs. It iss so easy that boredom ruined our lives. 

There are two types of appearances of boredom. First, it appears to people who think that life is a journey to seek experience are not suitable when just stopping in the comfort zone. Second, it appears to people who believe that the world is too scary and it is better to stay in its comfort zone than to expect security to move forward. So, which type are we? However, we still have to understand that we will not find creativity and innovation without boredom. Again, quoting from the internet, "Without boredom, humans would not have a taste for adventure and exploration that makes us unique". So, without boredom, we are just dull creatures. 

I felt that I was the second type for this pandemic, who considered that the world was too scared to move forward. So all I have done all along is watch movies as an escape from boredom towards online learning. The escape is not comparable, but we can make watching movies an activity comparable to online learning because of the boredom that continues to appear. How could it be? The first thing we can do is not to be afraid and feel panic when boredom arises. Most of them are more concerned with complaints and other harmful things when they get bored instead of looking for other pleasures. Before the pandemic, we were tired of face-to-face learning. Some of us may expect a long holiday that does not require us to go to school or college, so that happens until now. Then after the pandemic spread, we are obliged by the government to stay home and do online learning. Then the boredom arises again; we complain again and do things that harm ourselves, such as staying up late, consuming too much caffeine and nicotine. But I compensate by doing positive things, watching movies, for example. For those of me who are not smokers, I just need a lot of internet data to satisfy the boredom.

But how can watching a movie be said to be a positive thing?

Here is the thing, we tend to no longer do unpleasant things, for instance, online learning. Online learning will be something we always avoid, whereas watching movies is one of the fun things and will continue to be our escape from unpleasant things. Netflix saves me.

But does not that make us unproductive?

First of all, it is not very productive when compared to online learning even tends to make us lazy. Second of all, we are stuck in a situation where we need to stay at home, so our priority now is to avoid stress. If we want, we can watch movies as a learning medium, tho. We can learn from the most common to the very specific and profound. The most common example is learning vocabulary, grammar, speaking, and other essential things in English. The effects of the pandemic made me more creative in finding the focus of knowledge in watching movies. Usually, we enjoy movies because of their excellent storyline, amazing cinematics, or the artist who plays is our favorite artist. But because of the endless boredom, for me, it was all a classic assessment. So, I began to focus on how an artist brings the line or focus on its culture. This phenomenon is an exciting thing. We can learn about something that should be done outdoors and clustered with just a lot of internet data and a stable internet speed at home. We do not have to go to America to see how Americans celebrate Christmas. We do not have to go to England to hear a distinctive British accent; we do not have to go anywhere to find information about the culture in other countries. 

Why do you need to know other cultures?

Nice question. 

Many things benefit from us learning about other cultures, one of which is that we avoid cultural shock. Cultural shock can be hazardous, especially for Indonesians. Some of the dangerous things that may happen to us when a culture shock occurs are panic, fear, and no appetite. In addition, Indonesia is famous for its politeness, religion, and adherence to norms. In comparison, other cultures tend to be free but still respect the rights of others. 

The most common thing that becomes culture shock for Indonesians is about food and establishing relationships, whether it is friendship or romantic relationships. Regarding food, we certainly know that halal food is rarely produced in America or Europe. We can anticipate it by eating vegetables or seafood. Well, for relationship issues, we need to learn from Americans. For the records, I spent a lot of time watching sitcoms, sitcoms that I am currently watching titled F.R.I.E.N.D.S, which you can watch on Netflix; it is an old sitcom that lasted for ten years from 1994 to 2004. The sitcom tells the story of a group of friends. Tell them how they live their lives: work, hang out and do romantic things. The focus on the sitcom is how they can continue to be friends, and even some of them end up together. One of the keys we can learn is that they can readily admit mistakes and apologize when making mistakes or not doing them at all. They attach more importance to the relationship they have been in for a long time than the only fleeting selfishness. They really know how to respect the bonds of friendship.  

Hence, that is what makes watching movies a positive thing and saves us from the exhaustion of facing online learning. After all, we still get knowledge of it. Well, that is the story of how Netflix saved me from online learning that was trying to kill me. How about yours?

Source: Psychology: Why boredom is bad... and good for you - BBC Future