When was the last time you were actually bored?
I’m not talking about being bored for 30 seconds before opening up TikTok or Instagram, or waiting for a friend to text you back. I mean sitting somewhere with absolutely nothing to do and simply having to deal with it.
For a lot of us, that sounds awful.
We have become so used to always having something available that boredom almost feels like a problem that needs to be fixed. If there is nothing happening, our phones are right there to fill the silence.
Waiting for the bus? Check your phone. