You don’t. Boredom is a gift. It drives people to be creative and improve themselves.
I’ve used Dota 2 as a crutch for years, stopping it every now and then when I felt it was interfering with my personal development or school work.
I’m a moment of stoppage now…and man, having the time to write (I like to write), or play with AI stuff or clean my home or pack (we’re moving soon) is really nice. I don’t have that intense inner pressure that comes with winning or losing an online multiplayer game, which just opens up so much space for everything else.
Or it could turn you into a huge stoner like it did to me for like a decade. I’m from a suburban area, but there isn’t much to do around here other than drink, farm and hunt. Drinking gets old quickly and I don’t farm or hunt. Also the weather limited my choice of activities for a good 5 months out of the year.
I just moved down to South Florida where I just want to be active because the weather is nice (at least for now, ask me again in about 4 months) and everyone looks good, so if I’m not laying out by the pool or working out (for “free” at the building’s gym) I’m usually doing something else, rather than sitting inside smoking out of boredom.
Give them a project to complete.
I ask them if there’s anything they’d like to do or talk about. Albeit sometimes more attentive than other times, I’m always here if any random person reading this wants to kill time with someone.
I’m a player of almost every massively multiplayer game there is and am known as someone who specializes in art, thought provoking questions, therapy, and to a much lesser degree roleplay (I’m not great at the appeal aspect of roleplay but know how it works enough that I can get by).
Harvey Danger told me that if you’re bored then you’re boring. So you need to tell them to go do something instead of complain about it. Some people need to be pushed out of their comfort zone to snap out of boredom
There is two things to do
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find something they enjoy and ask if they want to do it
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realize they were never gonna do #1 no matter how interesting it might be. And now you know why they’re always bored
