"Boredom is a cultural phenomenon unique to Western culture (but now, unfortunately, being spread like a virus to non-Western cultures). Bedouins, for example, can sit for hours in the desert, feeling the ripples of time, without being bored. Traditional societies know nothing of boredom. Traditional life is a goal-orientated existence where the goals are deeply embedded in the world-view of the tradition and have real meaning for those who imbibe the tradition. It is enriched by countless face-to-face, intimate relationships, based both on extended families and communal life; personal relationships in traditional societies tend to be shared, close and intimate, leading to a host of duties and responsibilities that give orientation and meaning to individual lives. In most Third World societies, individuals and communities are normally too busy trying to survive to be bored. Boredom is a product of culture where individual and communal goals have lost all their significance and meanings, where an individual's attention span is no longer than a single frame in an MTV video: five seconds. In such a culture, one needs something different to do, something different to see, some new excitement and spectacle every other moment." (p.27)
Extract taken from Sardar, Z. (1996) alt.civilizations.faq: Cyberspace as the Darker Side of the West. In: Cyberfutures: Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway. Edited by Ziauddin Sardar and Jerome R. Ravetz. London: Pluto Press, pp.14-41.
