More boredom in our lives (i.e., chronic boredom) is not healthy.

Raw-dogging boredom misses the point of boredom.

Boredom is a call to act—not a call for more boredom.

You’re on a 15-hour flight from San Francisco to Melbourne. The entertainment system is out and you didn’t bring a book. Sleep does not come easily to you on planes. You’ve read through the in-flight magazine—twice! There is nothing more to do, and hours yet to go. This seems like the most fertile grounds imaginable for an excruciating, soul-crushing episode of boredom.[i]

And yet, there are some who have intentionally engaged in this experience. Young TikTokkers, willfully doing nothing on a long-haul flight or even just in the comfort of their own homes—raw-dogging boredom!

Set aside for a moment the performative nature of this stunt (Why do we need to share our boredom with others?) and ask, is there really any value to inviting more boredom into our lives?

Chronic Boredom and Mental Health

There are so many reasons why it is not a good idea to welcome more boredom into our lives any more than it already lives there. First among these is the mountain of data showing that chronic boredom is bad for our mental health. It is associated with elevated levels of depression and anxiety, and higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, among all manner of other ills. It makes little sense to intentionally participate in something you know will make you feel worse.

And we have known since the 1950s that an even more extreme manner of doing nothing—sensory deprivation[ii]—is also associated with negative outcomes, ranging from hallucinations, to agitation and increased aggression. There’s a reason why many organizations fight against the cruelty of solitary confinement. Doing nothing, lacking in sensory stimulation, and being isolated from others is an abnormal condition, one we would do well to avoid.

But perhaps the bigger question to ask about the raw-dogging fad is, why is boredom so grossly misunderstood?

Meditation vs. Boredom

In many of these TikTok videos, it is clear that what the individual doing the raw-dogging is after is some form of meditative state, often sought as a means of disconnecting from social media (perhaps this generation needs to raw-dog irony). But meditation is not boredom.

To be clear, meditation may feel boring, at least until you develop some level of either expertise or comfort with the practice. The distinction between meditation and boredom is crystal clear in their functions. Meditation is, in part, a means of cultivating a sense of self-awareness and to calm one’s mind and body.

Boredom is a call to action.

The ultimate goal of boredom is to eliminate itself. To push you to find an activity that is meaningful to you, that allows you to demonstrate your own skills and talents, so that ultimately you are no longer bored!

This misunderstanding is evident in most of the posts the raw-doggers have uploaded and in much of what has been written about the trend. This link talks about disconnecting from technology, a laudable aim, and while intentionally being bored will mean you’re not doom-scrolling your social media feed, there are other, better solutions that involve meaningful engagement. This song on YouTube, while clearly a parody, represents a great response to being bored—write an amusing song about raw-dogging boredom. Clearly, the artist was not raw-dogging boredom while doing this.

Boredom and Creativity

Which brings me to another myth about boredom that warrants a mention here—the misguided notion that boredom will somehow make you creative. Here, the idea is that welcoming more boredom into your life will help you discover your most creative ideas (this is exemplified in the much-watched TED talk by Manoush Zomorodi). But boredom will not somehow magically endow you with creative skills or ideas. Only learning and practice can help with that. Boredom functions merely to signal the need to be engaging in something different than whatever you are doing now. Something more meaningful to you.

It is plausible, especially for those who have already cultivated creative outlets, that boredom will be successfully eliminated by engaging in creative pursuits—writing a song about raw-dogging boredom, perhaps. But being bored, and inviting more episodes of boredom into your life, will not give you the skills to write that song.

Similarly, if your goal is to disconnect from your devices and social media feeds, intentionally meditating is likely a good option. Boredom is not. And that’s the point—boredom is pushing you to seek out meaningful activities. It is hard to imagine any way in which doing nothing is more meaningful than doing something.

So what is the raw-dogging boredom trend really all about? It may simply be the performative aspect that matters most here. A kind of attempt at martyrdom, to demonstrate to others just how much boredom you can stand and still live to fight another day. Challenging others to do the seemingly impossible— withstand a 15-hour flight with nothing at all to occupy your mind (with the sole exception of anticipating all the likes and re-posts you hope to gather once you post your ordeal—again, perhaps these guys should raw-dog irony).

If we are to truly listen to what boredom is urging us to do, we will turn away from inviting more of the experience into our lives and strive, instead, to find outlets for us to pursue that fulfill our need for purpose and meaning in life.

[i] I have had an experience very similar to this with an 11-year-old son along for the ride. While there was a book available to read, dealing with the 11-year-old’s crushing boredom was the major challenge of the flight (the airline did not compensate us for the broken entertainment system).

[ii] In its purest form, this involves immersion in a flotation tank that is then enclosed to eliminate all other senses—primarily vision and audition. John Zubek took this a step further, having people placed in a coffin-like box so that all movement was restricted. While hallucinations were not always evident in these experiments, people ubiquitously rated the experience to be unpleasant and reported losing control of their emotions. See Raz, M. (2013). Alone again: John Zubek and the troubled history of sensory deprivation research. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 49, 379–395. for a description of this work.

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