It’s high time to bring back boredom
Being constantly connected is choking our creativity
If you often find yourself idly flicking through your smartphone, ask yourself: When was the last time you felt bored? Not just momentarily unoccupied, but utterly, mind-numbingly bored? It’s probably been a while. The banishment of boredom would seem, at first, to be an improvement in our lives — or, at least, the lives of those who are addicted to our devices. But having entertainment and distraction always at hand also has its costs in loss of creativity and self-reflection.
That’s the premise behind Bored and Brilliant, a campaign by New York public radio program New Tech City encouraging people to embrace their boredom and let their minds wander rather than instinctively reaching for a smartphone whenever a momentary gap appears in their day.
According to cognitive scientists in this relatively new but burgeoning field of study, boredom might help explain why our eureka moments often come to us when we least expect them.
In one experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire in England, participants were asked to do mundane tasks like reading the phone book. Afterwards they were asked to come up with interesting uses for a pair of standard Styrofoam cups, and it turns out the more bored the participants were, the more creative they tended to be with their inventions.
Perhaps there’s good reason some of our best ideas come to us in the shower, or while waiting in line at the bank. On the other hand, those moments of brilliance are harder to come by when we’re occupied on our smartphones playing games, reading news or chatting with friends.
Knowing that I definitely suffer from overstimulation, I decided to take the challenge to reintroduce boredom into my life for at least a week. The first step was to track my smartphone usage using a monitoring app that runs in the background and notes how often and how long I use my smartphone.
My results were startling: I use my phone an average of three hours a day, and sometimes exceed five hours of smartphone usage in a single 24-hour period.
Simply knowing the scope of the problem is only half the battle, though. What has proven much harder over the past week is resisting the temptation to check social media or text a friend whenever I find myself in an elevator, waiting in line at the lunch counter or on the bus to and from work.
I used to think my 30-minute commute was manageable, but that was with the benefit of music and podcasts. For the past several days, however, I’ve come to appreciate just how long a stretch of time that is — and I have also become acutely aware of the crying babies and braying teenagers who suddenly seem to be everywhere.
But I’ve also felt boredom again, a feeling I’d almost forgotten. I’d also like to think this experiment has let me sort through my thoughts, make better plans and decisions, and be more present in the moment.
Boredom isn’t fun, but its sudden re-entry into my daily life has made me realize just how strange its absence had been.
This is the age we live in, one of constant mental stimulation where finding time for quiet contemplation or simply staring off into space could become a rarity — because the next jolt of endorphins is only ever a swipe away.
According to the marketing firm Catalyst Canada, 55 per cent of Canadians owned a smartphone in 2014, and that number is going to go up. The advent of virtual reality headsets, smart watches and other wearable technology is only going to make it that much easier and more tempting to escape into the digital realm whenever we get a moment to ourselves.
No one ever died of boredom, and we could all use a bit more deliberate dullness in our daily lives. Our brains might even thank us for it.