Yousuf Raza – Lockdown PUBG and Boredom
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the negative impact of boredom on society, including anxiety and negative behavior. They emphasize the importance of finding a course of action and finding a course of action to achieve goals and activities. They also touch on the importance of family, social media, and media to achieve goals and growth, and the importance of finding meaning in life and finding a course of action. The segment emphasizes the importance of finding meaning in individual activities and experiences, and the potential negative impact of COVID-19 on people, including psychological challenges and negative emotions.
AI: Summary ©
Alright, Bismillah Alhamdulillah.
Assalamu alaikum everybody.
This is Yusuf Raza and I am joined
by Dr. Azam Khalid.
Lockdown, PUBG and boredom.
Yes, Azam.
Yes, Assalamu alaikum.
I think you have kept this topic for
me.
Because I am bored right now.
The way I am locked down.
Really?
Do people get bored in New York as
well?
Of course, they can.
If New York is closed.
Now, something has started to open up.
There must be some other reason to get
bored in New York.
Some other reason?
What are you trying to say?
Tell me.
Let it be.
Okay, coming to the topic.
Lockdown, generally though it has eased up more
than what it was before.
The situation is not the same as it
was a month ago or a couple of
months ago.
But still, it's still continuing.
And working from home, studying from home, that
leaves people a lot of issues with a
lot of time on their hands.
Before that, there was something to do with
that time.
It was travel time.
Generally, your daily routine was set.
Now, this seems to be the new norm.
Now, our lockdown situation has become.
More and more people are turning to not
just PUBG.
But the boom that came on Netflix in
the last few months.
It never came before.
Yeah, right.
More and more people are opting for going
on YouTube, social media, all that.
So, how do we define boredom, Azam?
More than defining boredom.
If we go to this, how do we
feel boredom?
Okay, go on.
And instead of using a very extreme analogy
of lockdown.
The analogy that I always have in my
mind.
Especially those of us who are in student
life.
Or those who have just passed through student
life.
They can bring one thing into their mind
in a very good way.
That right after the exams are over.
The last exam in the evening.
Which is a condition.
And all the previous plans that we will
do this, we will do this, we will
do this.
Okay, all that is happening.
As exciting as it seems in exams.
As soon as the exam is over.
That thing is completely over.
And because I have the experience of living
in a hostel.
So, in that hostel, the last exam in
the evening.
Which is called the time of complete boredom.
That thing is one.
You are in a condition of complete purposelessness.
That I don't have anything to do.
Even those things that I used to find
very interesting.
Even in that, I don't feel that interest.
Right, right, right.
So, a feeling in which you have a
purposelessness.
A feeling of meaninglessness.
And the thing that used to interest you
before.
It used to excite you.
Now, you don't have interest or excitement in
it.
Right, so that's the feeling of boredom that
we're talking about.
So, how does this, how does this, like.
There is only one situation.
Certain people feel bored in that situation.
Another person might be very excited about that.
Same situation.
It might bring us to.
Those personal meanings and personal goals.
Where we.
Those situations that are in sync with our
meanings.
We find those situations more exciting.
And those situations that.
Our personal meanings, our personal goals.
They are not in sync with them.
We find those situations more exciting.
And here, maybe that question arises.
At least in our culture.
That we.
One thing that has come up a lot
since the lockdown.
That we are bored with our families in
our house.
Right.
And all our goals and all the things
where we.
Meaningful.
Take care.
Families make meaninglessness.
Benevious.
Apparently, the goals set.
Personal meaning.
It may well be.
Families.
Personal meaning.
Personal goals.
More and more.
When we are with our families.
Right.
Or.
Low.
Or you.
Or.
Or.
Or.
Or.
Or.
Or.
Or.
entertainment facilities or entertainment.
facilities of available like what the 21st century
person has available to them.
social media.
PUBG.
Netflix, YouTube, Yeah, even outside dining out is
a form of entertainment that people go for
amusement parks.
activities.
available.
intensity is complexity is frequency available.
So, can we can we make a like
a general general correlation.
insani.
a general tendency meaning lessness.
meaninglessness, purposelessness, personal goals, or personal meaning.
the more we have the need to can
fall towards these avenues of entertainment, these avenues
of you know, gaming and all of that.
Can we make that make that correlation?
Yeah.
identify.
or you.
it.
it.
opportunities.
social media.
meaningful activities.
as a defense towards the anxiety, which is
caused by boredom.
anxiety.
we are falling towards this.
