In the early 1980s, at the dawn of the age of the personal computer, people were afraid of the darn machines. 'Computerphobia' was spreading like wildfire. And the idea that one day we'd all be chronically obsessed with computers, in as much with the internet, seemed as ridiculous as having all tomes of Encyclopedia Britannica and much more at the tip of your finger.

Today, however, we'd be pretty much lost without going online. According to one study, more than half of Americans admit to learning most of what they know thanks to the internet. When the pandemic happened and we were all collectively locked inside our homes, God knows how bad things could have gotten if not for the ability to have online classrooms.

"You can learn anything on the internet, so why do I so often learn things I don’t want to know?" Daniel T. Willingham, author of 'Outsmart Your Brain,' ponders in his article. It's a valid question, particularly when we consider just how much information we are constantly bombarded with.

According to the latest estimates, 328.77 million terabytes of data are pumped into the web each day. Of course, it's not clear how much of it is new information unseen on the net before. But considering that it takes around 5-6 hours (or two Avengers films) to read a single, unfiltered terabyte of data - and two more hours to stop your addicted fingers from scrolling friends' feeds on Insta - we're kind of happy there's r/interesting to filter out the most curious bits of it.

In order to understand what makes this subreddit so appealing not only to us, curious pandas, but to the rest of its 250,000 daily visitors, Bored Panda reached out to the folks who run r/interesting. "One of the main challenges faced by the mods is people not being civil," u/Yell0w_Submarine, who joined the community's moderating team this March in order to help it grow, explained via message.

Another problem arises from users who engage in spamming activities, like sharing links to malicious websites or repeatedly posting the same content across various communities to accumulate internet points known as 'karma.' "Making sure every comment is read can be a long task," they said.

As you might have guessed, occasionally there's someone who throws in a random Skittle into the bowl of M&Ms that is r/interesting posts. "We do get a lot of mildly interesting and not interesting/off-topic submissions," u/Yell0w_Submarine noted. "While it is subjective, in my opinion, the posts that are mostly approved are original, create a feeling of amazement and are just sometimes really cool. 'Mildly' interesting posts, meanwhile, can be coincidences or just do not elicit a sense of amazement."

It appears, then, that nature is a shared interest among members of r/interesting and Bored Panda readers. "Nature is one of the most popular types of content posted on this sub," they said. While it's been found that spending at least 120 minutes, or 2 hours, a week in nature is associated with good health and well-being, dedicating a similar amount of time to immersing ourselves in the captivating world of wildlife on our screens can't be all that detrimental, right?

But what exactly drives us to seek information which may not be necessary or actively sought after? There's no one simple explanation, Daniel Willingham, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of 'Outsmart Your Brain,' explained to Bored Panda.

"Curiosity is a desire to gain more information," he said. "We expect ourselves to be curious about things that are either a topic that's interesting or have some utility for us in the long term." Apparently, neither of that is 100% true. Instead, Willingham argues that "curiosity seems to be to have a very short time scale it cares about."

Let's say, for example, that you're an ardent stamp collector and stumble upon a conversation where someone claims to possess intriguing insights about the World War II postage stamps that graced France. Your initial reaction? Nonchalance. Why? "You would not feel any curiosity exactly because you feel like you already know pretty much everything, even though it's of great interest to you," Willingham argued.

Now, let's flip the script. Imagine a scenario where someone, unaware of your stamp-collecting prowess, suggests sharing the very knowledge you hold dear. They entice you with the prospect of uncovering a treasure trove of information, as you stand on the precipice of ignorance. Curious, right?

Well, not quite, it turns out. "You wouldn't feel any curiosity [in the subject] because the information wouldn't feel meaningful to you," he explained. "In order for information to feel meaningful, you have to have something to connect it to."

According to Willingham, one of the most important ingredients for the sake of our curiosity is being surrounded by new juicy information that we're not particularly interested in already. It's this very notion that subreddits like r/interesting thrive upon, constantly offering users a stream of captivating tidbits. However, this is why traditional educational institutions often struggle to evoke a sense of curiosity in students.

"It's so difficult for teachers to make children feel curious about school content because some of them already know it. A lot of them don't know anything at all about it, so they can't connect with anything." Unlike the boundless realm of the internet, where we have the freedom to indulge our curiosity by delving deep into topics that pique our interest, the educational system presents a different reality.

In school, we are bound to follow a structured curriculum that encompasses a wide range of subjects. We don't have the luxury of cherry-picking only the areas that intrigue us. Instead, we must navigate the entire breadth of the curriculum.

With the advent of Google and the ability to access an infinite pool of information at our fingertips, the landscape of curiosity has undergone a profound transformation. "The expectation [nowadays] is that we should feel curious sort of all the time," Willingham said, noting that this perpetual state of curiosity can be both exhilarating and draining.

Recent statistics show that 1-in-5 Americans admit to feeling overloaded by information - a phenomenon that runs counter to the very essence of curiosity. "There should always be something that we're eager to learn about or at least enjoy. And if we're not, we don't see why we should be bored, right?"