I'm Bored of Being Bored

Lately, I've noticed something strange about myself.

I get bored more easily.

But I'm not talking about abandoning a movie halfway through, getting tired of the same restaurant, or scrolling through my phone unable to find anything worth watching.

Those are easy things to get bored with.

I think I'm tired of something else.

Knowing where a conversation is headed within the first few sentences, for example.

Recognizing earlier and earlier what someone is going to say, which excuse they'll reach for, where they'll eventually retreat.

Things whose endings I can see before they've even begun.

They say experience comes with age. Fair enough.

But experience may have a side effect we don't talk about very much:

Life starts surprising you less.

Things that once made you curious begin to feel familiar. You find yourself finishing certain sentences in your head, recognizing certain intentions before they're ever spoken. And sometimes another person exhausts you not because they surprised you, but because they behaved exactly as you knew they would.

I think that's where my boredom begins.

Everything at Our Fingertips

It's also a strange time in history to be bored.

Almost anything we want is a few taps away. We can change the song, the movie, the news story, the video. Even moving from one person to another has never been easier.

There is more than enough to keep us from getting bored.

And yet we are.

Research by Katy Tam and Michael Inzlicht looks directly at this contradiction. You might expect boredom to diminish as access to stimulation increases, yet fragmented attention and the constant awareness that another option is available may actually make boredom worse. A meta-analysis by Yeslam Al-Saggaf and colleagues, covering 59 studies, also found a positive association between digital media use and boredom, though the researchers are careful about drawing conclusions about causality.

But my problem isn't the phone.

I'm more interested in another possibility:

As our freedom to leave anything the moment we want increases, could our ability to stay with anything be decreasing?

Maybe the problem isn't that life doesn't offer us enough new things.

Maybe it's that everything is expected to be new all the time.

Bring Me Something I Already Know

That's why I was intrigued to see comfort, nostalgia, and value emerge prominently in the restaurant industry's 2026 culinary forecast.

In the middle of all this pressure for novelty, people seem to be returning to familiar flavors.

That doesn't strike me as accidental.

I like innovation in a good kitchen. I'm curious about a new technique, an ingredient I've never tried, a thoughtfully designed tasting menu.

But do we really need to be surprised by every bite?

Sometimes you just want someone to put a familiar dish in front of you.

Something you know before the fork reaches your mouth.

Something that isn't trying to prove itself to you.

Just something done well.

Maybe we need that elsewhere in life, too.

Not every experience has to be unforgettable.

Not every person has to transform us.

And certainly not every morning has to begin with a slightly improved version of who we were yesterday.

Sometimes what we miss isn't something new. It's the freedom not to become someone new.

But not wanting something new is one thing.

Growing tired of waiting for something to change is another.

And I suspect my problem is closer to the second.

What If Godot Actually Shows Up?

Maybe that's why Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been on my mind differently lately.

The play happens to be back onstage right now, too. A Turkish State Theatres production opened on August 27 and is scheduled to run through September 25.

Vladimir and Estragon wait.

Godot doesn't come.

They talk. They pass the time. They talk about leaving.

But they don't.

They keep waiting.

These days, when I think about the play, I'm less interested in who Godot is than in something else:

The hope required to keep waiting.

Because waiting is never just waiting. We imagine possibilities. When they don't materialize, we're disappointed. Then we pull ourselves together so we can somehow be ready to wait again tomorrow.

Maybe Godot's failure to arrive isn't the only exhausting part.

Maybe it's having to wake up the next morning capable of waiting again.

Isn't life sometimes like that?

Something doesn't happen, and the familiar lines arrive:

"Something better will come along."

"Everything happens for a reason."

"Keep moving forward."

"You'll start again."

I don't object to any of them.

But sometimes, underneath all those well-intentioned words, you just want to say:

I'm tired of waiting.

Of hoping.

Of chasing the next good possibility.

Of pulling myself together when it doesn't happen.

This isn't hopelessness.

Maybe it's just hope fatigue.

And this is where it stops being about Godot.

Because Godot may never arrive.

But the person who has to wake up every morning ready to wait for him again is always the same.

Me.

Maybe I'm Bored With Myself, Too

It's easy to get tired of other people.

Their predictable reactions. The same conversations. The same excuses.

But what about yourself?

Don't I have my own patterns?

The things I wait for.

The possibilities I want to come true.

The way I react when they don't.

The way I recover.

And then hope again.

Maybe the cast changes, but my role doesn't change nearly as much as I think it does.

And perhaps this is what I'm most tired of:

Producing a new version of myself.

Whenever life hits us somewhere, we're expected to emerge a little stronger.

We lose something; someone asks what we learned from it.

A door closes; we look for another.

We get tired; we recharge our motivation.

We fall; we're expected to get back up as a better version of ourselves.

Sometimes it feels less like we're living our lives and more like we're managing an endless software update of ourselves.

Orkun 2.0.

Then 3.0.

More resilient.

More self-aware.

More selective.

Harder to hurt.

Preferably bug-free.

The truth is, sometimes I don't want to install the new version.

I'd like to let the old one rest for a while.

I'm Bored of Being Bored

Thinking about all of this makes that first sentence sound a little different to me now.

I'm bored of being bored.

But I'm not tired of life.

There are still people I'm curious about, places I want to go, food I want to taste. I still love a sentence that catches me off guard, something beautifully made, the unexpected appearance of beauty when I wasn't looking for it.

I still want to hope.

I just don't want to force myself back into hope after every disappointment.

I still want to be able to begin again.

Just not by becoming someone else every time.

Maybe strength isn't always getting back on your feet.

Maybe sometimes it's staying where you are for a while.

Without searching for the next possibility.

Without immediately trying to fix yourself.

Without checking the clock to see whether Godot is coming.

Maybe on some days, life isn't asking us for a new version of ourselves.

Maybe we are.

For now, I'm not looking for another answer.

I'm a little tired of looking for answers, too.

Editorial Note & Rights Statement

This essay is an original AGORA piece based on Orkun Akçasarı's personal reflections, observations, reading, and cultural interpretation. The works, studies, institutions, and cultural references mentioned in the essay are included for purposes of commentary, criticism, cultural discussion, and factual verification. Their inclusion does not imply sponsorship, endorsement, representation, or any official or commercial relationship.

The narrative structure, personal context, selection and sequencing of subjects, transitions between sections, interpretations, original expressions, title, and presentation are the intellectual work of Orkun Akçasarı.

Unauthorized reproduction, republication, adaptation, translation, narration, attribution to another publication, or commercial use is prohibited. Where brief quotation is permitted by law, the author's name, the full title of the essay, and the original publication link must be clearly cited.

Sources have been checked against information available as of the publication date. Any material factual error supported by a reliable source will be corrected transparently.

© 2026 Orkun Akçasarı. All rights reserved.

References

Al-Saggaf, Yeslam, Rachel MacCulloch, and Kristy Wiener. "Boredom and digital media use: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Computers in Human Behavior Reports, Vol. 11, August 2023, 100313.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2023.100313

Tam, Katy Y. Y., and Michael Inzlicht. "People are increasingly bored in our digital age." Communications Psychology, Vol. 2, Article 106, November 3, 2024.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00155-9

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot.

Turkish State Theatres. "Godot'yu Beklerken." Performance schedule, August 27–September 25, 2026. Accessed August 30, 2026.
https://devtiyatro.gov.tr/oyunlar/godotyu-beklerken

National Restaurant Association. "2026 What's Hot Culinary Forecast." November 19, 2025.
https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/research-reports/whats-hot-food-beverage-trends/

National Restaurant Association. "What's Hot in 2026? Comfort, health, and value." November 20, 2025.
https://restaurant.org/education-and-resources/resource-library/what%E2%80%99s-hot-in-2026-comfort-health-and-value/