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Guardian

Guardian

Riots, shootings, sadism… blame it on the boredom of social media | Martha Gill

Guardian
Summary
Nutrition label

60% Informative

Boredom is a dangerous emotion, even more so perhaps than anger, which can be slaked with an apology or a reversal.

It's a paradox of modern life: we can’t stand boredom but plan for nothing else.

We rarely talk about boredom as a modern problem, but it’s a dangerous.

It is boredom, that is ultimately harnessed by the platform having provoked the emotion.

America spent the past two decades churning out films about midlife crises men trapped in sterile comfort who buy the motorbike, have the affair, create the drugs empire, start the terrorist fight club.

After too much dull democracy, the US is in its own midlife crisis, contemplating a second term of Donald Trump .

But the wider quandary the rise of boredom is a difficult one to solve. You can't reinsert hazard and uncertainty back into modern life without tipping it over.

VR Score

48

Informative language

37

Neutral language

39

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

45

Offensive language

likely offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

detected

Time-value

medium-lived

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