A sense of meaninglessness can manifest as a question: Why am I doing this? It can also be felt without a clear thought. The days go by, tasks are completed, and yet nothing seems to truly matter to you. Boredom can become a lingering discomfort, but also a restless switching between your phone, TV shows, the news, small purchases, and other things that fill your time without giving it direction. A person may have a job, relationships, and activities and yet lack the sense that their actions are connected to something they care about.
There is no single explanation for such experiences. Loss, depression, exhaustion, physical illness, loneliness, working conditions, a life crisis, or an environment where a person’s contributions are not recognized can all play a role. There may also be a gap between stated values and the practices that everyday life actually permits. A sociological analysis cannot determine whether depression or another illness is present. It can, however, examine where meaning becomes socially possible, where it breaks down, and what relationships, rhythms, and institutional conditions are needed for a sense of direction to be sustained in everyday life.
The primary purpose of this chapter is therefore not to formulate a grand life goal. Rather, it is to challenge the notion that meaning must be generated alone from within. Meaning often arises when a person participates in a practice that connects her to other people, a place, a task, a tradition, nature, or something she perceives as valuable. This does not mean that the collective is always right or that every community is good. It means that direction has social conditions.
When working on one’s own isn’t the right starting point
Feelings of meaninglessness and a loss of interest can be symptoms of depression. Contact a health center or psychiatric outpatient clinic if you’re experiencing low mood, hopelessness, low energy, or a loss of interest that’s ongoing and making daily life difficult. Call 1177 if you need advice on where to seek care. If you have serious suicidal thoughts, concrete plans, or are in immediate danger, seek emergency psychiatric help or call 112. Do not wait, and do not be alone with a concrete plan.
The exercises in this chapter are intended for someone who feels secure enough and has the energy for a small observation or a small experiment. They should not be used to force enthusiasm, gratitude, or social engagement. If an activity makes you feel more isolated, ashamed, or drained, that is important information. Taking a break is then a valid next step, not a failure.
Boredom Can Convey Social Information
Jack Barbalet describes boredom as an emotional experience of a situation lacking social meaning for the individual. This is more precise than simply saying there is too little stimulation. A situation can be full of sensory input and still feel empty. Conversely, a quiet, repetitive activity can be meaningful when it connects the person to others, to a skill, or to something they value.
This is a research perspective, not a rule that explains every instance of boredom. Sleep deprivation, depression, medication, pain, and difficulty concentrating can alter what a person is capable of processing. But Barbalet’s analysis raises a sociological question: What is it in the concrete situation that no longer provides a comprehensible connection between action, other people, and a value?
The main manuscript’s analysis of emotions employs the same underlying principle. An emotion is not examined merely as a state within the individual. Instead, one asks what is happening in the interaction, what status and recognition the person has, what expectations apply, and what social language exists for that emotion. Boredom can then be a signal of monotony, exclusion, a lack of influence, or an activity whose purpose has become incomprehensible. It can also be a transitional phase where an old commitment has lost its power before something new has become possible.
Meaning Is Lived in Practice
Sociological research on lived religion has shown that people’s beliefs do not exist solely as doctrines or statements. They take shape in practices, places, rhythms, objects, relationships, and recurring ways of acting. Penny Edgell’s overview of this field of research shows how everyday actions can carry meaning both within and outside religious institutions. The same analytical question can be applied in a secular context: What actions, places, and communities bring a value to life?
A stated belief is not always enough. A person may say that friendship is important while living a schedule that makes regular contact nearly impossible. She may value knowledge but work in an environment where all reading is interrupted. She may care about nature but lack reliable access to it. The problem need not, then, be a lack of sincerity. The value lacks a practice or an institutional framework capable of supporting it.
The reverse is also true. A practice can continue even after its meaning has weakened. A person participates because others expect it, because the habit is ingrained, or because the alternatives are unclear. The sociological task is not to rank religious and secular ways of life. It is to see how meaning is actually organized, and not to urge anyone to return to a community that has been controlling or harmful.
Interaction rituals create a shared focus
Randall Collins uses the term “interaction ritual” to describe situations where people are influenced by being together around a shared experience. Here, “ritual” does not necessarily mean a ceremony. It could be a meal, a work meeting, a recurring conversation, a rehearsal, or an activity where participants direct their attention toward the same thing.
Collins describes four key ingredients. The participants are present for one another. The situation has a boundary that separates it from its surroundings. There is a shared focus. The participants develop some degree of shared mood. When these elements reinforce one another, the interaction can generate emotional energy: a sociological term for readiness for action, trust, and the willingness to continue an activity or relationship. This is not the same as physical energy or the absence of depression.
Rituals can also fail or be unequal. A clear group boundary can provide a sense of belonging to some and exclude others. A shared focus may, in practice, be controlled by the person with the highest status. The shared atmosphere may require a level of enthusiasm that not everyone feels. Therefore, the advice is not to “meet more people.” The question is whether a specific interaction is safe, possible, and reciprocal enough to sustain a small shared focus.
Culture is also a repertoire of action
Ann Swidler describes culture as a repertoire of habits, skills, narratives, and styles of action. The word “repertoire” refers to a store of ways of understanding and doing things that have been learned in families, groups, educational settings, professions, the media, and other environments. Culture therefore influences action not only through values, but also through which strategies feel comprehensible and possible.