Okay.
one.
in those.
online gaming.
genuine interest.
genuine meaning.
or identify.
identify.
just on a couch.
it is not a they are watching TV
with a purpose.
It is they are watching TV as a
defense against the anxiety caused by boredom, right?
And so the anxiety caused by boredom.
Why do we like how will we understand
that?
What is that signaling?
will will that is an anxiety towards the
purpose of the life.
of the time.
I am not passing the life but the
life is passing me.
anxiety.
anxiety.
or it becomes a vicious cycle.
which.
the time.
and it becomes a loop.
Right.
Right.
So, uh it's where he talks about boredom
and he says, hey, boredom boredom doesn't exist.
Activity doesn't exist to overcome boredom.
Boredom exists to direct us towards a meaningful
activity.
Right?
It's not about um you know, it's it's
it's just there for no reason.
There is a there is a purposelessness.
do something meaningful.
Find something uh something.
There is something that you have to go
do.
There is something that you have to achieve.
and boredom is pointing us towards that.
I mean, That's
it.
There is nothing more that needs to be
done like for for guys.
It's uh for the men of the family
or the uh fathers or husbands.
Uh they look at their role as the
economic provider.
uh and that's about it.
meaningful role in uh making my wife and
kids feel loved for example, contributing to their
uh emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social development.
um usually that is seen as this is
not and that's about it.
right?
Just yelling at them, you know, just asking
them to leave them alone.
I want to be by myself.
I want to be by myself.
You know, responsibility.
mothers.
uh acknowledge
definitely.
So, the just uh exams.
you know, bad habits.
Automatically, the blame game starts.
The husbands and the fathers are more likely
to blame the wives and not take any
responsibility on themselves.
If you're also working, if you're also, you
have a job, you're going out, you're either
studying or working or whatever.
Even then, you have to come back and
perform that role of uh taking care of
the kids entirely.
So, that that sense will still be developed.
So, okay.
So, that's that's one dimension of that typical
father or husband or even uh women for
that matter that they're not excluded from getting
bored.
It's not just a a guy thing.
It's not that we can stay by ourselves.
We have to have something playing in the
background.
Uh if we're by ourselves.
I am giving more time to my social
media accounts than to my children or to
my family.
existence.
That's more important than my responsibility.
I think that points us towards a very
important uh way that avenues social media uh
surrogate experience of meaning.
where we are at least in some world
living meaningfully.
So, it's a goal oriented game.
You have goals.
There's success.
There's victory.
There's competition.
There is growth.
There is development.
You're becoming stronger.
Achievements unlocked.
So, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm
old fashioned N64 007 Golden Eye.
It's first person shooters.
There is an excitement there.
Definitely.
definitely.
but it all the more begs the question.
that these avenues are fulfilling or at least
pretending to fulfill.
to me.
meaninglessness or the goal of the life.
How to get away from it?
Right.
Right.
Okay.
Uh so, I think the the question is
pretty.
It's staring us in the face.
meaningful activities.
meaningfulness.
We have failed to decipher the meaning.
Yeah, we have failed to discover the meaning
uh or to uh live the meaning in
a particular situation.
Mm hmm.
Therefore, I have to find the meaning.
that I have to that I have to
identify that I have to look to and
I have to look to and I discover.
a uh a a a uh a old
fashioned A
uh
a uh a uh a old fashioned A
uh a uh a uh a uh a
old fashioned Right.
So, precisely, when we're sitting down to make
a schedule, we will make our schedule keeping
in mind some of our long-term goals,
some of our general sense of meaning.
And so, if I'm scheduling that from 5
to 6, I should go for squash, I
should go to the gym, or whatever the
case may be, I am identifying that keeping
myself physically healthy is a long-term goal
for myself.
So, it's a meaningful activity.
It is a meaningful activity associated with my
overall...
Or I have to spend this time for
my studies.
How meaningful is that study for me?
So, the scheduling activity is forcing us to
do something very human, which is that we
are time-traveling.
We are learning from our past, going to
our future, and seeing what I will do
today that would benefit me in the future.
And according to Frankl, that activity will be
meaningful only when it ultimately benefits society or
others.
Right?
So, that routine, that schedule...
We can schedule, but in the schedule, we
can put 4 hours of PUBG, 5 hours
of Netflix, and 6 hours of social media.
Scheduling.
But when we sit down to pen down
on the paper, then while making a column
on Facebook for 4 hours, and while making
a column to talk to my mom for
10 minutes, then that inner conscience definitely plays
its role that I am making some false
decisions.
Sir, that's precisely it.
What I realized while speaking, and you pointed
it out as well, nobody would do that.
