I can't pretend that my own interest in the matter has always been quite so elevated.
Is it a mood, an emotion, an affliction, a form of social protection, a gateway to the essence of the self, the human condition, or a modern affectation?
Can one draw a distinction between this long-standing situational boredom and its newer intellectual cousin, "existential boredom", the type that goes to the very core of post-Enlightenment modernity (incidentally, the verb "to bore" didn't arrive in English until the second half of the 18th century).
On the surface, it's an unbelievable statistic and as I'm no stranger to incongruity, be it of desperation or satiation, tedium, ennui, apathy, monotony, lassitude, restlessness, dreariness or aching dissatisfaction – I've known them all. And in this instance familiarity does indeed breed contempt. As a consequence, I approach the threat of The Shins much like a claustrophobe greets a cramped elevator.
The Shins - Half a Million
https://youtu.be/mWIqmXn3Yyk
