Okay, you're probably wondering where this video is going.

I'll give you another chance to watch again.

The truth is, it's going... nowhere.

This video is meant to elicit an emotional response, but its not a very fun or exciting one —you're meant to feel bored.

From a psychological perspective, boredom is defined as “the aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity, ” and it requires three different factors.

ntion, second, you become aware that youre having difficulty paying attention, and third, you blame your inability to pay attention on your environment.

efinition makes boredom seem pretty similar to other emotional states.

For example, if youre having trouble paying attention, and you know youre having trouble, but you blame an important phone call youre expecting, we call that emotion anxiety, or excitement.

y and excitement feel more powerful than boredom, but physiologically theyre actually quite similar.

When scientists looked at how your body responds to boredom, they found two major things happened.

First, your bodys skin conductance level decreased: thats how well your skin conducts electricity.

aged, aroused, or interested in your environment, your skin conductance increases, so its no surprise that experiencing boredom causes co nd , boreitdo tm o cadeuscresea asen.

increase in your heart rate and levels of the stress hormone bo re d, corcotirtsoisl olis.

also part of the bodys fight or flight response.

An increase in heart rate and cortisol could be your bodys way of telling you to find something more interesting, so youll stop being bored.

And there are lots of reasons for you to want to stop being bored.

b or edom sItuc sksuc skso !mu ch, that even pain may be preferable, so long as its engaging.

of a mild electric shock, and even had them state a dollar value they would pay to avoid receiving that shock.

But when the participants were placed in a blank room for 15 minutes with nothing but their own thoughts and the shock button, over 40% of them, mostly men, voluntarily shocked themselves at least once.

One man pushed the shock button 190 times!

Only 15 minutes was enough to drive people to do something they would previous pay to avoid, just so they would stop feeling bored.

So how do we avoid feeling bored with things we have to do, without giving ourselves painful shocks?

m to the brains reward system, suggesting chronic boredom may be a lack of activation in that part of the brain.

To re-engage that part of your brain when youre getting bored with something, try turning it into a game.

This may be why flashcards are such an effective studying tool, even for really dry material.

Pairing the otherwise boring activity with chewing gum or walking may also help you focus.

Or you could try working in a group, with a friend or coworker, just make sure youre keeping each other on task.

Boredom sucks, but its also a part of life.

People all over the world, from all different cultures experience boredom at some point.

Luckily, we live in a world where fun things are just a mouse click or pokeball away.

But, maybe avoid videos of men folding laundry.