People make the observation that a place is “boring” like it’s out of the ordinary, but when you think about it, aren’t there only a few big cities/metro areas that have “a lot to do”?

43 comments

  3. I find that it is almost universally boring people who constantly say things are boring. Are there small towns in the middle of nowhere with very few people and not a lot to do? Yeah. But if you’re in a moderate-sized town or larger, if you’re bored it is probably because you are boring.

  4. I would yeah, I don’t know if most people do. I grew up in a farm town that was basically grocery stores, and houses. If you wanted to go out and do something interesting you would have to go a town over at least. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Small towns are more appealing as you get older in a lot of cases. I live in a medium sized town now and it is really nice. Living in a congested urban area is great when you are 26, it gets old though. The hassle of city living can be grating for a lot of people. By the time I was 30 I hated it. I hated everything being inconvenient and crowded. I hated going to the doctor taking 2.5 hours because I had to drive across the city find parking, sit in traffic, walk several blocks, have my appointment start 45 minutes after it was supposed to. That is just one example but it blows.

    I don’t need constant stimulus to have we have good places to eat here, and my idea of a good time is really just hanging out or going outdoors and doing something. That doesn’t require a city.

  6. I find my city boring I suppose because I’ve lived here my entire life and already experienced all it has to offer.

    But I have a friend visiting from far away next month, who has never been to this city (not even this state or this region of the US). And coming up with a list of things to do and see has actually been very revealing for me. There’s more to do than I initially considered.

  8. I don’t live in a large city and I find plenty of events to do, also almost no one is restricted to a single town for events unless it is truly in the middle of nowhere.

  9. My original home town was a dot on the map. I liked it ok, but you had to make your own fun.

  10. I moved to my current city (not my “hometown”) because it was just the right size/speed etc for me. Having lived in bigger cities with way more “stuff to do,” I decided that this smaller more pleasant place was preferable. It’s still a real city! There are restaurants and neighborhoods and big events, a university and sports teams, theaters and music venues, a symphony, opera, ballet, all that stuff.

    However, if you look at our local reddit sub for example, its all people arguing about how there’s *really* nothing to do here, and there’s *really* no music scene, and there’s *really* no good chinese food, etc etc. All of these things, in my opinion, are wrong. I have lived in huge metro areas and they are cool too, but all my needs are taken care of in this smaller city and I always feel like there’s stuff to do.

    Long-winded way to say that a lot of people put their city in the “boring” category and compare it to the next biggest city nearby. Probably you need to live in a 1m+ metro area to feel otherwise, but even then I have heard people talk about big cities like Portland or Phoenix as “boring” because (I guess) they aren’t quite as exciting as Seattle or LA?

    Not everybody is like this but its common.

  11. I don’t. It was on the edge between rural and suburban, so huge amounts of land to hike, places to fish, there were town tennis courts and basketball courts, and a Dunkin Donuts and a local diner where we would hang out as teens. I was in a drama club through the library until high school, then worked as stage crew for high school productions because I liked being involved in it but didn’t like the late night rehearsals the actors got stuck with.

    Was it big city exciting? No, but if you were bored it was definitely your own fault. You can only do one thing at a time, whether you’ve got 3 options or 300. This was not quite pre-internet, but I was probably in my late teens before most houses had internet and had moved away before most people had anything but dial up.

  12. Presumably for the sake of simplification, this sub usually talks about a dichotomy of city vs. small town and ignores the fact that most of the country is neither. I live in what most people would consider “the country”, and I don’t find it boring at all. I’m not the type who needs to go out to be entertained, though. I get together with my friends at one of our houses and find plenty of entertainment that way. I find loud and energetic urban environments to be oppressive.

  13. Living somewhere is different than being a tourist, being here on business, or even coming here for school for a few years. You can be in the most happening part of the biggest city in the world, but most people’s days will focus on work, family, and friends and not every night is going to be some adventure.

  14. Actually my small town is known all around the state for being insane, chaotic conservatives who do stupid things for no good reason. Stuff just happens and it’s great.

  15. My home town was literally swamp, rivers, creeks, and forest. There were ***TONS*** of things to do

  16. No, my hometown was great. Consistently rated one of the best places to live in the nation, it was also leading the pack in terms of acres of public park *per capita* with an amazing bike trail system. I explored it for a decade and never ran out of new discoveries.

  17. >when you think about it, aren’t there only a few big cities/metro areas that have “a lot to do”?

    I live in a mid-size city and find that there is plenty to do.

  18. I think of my cities as having nothing to do after a while. You have to spice things up or else anything is boring. big cities do have a lot more to do, but no one really uses most of what there is to offer.

  19. My home town has a gas station, and just recently a dollar general….so yeah it’s pretty boring.

  20. I mean, my hometown is 1.8 square miles, nested in the middle of an endless suburban expanse. So of course there’s nothing to do if you confine yourself to that 1.8 square mile area.