Nobody would plan in a scheduling activity that
today I have 1 o'clock to 6
o'clock PUBG.
No one is going to say that.
Or that I have to scroll Facebook from
1 o'clock to 6 o'clock.
No one is going to plan that.
No one is going to actually do that.
We can't bear it ourselves.
Our conscience, our guilt won't allow us to
make an active schedule and write that I
have to do this for 6 hours.
But precisely because we don't plan an alternative,
that we don't schedule any alternative meaningful activity,
we actually do end up spending time in
something we would never consciously plan for ever.
And Yusuf Bhai, if we put the analogy
of a school in front of us, the
schedule that plays a role in the school,
it also helps the student to be introduced
to a lot of things and then that
student can pursue further in one of those
things.
And it may very well happen that when
you start scheduling like this, then when there
is interest in one thing, then you can
increase it.
So, it may well be that you are
scheduling a diverse array of activities.
The more you do, the more you are
finding your calling or meaningful thing.
You are facilitating that.
Where does your passion lie?
Where is your personal contribution to the world?
In which area is it?
The more you are dibbling, dabbling in all
these multiple activities, you are more likely to
find something like that.
And when you write down, the conscious element
of your mind is more at work.
Whereas when you are thinking that I will
do 5 to 6, 6 to 7, then
that thing completely skips from the mind.
So, when you sit down to write, it
is what you said earlier that your consciousness
will not allow you to spend 2 hours
on Facebook or 4 hours on Facebook.
Shiba Ansari has also written that you will
not be ashamed to schedule 4 hours for
social media.
You will be ashamed.
Precisely why we will never do that.
Right, right, right.
Now, coming from there, if we take the
analogy that you drew, routine, scheduling, something that
is coming back more and more.
And we also see that behavioral activation, scheduling,
gives relief to many people from their depression,
from their anxiety.
And that does point us towards one of
the causes for depression and anxiety.
It is generally understood that due to more
stress, due to more work, due to the
burden of more things, that burden has overpowered
depression or anxiety.
And it's something of a burnout.
Which happens in its place, definitely happens.
That may be one reason for why some
people get it.
But perhaps more common than that, that our
depression, anxiety, due to boredom, because of this,
boredom is a sort of a prodromal phase.
Before the active disease comes, there is a
bell of depression, anxiety.
An alarm is ringing through your boredom that
do something from now.
Otherwise, if you keep this up, if you
are not paying attention to what this boredom
is pointing you towards, that the sign of
boredom, that you have to do something meaningful,
if you don't read this sign, if you
don't take this seriously, then depression, anxiety, somewhere
down the line is coming up.
Somewhere down the line, it's coming up.
What we have discussed so far, if we
go back to that, let's say, if a
person does not schedule his day properly, and
he is scrolling Facebook for 3-4 hours
a day, then that is not a day.
That 2 days, 4 days, 6 days, that
is becoming a daily routine.
And then after 6-8 months, after a
year, when he looks back, what did I
do in a year?
And in that one year, due to that
boredom, his time has been wasted, and he
is not able to do anything.
That self-image is formed, that I may
not be able to do anything.
Right.
And the way it feeds in towards the
depression, anxiety, and all those things.
And it is also clashing in a way,
because apparently you did very well at PUBG.
Apparently you did very well on your social
media.
You got all the likes that you wanted.
You saw all the stories and pictures of
the puppies and the aunties and their cousins
and everyone.
But at the end of the year, that
doesn't create a sense of achievement that you
could transiently feel.
The purposelessness that you might have felt during
that activity.
But that brings us to a question that
is being asked very rightly by Shanul Haq.
And he is saying, why can't you schedule
a gaming activity into your routine, especially since
it positively contributes towards the development of your
cognitive skills?
So as far as gaming, even entertainment, then
we are looking at that you are overburdening
yourself.
You are taxing yourself too much.
And as human beings, we do need rest.
We do need rest.
And if in a meaningful routine, in a
meaningful schedule, or in an overall meaningful life,
strategically gaming and entertainment have other avenues placed,
then that gaming and entertainment is also meaningful.
Absolutely.
Right?
Apart from cognitive skills, more than cognitive skills,
there is a lot of emotional needs that
are being met.
There is so much that you find out
about yourself.
In the sense of, you can identify with
a lot of movies, with a lot of
gaming characters.
Most of the gaming characters and movies that
are popular, there is somebody saving the day.
Somebody making the world a better place.
And that says, that every human being has
a purpose, a purpose to do some heroic
activity in the real world.
