And I'm starting to think that's a problem.
We used to be really good at being bored
When I was growing up, being bored was just part of life, you'd sit there, you'd stare out the window, you'd go outside, you'd find something in the shed that probably wasn't a toy and turn it into one. Maybe you'd ride your bike. Maybe you'd walk somewhere. Maybe you'd just sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing and nobody thought anything of it.
There wasn't an app waiting to entertain you, there wasn't an endless stream of videos, there wasn't a notification telling you that someone you've never met liked a picture of your sandwich, you were bored, so you figured something out.
Entertainment in our pockets
Today, boredom lasts approximately four seconds.
- Standing in line? Phone.
- Waiting for your coffee? Phone.
- Waiting for the microwave? Phone.
- Sitting at a red light? Hopefully not phone.
Although we all know there are people out there who appear to believe the red light is actually a convenient mobile entertainment break.
- Elevator? Phone.
- Bathroom? Definitely phone.
We've somehow reached a point where having nothing to do for thirty seconds feels uncomfortable and I'm not innocent, I've got a smartphone too and I use it a lot.
It's my camera, calendar, bank, map, music player, communication device, news source, weather station and occasionally the thing I use to determine whether the strange noise coming from my washing machine is expensive.
Infinite scroll is king
Keeping us scrolling.
- Facebook.
- Instagram.
- TikTok.
- YouTube.
- Reddit.
- News websites.
- AdamSooley.ca 😂
Whatever the latest app happens to be, they're all competing for the same thing, your attention and they've become incredibly good at getting it. You don't even have to decide what you want to watch anymore, the algorithm will decide.
- Just keep scrolling.
- Something interesting will appear.
- And if it doesn't? Keep scrolling.
- Eventually something will.
It's basically a slot machine that shows you pictures of people's vacations.
I miss when the internet was slightly terrible
This might just be nostalgia talking, but the old internet was different. You had to actually go somewhere, you knew which websites you liked. You'd type the address into your browser, you'd read something, maybe you'd find a forum, maybe you'd download something that took 4.5 hours and then discover it wasn't what you thought it was.
Ask me how I know.
There was no endless personalized stream specifically designed to keep you there. The internet was something you visited. Now the internet follows us around, it's in our pockets on our watches, in our cars, on our televisions, in our refrigerators.
The Weird Thing About Boredom
Being bored isn't actually that bad. Once you get past the initial feeling of: Oh God, what am I supposed to do? something strange happens:
- Your brain starts looking for something.
- You start thinking.
- You notice things.
- You might remember something you haven't thought about in years.
- You might get an idea.
- You might decide to go for a walk.
- You might fix something.
- You might write something.
- You might discover that the cupboard under the stairs has apparently been collecting garbage since 2017.
- Boredom creates space and we're constantly filling that space.
Technology was supposed to give us more free time
Every new technology is supposed to save us time: Computers save time, email saves time, smartphones save time, automation saves time, AI saves time, and somehow I'm busier than ever.
I'm not sure where all the saved time went. Maybe it went into Facebook, maybe it went into email, maybe it went into watching 47 videos explaining what is the best app of five to install on my server to do some dumb thing to save me five dollars. I've personally contributed to that last one.
I like technology
Just to be clear, I'm not about to throw my phone into Lake Ontario and start communicating by carrier pigeon.
- I love technology.
- I run a home server.
- I self-host applications.
- I automate things around my house.
- I play with computers.
- I write about technology.
- I probably have more smart devices than I need.
- Technology is fantastic.
- I use technology to help me fix other things.
The problem isn't technology.
It's our relationship with it.
A hammer is useful.
You don't need to carry it around hitting everything.
So I've been trying something
I'm not going offline. I'm not deleting every app. Instead, I'm trying something much simpler, I've turned off most of the notifications on my phone and I am consciously leaving my phone alone.
- If I'm waiting somewhere, I'll wait.
- If I'm walking somewhere, I'll walk.
- If I'm sitting outside, I'll sit outside.
- If I'm bored, I'll try being bored.
- And maybe I'll see what happens.
Maybe boredom is where ideas come from
I've noticed something with my writing recently. Some of my better ideas don't show up when I'm sitting at my computer trying to have a good idea. They show up while walking, driving, doing dishes or working on something around the house.
Basically anywhere I'm not actively trying to think about them. That's probably not an accident.
When your brain isn't being constantly fed information, it gets a chance to connect things. One thought bumps into another and suddenly you've got an idea. Sometimes it's a good idea and sometimes it's something completely dumb.
Being bored doesn't mean being lazy
We've somehow connected productivity with constantly doing something.
- If you're sitting down, you should be working.
- If you're not working, you should be exercising.
- If you're not exercising, you should be learning.
- If you're not learning, you should be cleaning.
- If you're not cleaning, you should be answering email.
- And if you've somehow managed to finish all of that, congratulations.
- Here are 46 unread notifications.
It's exhausting, doing nothing for a while isn't necessarily wasted time.
- Sometimes it's recovery.
- Sometimes it's thinking.
- Sometimes it's just being a human being instead of a productivity machine.
I'm bringing boring back
Which is an appropriately ridiculous thing to say on my website with a tagline like: "Boring one person at a time!" But maybe boring isn't actually the enemy, maybe we need a little more of it.
- A quiet coffee.
- A walk without headphones.
- A drive without a podcast.
- An evening without scrolling.
- Sitting on the deck.
- Watching a squirrel do absolutely nothing.
- Doing absolutely nothing yourself.
- And discovering that nothing actually needs to happen.
So here's my challenge. Tonight, put your phone down for 30 minutes. Don't replace it with television, don't replace it with a tablet, don't replace it with another screen.
- Just put it somewhere else.
- Go outside.
- Sit down.
- Walk around the neighbourhood.
- Make a coffee. Look at the sky.
- Talk to somebody.
- Or just sit there and stare into space.
You might hate it and you might get bored.
Good.
That's the point. Maybe we've spent so much time trying to eliminate boredom that we've forgotten what it was good for and maybe, just maybe, being bored is something we should learn how to do again.
Besides...
If you're bored enough, you might finally clean out that junk drawer, and let's be honest, that thing has been bothering you for years.
Go be bored.
You might discover something.
