An Answer to the Question: “How and Why I Became a Boredom Researcher/Scholar?”. The Significance of Investigating Boredom Amidst a Loss of Meaning

Abstract

This article addresses how and why I became a boredom researcher by tracing the evolution of my philosophical understanding of boredom. Initially explored in relation to capitalism and the logic of perpetual consumption—particularly within the fashion system and its production of the “new”—boredom appeared as a driver of market dynamics and identity construction. Influenced by the work of Josefa Ros Velasco, my perspective shifted toward conceiving boredom as a painful and potentially chronic condition, embedded in specific socio-material contexts. This reconceptualization enabled further applications, including the analysis of situation-dependent boredom among people in prison and reflections informed by Georg Simmel. Investigating boredom thus becomes a way of interrogating meaning, agency, and alienation in contemporary societies.