He has a desire to do it and
he also has a purpose.
Dr. Saqib Aslam Govindan has a comment.
What would you like to say on this?
The difference between, let me bring this out.
The difference between loneliness of two persons, maybe
due to goals.
One, goal-oriented things and loneliness.
The other, having no plans and goals.
Maybe Saqib is asking that I am a
pediatrician and my wife is a surgeon.
If there is something that you want to
get at, please go ahead.
No, no.
You talk on this.
I won't say anything to Saqib.
You don't want to say anything to Saqib.
Okay.
Again, loneliness doesn't necessarily have to mean boredom.
One person, we come back to the interpretation
that how do you interpret the situation.
One person, has an interpretation of the inner
feeling of the situation that it is boredom.
It is aimlessness.
Another person craves the same loneliness that finally
I got a chance to read that book.
Or I got time to write.
Or I got time to spend with my
kids.
Whatever.
Now I have that opportunity.
The free time is an opportunity for them
to do something meaningful that they weren't able
to do before.
So, precisely the interpretation of the individual is
incredibly important in that entire phenomenon of boredom.
Yusuf bhai, there is a link on which
there is a lot of emphasis on psychology
and psychiatry.
Whenever you are setting your goals, whenever you
are passing your time, do I want to
spend my 10 years with this activity?
Goals should be short-term but the long
-term effect of those goals should also be
in mind.
And what you said about loneliness, if we
can do that later, I am thinking of
Munir Niazi's poem, I always get late.
So, maybe we can share that later on
our page.
Our goals are everything but we have those
goals that I have made of my own
free will.
And there are those goals that my condition
has given me in a way, I don't
want to use the word force, but my
condition has given me a lot of responsibilities
towards my family, my work, my friends, those
things.
So, I read such a quote that I
spent 5 hours a day in my room
in online gaming and there was a plant
in my room which I didn't take care
of and it dried up.
So, there is these types of responsibilities which
because of your condition become your responsibility even
if...
Yeah.
Right.
So, if we take the plant example that
you spent 5 hours on gaming and the
plant died, that plant is signifying that plant
may well be your child, that plant may
well be your relationship with your wife, that
plant may well be your career, that plant
may well be your intellectual abilities, that plant
may well be representing that that example is
so symbolic that the meaningful contribution that you
can make to the society.
You may be an Abdul Sattari, but in
just gaming yourself away, all your potential and
energy is being channeled towards a virtual world
or the real world.
It may well be that if that virtual
world is meaningfully restricted, then you can bring
some skills from there and bring some realizations
so that you can bring some differences in
the real world.
This is last second, but that effect should
be seen.
gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming
gaming gaming gaming gaming
gaming gaming gaming
gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming gaming
gaming situations
or routines had situations or routines had situations
or routines had helped them to adapt.
psychological challenges.
and now we have a new situation.
and now we have a new situation.
and now we have a new situation.
Adaptive strategies.
positive activities.
and generally, the fear created and generally, the
fear created by the pandemic, the economic by
the pandemic, the economic by the pandemic, the
economic burden created by the pandemic.
that's exacerbating your that's exacerbating your worsening with
pre-existing worsening with pre-existing worsening with
pre-existing challenges, right?
So, um challenges, right?
So, um challenges, right?
So, um understanding this to begin understanding this
to begin with a lock down pre-existing
with a lock down pre-existing with a
lock down pre-existing situation.
and most likely situation.
and most likely situation.
and
most likely to pre-existing situation.
like it was being brushed under like it
was being brushed under the carpet.
Now, it's coming up the carpet.
Now, it's coming up again.
It requires a more uh a again.
It requires a more uh a deeper uh
understanding, a more deeper understanding, a more serious,
a more professional serious, a more professional serious,
a more professional commitment for that to be
taken commitment for that to be taken into
consideration or uh in into consideration or uh
in into consideration or uh in addition to
that, addition to that, job, a situation I
have a situation job, a situation I have
a situation may be meaningful situation may be
meaningful situation may be meaningful activities or adaptive
activities uh
better than what is recommended.
Uh that's that's uh better than what is
recommended.
Uh that's that's uh better than what is
recommended.
Uh that's that's that that can be that
can be that can be paralyzing.
It's it's very traumatizing, right?
paralyzing, right?
that's also problematic.
Positive that's also problematic.
Positive that's also problematic.
Positive routine, meaningful routine, meaningful routine, meaningful
activities, uh it'll allow you, it'll activities, uh
it'll allow you, it'll create that psychological create
that psychological situation which helps you situation which
helps you escape the OCD vicious cycle.
