Am I a bore? Are you a bore? What is a bore?

In an article marking Facebook's 20th birthday, The Economist published an excellent piece about how social media has transformed since 2004. This sentence made me laugh: "The people still weighing in on the public networks are disproportionately male and likely to describe themselves as very left- or right-wing: bores, in plain English." 

The article goes on to suggest that users are deserting platforms like Facebook and Twitter for closed groups such as WhatsApp and Telegram, while those who remain are, well, boring.

I've not come across the term 'bore' in this context for decades, the notion of 'a bore' as someone boring. Private Eye, the British satirical fortnightly, would use it frequently, culminating in its Bore of the Year Award. (I have never seen this before, but of all the horse races that the late Robert Maxwell could have put his pension fund's money on, we hear 'three-thirty at Kempton'. ARW 357.)

Anyway, being thought a bore is social death. "What's he like?" "An utter bastard" is not quite as much of a put-down as "An utter bore." One avoids bores. I know I do. See a known bore coming the other way, I'll cross the road or pretend to be busy.

But today, the notion of the pub bore, who can drone on about subjects from Sunderland's performance in FA Cup Finals, to the intricacies of EU financial market regulation, or whether the Hillman Hunter had rectangular or round headlights*, needs to now to be assessed through the perspective of psychiatric personality disorders. 

A bore is usually someone with RRBI (repetitive and restricted behaviours and interests), one of the traits of being on the autism disorder spectrum. Once set off in conversation on a boring ramble, the die-hard bore will lack the emotional intelligence to know when to stop boring his listeners. Yes, it's most often a he, although female bores can pick up the pace with tales of ailments affecting distant relatives and random acquaintances. 

I enthuse about the UFO topic, but can tell when my interlocutors become eager to move onto another topic. Even though moving on from "we're not the only technologically advanced species on this planet and there's mounting evidence that this is the case" to any other topic is frankly surprising to me. I could literally go on all night on this one – surely there are few more gripping topics? Indeed, how could anyone not be interested in UFOs? Is there a link between interest in UFOs and being a bore? There may indeed be one between UFOs and high-functioning autism...

And so I ease off and the conversation lightens. I have RRBI myself, but can read the cues of my listeners. Not being able to, but instead ploughing on to describe in detail Sunderland's performance in the fifth round of the 1987 FA Cup competition, qualifies one for arch-bore status.

Facebook has a group called 'Dull Men's Club', of which I am (of course) a member; but here, arcane discussions on obscure topics that turn out to be funny get promoted by the algorithm, which ensures that amusement can be gained from ostensibly boring topics, the idea being to parody bores and boring tropes.

But in general – is social media becoming more boring? Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and its subsequent transformation into X has changed my social-media platform of choice for the worse. The For You tab that serves you up stuff you're rarely interested in; the plague of "eight-buck chuckle-fucks" who buy blue-tick verification to boost their posts; and the promotion of extremist political views designed to split society. Facebook and YouTube are trying to emulate TikTok with short clips for those with ADHD, unable to focus for more than about 20 seconds. Many in society are addicted – I am bored by these shorts and ignore them.

Coming back to the opening point made by The Economist, I fear that if political extremism is merely deemed boring, humanity may once more be in existential danger.

Understand your biology, and rise above it. And that requires focus, one way or another.

* The Hillman Hunter had round headlights when launched in 1966, but a 1968 facelift replaced them with rectangular ones – the round ones were relegated to the new Hillman Minx, which had the same body as the Hunter, but with a less-powerful 1500cc engine and more basic interior. It was the last Hillman to bear the 'Minx' name that Hillman had used since 1931. How's that for boring?

This time last year:
Town and country in the snow

This time six years ago:
"Forget about doing 10,000 paces a day!"
[Science now says the more the better.]

This time seven years ago:
Ukraine – fight or flight?

This time nine years ago:
Room with a railway view