Without Meaning

Boredom and meaninglessness are such common feelings today that one tends to accept it and forget about it. We are blessed (or, more likely, cursed) with many bandaids for these feelings. They are not the kinds of bandaids which are infused with vitamin e or polysporin, nothing that will actually heal our boredom or lack of meaning, only hold it together and keep it out of the open air so we can forget about it a little while longer. These bandaids present themselves in the form of mp3 players, keeping our ears busy on the bus rides home, portable electronic games, sudoku puzzles, television shows laden with bright colors, loud noises and beautiful people interrupted by advertisements of shiny, delicious things. Don’t even get me started on the internet.

When one is alone and bored today, they are able to alert an alarming number of people (via status updates, tweets, blog posts) as to their condition. In a moment I can discover what someone is eating, where they are headed, what they are thinking of eating, or considering going. This information is meaningless and it is boring. It is only one more way for the writer of such posts to feel as though they are actually doing something, and interacting with others, and for the reader to distract themselves from their life by concentrating on that of another. With all of these things consistently at our fingertips the shutting off outside information and being alone with one's thoughts is increasingly becoming hard work.

Our distractions are boring, which is why we need so many of them. It is not unheard of for one to entertain themselves with multiple distractions at once. I am horrified when I find myself avoiding homework by watching free television shows on my computer of which I am distracting myself with a game of spider solitaire. Our bandaids do not engross us, they only tide us over, we are not alone enough to think, but not involved enough to feel satisfaction. We think we do not have time to move things from one box to another and back again as Walter De Maria suggests. We cannot imagine sitting alone at home, electronics off, blinds closed, and really get to know our sprit as purposed by Siegfried Kracauer. So what is the solution?

I propose that we eliminate the use of our ears and eyes. I am afraid that is the only way. If our ears and eyes are functioning there is no hope for us to turn off the world and spend quality time with ourselves. This could be accomplished using sound blocking head phones, or heavy duty ear muffs combined with a comfortable yet effective blind fold. In order for people to actually disrupt their senses for any period of time it would have to be made incredibly fashionable. The producers of said product will need to hire a fabulous marketing team. The objects should to be sleek, sexy and probably shiny. Several prominent celebrity endorsements are a must. This will ensure that people will buy the ear muffs and blind fold but to encourage people to actually use it is another problem. Maybe if there is a device that tracks how long each person has spent in seclusion and posts it to their facebook account so their friends can see. This will make it competitive, which is an excellent motivator. Of course it will be a trend, and it will run it’s course, and then we will need a new solution, but, for the time being, I believe this is the answer.

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