OCD escape the OCD vicious cycle.
OCD escape the OCD vicious cycle.
OCD uh
and
and uh with one with one uh and
uh with one with one uh and uh
with one with one uh comment.
Uh and this was comment.
Uh and this was actually in the in
the article actually in the in the article
actually in the in the article that you
said, okay.
um your that you said, okay.
um your that you said, okay.
um your boredom boredom boredom interpretation of the
interpretation of the individual makes a huge individual
makes a huge individual makes a huge difference,
right?
So, just difference, right?
So, just it's it's very likely.
uh more and more situations are uh more
and more situations are uh more and more
situations are boring.
If life in general is boring.
If life in general is meaningless, then boredom
is the meaningless, then boredom is the necessary
corollary, the necessary corollary, the necessary corollary, the
necessary consequence, right?
necessary consequence, right?
necessary consequence, right?
It's very difficult even though It's very difficult
even though people are able to do that
people are able to do that sometimes sometimes
common sense sometimes sometimes common sense sometimes sometimes
common sense uh prevails over our uh prevails
over our uh prevails over our consciously held
beliefs, right?
And uh consciously held beliefs, right?
And uh when it when that when that
when it when that when that when it
when that when that happens, then you are
able to happens, then you are able to
find meaning in individual find meaning in individual
activities despite claiming that activities despite claiming that
everything else is meaningless everything else is meaningless
but we are psychologically able but we are
psychologically able but we are psychologically able to
achieve that.
to achieve that.
to achieve that.
Specifically, Specifically, a religious outlook.
a religious outlook.
a religious outlook.
Life meaningful.
Life meaningful.
interpretation of religiosity.
All of life.
Meaningful to some of the life up there.
Religious worldview.
Meaningful.
Some of the.
We can have a particular understanding of religiosity.
He just made a particular understanding of God.
He just made meaningful activities.
If ritualistic worship.
Meaningful activities.
Religious activities.
scripture.
association.
routine activities.
mundane activities.
quote unquote.
activities.
right as opposed to activities.
meaning.
meaning.
Then again, those routine activities are very, very
likely to be boring based off of that
word.
There'll be more of a burden and excessive
burden.
academic activity that is going to be more
and more suffocating that is becoming more and
more suffocating to have that understanding if boredom
can also be a sign of our worldview.
ultimate conception of meaning.
symptomatology.
belief.
Genie.
or her activity.
may have.
responsible or meaningful response.
boredom might signify otherwise.
if if taken if taken in a healthy,
positive manner, boredom can be the best thing
ever for us.
I have to mature in my understanding.
more actively look to interpret the meaningfulness demanded
of me in a particular situation.
If I feel more and more bored, then
somewhere I am not putting in that effort
that I am sitting in the room, sitting
in the room is also something meaningful from
me, maybe demanding, right?
So, being being conscious of that.
strong.
sense.
strong relationship and how physiologically.
life giving boredom is incredibly important.
it's it's a blessing, right?
Just just like depression and anxiety for that,
right?
It can be a sign.
I'm not growing.
because when you are not doing any activity.
and you are not growing in yourself.
Very good.
So, that's also another important aspect.
growth.
to do.
a habit.
growth.
habit.
monotony.
novelty.
balance.
balance.
not too much.
very.
you know, habit, habit, habit, habit, habit, habit,
it has that novelty somewhere.
There has to be that spontaneity somewhere.
There has that to the excitement and create
more habits.
very quickly.
If you can summarize a take home message
take home message for what we've spoken about
in the past.
boredom.
So, boredom happens.
should be assigned to reflect upon ourselves.
Maybe we are not doing such activities.
or or maybe we are not doing such
activities.
at the expense of others.
suffocated lives.
So, boredom.
inherently.
but it may be a sign that we
need to change.
We need to grow.
Definitely.
Thank you so much.
Thank you everyone for being here with us
for watching.
I hope this was beneficial.
Please leave your questions in the comment section.
We will try to get definitely.
do you want to tell everyone about what
we're doing next week?
who is who is basically an Indian and
she's now a professor in the US.
how the socioeconomic and the political condition can
worsen mental health.
So,
that
would be wonderful.
So, as most of you who are watching
our following regularly would have figured out.
and I will be discussing different topics with
you and then the next week, we will
have a guest on board with us and
we will interact with them and we hope
that this carries on and we are all
able to grow as a community.
Thank you so much everyone for watching for
your questions, for your support.
Uh we see you next time.