Animated children’s films have long endeavored to teach young viewers how to manage their emotions. Disney Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) made this tas

Is Boredom An Emotion? Not Exactly, But It's More Important Than You Think

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2024-07-10 12:00:07

Animated children’s films have long endeavored to teach young viewers how to manage their emotions. Disney Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) made this task of emotional regulation literal.

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust – the five basic emotions of protagonist Riley – became characters in her interior “control room”. Together, they guided her actions as she developed from a toddler to a pre-teen. Now, in the next instalment, Inside Out 2, Riley turns 13. This means the arrival of more “sophisticated” emotions – including Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui.

I am a researcher who has studied how boredom shapes media content and use. So, I was particularly intrigued by the character of Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who embodies the mood of disengaged apathy, more typically referred to as boredom.

Early in the film, Anxiety (Maya Hawke) explains to the older emotions “we all have a job to do” – adding that hers is to “plan for the future”. So, what job does Ennui have in the film, and how does this map onto the role of boredom in our everyday lives?