  21. My hometown is in NYC so no. My current town is boring in comparison but due to having a car, I can drive to plenty of cities around me. I’m a little under an hour from the airport and can fly to most other places in under 5 hours (2 hours usually for most places close to me).

    If you live in a boring town, you likely still have great access to towns around you or a means to get out without much hassle.

  23. On one hand it’s natural for humans to not always appreciate what you have, but on the other hand many of us really are born into places that may not be to preferences.

    A lot of redditors don’t get that some people don’t want to sit in their room watching Chinese cartoons all day.

  24. Suburban areas don’t have a lot of weekend options/activities for teens… restaurants close early, they can’t get into bars, there isn’t a cafe culture, transportation into big cities for concerts, etc. is a challenge if they can’t drive and/or parents are afraid of letting them go “into the city” which is a common overprotective thing suburban parents do

  25. I live in a city, but rarely leave my quiet little residential neighborhood and I’m almost never bored. I can entertain myself. There’s plenty to do. There’s more to do than I have time and energy for.

    I grew up in a really small town, but didn’t find it boring, either. If you sit around waiting for other people to entertain you and always need something big and new and dazzling, you can probably be bored about anywhere. If you have hobbies and interests and can appreciate everyday normal things, you can be not bored about anywhere.

  27. Things are never boring wherever you are if you seek new knowledge and learn new things. The poet Robinson Jeffers and his friend Ansel Adams frequently spent long periods of time in seclusion in the wilderness or writing (Jeffers) or developing photos (Adams).

  28. Probably but that’s not because it’s boring

    It’s because they’re boring

    A five year old can amuse themselves with a cardboard box

    As an adult, you live in an age of near constant overstimulation.

    There’s lots to do in small towns, it’s just different stuff.

    I think most of this is just an invention of malcontents who ran off to big cities to be actors/writers and then created a personal myth about how boring and oppressive their home town was to get over the fact that life in the big city didn’t turn out much better.

  29. I don’t even know what I’d consider my hometown to be at this point tbh.

  30. If you only ever live in your hometown as as a child, that’s your only experience. That experience is restricted by your age and inability to do certain things. Either your parents approve/disapprove, or their financial realities don’t afford things, or your college and adult experience just makes your childhood experience relatively boring.

    Some see movies and TV shows and think it’s typical and aspirational. And by contract their loved experience is boring.

    Others experience a lot of places, and their nominal hometown (where they graduated high school or spent most of their youth) is more boring (ie fewer entertainment options) than other places.

  31. I do. My hometown (the city I currently live in) actually has nothing to do. And there’s nothing to do because nobody comes here. And nobody comes here because there’s nothing to do. Its a vicious cycle. And it doesn’t help that the city government is hellbent on turning the city into one giant parking lot. Because they always tear buildings down at the slightest signs of structural damage, instead of fixing said structural damage, but then never build anything to replace the building they just tore down. They’re actively preventing new businesses from coming in by tearing buildings down instead of fixing them. And then they complain that businesses are leaving and that nobody comes here. They can’t recognize that they’re doing it to themselves.

  32. I live in Orlando, Florida and growing up people complained about it being boring despite that being a stupid idea.

  33. Suburbs, yes.

    Urban areas, no.

    Rural areas, depends greatly. I grew up in a rural area that sucked, but that’s because it was more of a bunch of suburban neighborhoods with extra long roads than what people think of as “rural.” But I’ve known people with crazy stories about their rural upbringing.

  34. I grew up in a town with a bank, a post office, and a gas station. Not even a stoplight. The only things I could do were read, play computer games, or play in the woods.

  35. Twenty years ago, I would have agreed. Now, where I live has a ton of things to do. It’s been fun to watch Birmingham’s emergence.

  36. Most people who constantly complain about be “bored” are generally boring people. Even in the smallest of towns or the largest cities there is always plenty to do if you are willing to look.

  37. Because most of them are and if they actually aren’t we grew up doing the stuff that is there

  38. I live in a city that is a tourist destination. I always wonder why people come here on vacation. I think it’s kind of easy to take for granted what your hometown has to offer.

  39. Pop culture would give you the impression that anywhere outside of Manhattan or Brooklyn is a cultural wasteland with no redeeming value and nothing to do.

    My hometown has around 60k people as of the last census, with somewhere between 300k & 400k in the county as a whole. There are a fair number of things to do there, especially if you have initiative, creativity, and/or are willing to drive a little bit. If I was married with kids or had a decent job offer there it wouldn’t be bad at all.

  40. My hometown is. Its about 15k people. After about 15 minutes you’re bored. You see the same exact people in the same places you did 10+ years ago

  41. Grew up in a small farm town, there isn’t much going on there. My current city is trying to become a big city, but they are forgetting the big city things, so it’s like a weird big small town.

  43. I think younger people get that most- even if they live in places that, on paper, would be considered a lively place with a lot to do. It’s just the nature of things.

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