Birdwatchers, accountants, data analysts and everyone who works in insurance are said to be the most boring people alive. No trainspotters? There was a major oversight. Going to church, watching TV and animal observation are the most boring hobbies according to the University of Essex. The things were judged worse than stamp-collecting.
You have to find the opposite types when you do this kind of research. The study lists actors, scientists, journalists as the least boring professions. The research was conducted by a group of people, all of whom were science journalist friends, and all of whom had refreshingly un boring names.
They conducted five experiments. The more you study their findings, the more you realize how annoying we are.
Not content with bashing the entire insurance and data industries, the respondents had it in for smokers, people who live in medium-sized towns, and people who complain a lot. They wanted to be paid for spending time with people at a going rate of 35 a day. There is a thread of self-loathing running through the conclusions. Really? If that is boring then millions of us with a password are cursed with tedium.
There is a lack of self in these responses. Take journalists and actors. No one complains more than they talk. Many of the few smokers left in society are found in these two professions. How can they be both boring and boring at the same time? Is it that the activities themselves are supposed to be boring? The people who do them are dull. If someone in my home was so excited about the close-up of a fox in our garden that he had it framed, I would rather be spared all amateur wildlife photography. It is a lot of blurry orange fuzz.
The title of the second part of the study is "Boring people: stereotype characteristics, interpersonal attributions and social reactions." Our stereotypes of who and what is boring. The idea that you would ever get paid to put up with someone who makes you yawn is related to reality. This could be the substance of many professional lives and marriages. That is a whole other study.
I know a lot of people who like spreadsheets. They are well-suited to accountancy and are welcome to it. All is well with the world if they don't co-opt me into their information. It is not an activity or a profession that makes you boring. It is your insistence on making others aware of your passion.
We don't have the imagination to understand what they get out of tracking the silvery-cheeked hornbill, or they chewed our ear off about something we weren't interested in. The old joke is "How can you tell if someone is vegan?" Don't worry, they'll let you know, we're not necessarily against the habits and life choices of others, but they don't half drive us out of our minds. Wild swimmers did not show up in the study. They are the most boring of all. Although I promise to speak as little as possible, I speak as one of their number.
I think of the TV show Why Don't You when I think of the word boring. I was told as a child that if you are bored, you have to blame yourself.
Being boring and being bored are positive things. I don't want to be interesting to everyone. If some people think I'm boring, that's great. I will be protected from their attentions. That is also good if I am bored. It will give me a chance to sit and think. The Covid time has been boring for many, deprived of their usual comforts. It can be a blessing if you have a lot of boredom. The vicissitudes of life are often worse than it is.
How can we be certain that we are not boring? The key to avoiding boring people is to take the time to see beyond stereotypes. Isn't boring a Badge of honour? Being so unbearable to others that they would want to be paid 35 dollars to put up with you is something that is deeply satisfying. The beholder has something in the eye or binoculars.
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