Page 8 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

adventure because he had been binge drinking the night before (6). He mentions wanting to take
a nap on the shuttle to the moon (6) and also when they get to the hotel (9). His friends try to
break into the minibar in their hotel room and then later sneak into a club (34). They give up
their risky behavior at home for risky behavior on the moon. Titus brings his boredom with him
and sees it wherever he goes.

Although most people do not enjoy boredom, research suggests is can be an opportunity
for personal growth. An Italian research group wrote that boredom “is a particularly common
experience in adolescence and may be functional for psychological growth” (Biolcati et al 304).
Educators also affirm this same idea. In Fiachra Long’s book Educating the Postmodern Child:
The Struggle for Learning in a World of Virtual Realities, she discusses Heidegger’s
philosophical perspective on how boredom can wake up a student to live a better life:

It is the fundamental mood of boredom that brings humans face to face with their own
lack of fit within the world that surrounds them. Boredom calls for ego change and ego
adjustment so that paradoxically, the world can be experienced as a challenge, as an alien
place.[…] A bored activity invites the person to accept the openness of the human world
by challenging the person to change in some fundamental way. (176)
In Long’s opinion, the challenge of change is enough to starve boredom. The lack of
entertainment might encourage some necessary growth.
The opportunities in boredom are squelched in Titus’ world. Following Long’s line of
thinking, education is supposed to awaken a teenager from boredom. Through education, a
teenager can see new things in the world. Education allows him to see how he can find
fulfillment in many things, not just from technology (178). In Titus’ world, corporate companies
control school, going so far as to put a trademark on the institution. Titus and his friends are

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