Boredom and Hyperboredom

In his piece Composition and Sustainability, Derek Owens has a section called 'Boredom and Hyperboredom. In this section he describes hyperboredom as "all people, objects, relations, and activities are permanently, and it seems unaccountably, stripped of interest, and...the search for anything of interest itself appears utterly uninteresting, worthless or totally ineffective." and "Hyperboredom is the escalating apprehension of the void; the nihilism of the masses; the largely unconscious, unacknowledged sense that the bottom has fallen out of the world."

Owens also told a story describing what a typical night on the weekends was like close to where he lived. He explains that during the weekend nights, over three-hundred high schoolers would gather in the parking lot of a local strip mall and drink and cause some trouble with local storeowners. One such unlucky storeowner would have his restaurant wrecked with garbage, garbage cans, and finally their empty beer bottles.

Having lived in Athens for about half of my life, I can honestly say that 300 plus high school students hanging out in a mall parking lot, has never happened in Athens, or at least not to my knowledge. That many students in one area in Athens would result in the cops being called in a heartbeat, as the only mall parking lot available is on East State Street. It’s a highly travelled area and there’s a Sherriff’s station just down the road.  

Another note would have to be the definition of hyperboredom. When you are in Athens, or any other place long enough, you start to get bored with everything. Athens doesn’t have much to offer, especially to those who are under the age of 21. Granted, there are a lot of things you can do like to Stroud’s Run or Hocking Hills, but there’s only so much you can do there until you get bored. You also have two pools, a skate park, the bike path and many historical places around Athens to visit. But once again, they eventually get boring after a while. I know I would. The people who are 21 have more options available to them as they can legally go to bars, buy alcohol, throw parties and such, but after how many thrown parties, tapped kegs, or empty beer cases must one go through until they are bored with it?

I guess my point is that boredom and hyperboredom do exist, and that there may be many things available to people, but everyone has their own levels of being able to handle doing the same thing many times over until they get bored with it.