Boring places can impact our mental health, stifling our ‘biological need for intrigue’.48 But boredom also has a purpose. As Sherry Turkle puts it, ‘Boredom can be recognized as your imagination calling you.’49 For her, such moments are ‘signs to attend more closely to things, not to turn away’.

But the more common issue is one of boredom, which often arises without explanation.