When life is stable, this repertoire can be almost invisible. People do what they’re used to doing and what those around them do. At a turning point, multiple cultural ideals may clash. An individual may have simultaneously learned to be independent, always available, loyal to their family, flexible, critical, and successful. If these ideals pull in different directions, the path forward can become unclear, even when each ideal seems reasonable on its own.
Swidler’s perspective does not provide a blueprint for the “right” way to live. It offers a way to explore whether a person needs more options for action, clearer priorities, or permission to adopt a practice from a different context. Cultural borrowing must be legitimate and respectful. Religious and cultural practices must not be treated as mere techniques without regard for their significance to those who practice them.
A value requires a practice and a context
A value is something a person or group perceives as important, such as care, justice, knowledge, reliability, or creativity. A value does not automatically become real simply because it is stated. It requires actions that express it and social conditions that make those actions possible. This is a sociological distinction between belief and organization.
Joan Tronto’s theory of care makes this distinction concrete. She describes care as a process that requires attention to a need, responsibility for ensuring that something is done, competence in the act itself, and sensitivity to how the care is received. Shortcomings can arise at every stage. A person may care but lack the time, authority, or knowledge. An organization may talk about care but reward speed in a way that makes responsiveness impossible.
The main text, drawing on the work of Roland Paulsen and others, suggests that outward-directed care can contribute to a sense of meaning. This is a normative possibility, not research evidence that care cures meaninglessness. Furthermore, care can become overwhelming or unevenly distributed. Direction must therefore not be established by having an already exhausted person take responsibility for even more needs.
Social activity is not a general treatment
“Social on Prescription” means guiding people toward activities and communities outside the regular healthcare system. This can be valuable when the activity is accessible, chosen, and well-suited to the individual. At the same time, a systematic review by Bridget Kiely and her colleagues in BMJ Open shows that the research evidence is uncertain and that such interventions may have little or no effect on quality of life and mental health in certain comparisons. The results vary across studies and interventions.
The cautious conclusion is that an activity must be assessed as a concrete social situation. Is there something the person wants to participate in? Can she get there, pay for it, and participate on reasonable terms? Is there a shared focus and someone to follow up? If the answer is “no” to several of these questions, the advice to “join something” becomes a new demand rather than a form of support.
Direction can begin with something that already works
Erik Olin Wright uses the concept of “real utopias” to describe institutions and practices that already exist and demonstrate that social relations can be organized differently. They are “real” because they can be examined here and now, and “utopian” in the limited sense that they embody a desirable alternative. A cooperative, an open workshop, a local care system, or a democratic form of work can serve as examples—but only if it actually functions better in the respect being examined.
This perspective offers a different starting point than inventing an entirely new life on one’s own. The individual can look for a local practice where the value they lack is already embodied by others. At the same time, the alternative must not be romanticized. Real-world initiatives involve conflicts, power imbalances, entry requirements, and costs. What matters is comparing a specific characteristic, not treating the environment as a complete solution.
A Gentle Formulation of a Loss of Direction
A sociological formulation is a testable working hypothesis, not a psychiatric diagnosis and not an identity. It is useful when it links a concrete situation to no more than two mechanisms and one resource. A mechanism is the process assumed to steer the situation in a certain direction. Here, it could be a fragmented focus, an exclusionary group boundary, a practice that has lost its value, or an institutional condition that separates value from everyday life.
One possible way to phrase this is: “When the sense of emptiness becomes strong in this situation, it seems to be amplified by this process and that process. It is somewhat limited by this resource. The next question is whether a small change in this practice or relationship makes any difference.” The phrasing should be flexible enough to be adjusted after the follow-up.
Action on Multiple Levels
At the individual level, the action may involve observing a situation or performing a very small part of a previous practice. At the relational level, it may involve creating a clearer shared focus, asking for companionship, or redistributing care. At the group level, it may involve modifying a recurring activity so that more people can participate. At the institutional level, it may involve requesting time, availability, recognition, or a mandate that makes it possible to live out an articulated value.
You do not need to act on all levels. Chapter 21 prioritizes relationships and groups because direction often needs to be carried between people. But if the problem is primarily depression, economic vulnerability, discrimination, or a harmful organization, the responsibility should not be shifted to a small ritual. In such cases, care, rights, resources, or institutional change are needed.
Concept Overview
Boredom as a social feeling: Barbalet’s perspective on boredom as an experience of a lack of social meaning in a situation.
Lived practice: recurring actions, places, rhythms, and relationships in which a belief or value takes concrete form.
Interaction ritual: a social situation characterized by presence, boundaries, a shared focus, and some degree of shared mood.
Emotional energy: Collins’ sociological concept for readiness for action, trust, and the willingness to continue a social relationship or activity. It is not a medical measure of energy levels.
Cultural repertoire: habits, skills, narratives, and styles of action made available by culture.
Care process: Tronto’s four elements: attention, responsibility, competent action, and responsiveness to how care is received.
Real utopia: an existing practice or institution that embodies a possible and desirable alternative in a specific respect.
Soft sociological formulation: a tentative hypothesis that links a situation to at most two mechanisms, one resource, and one next question.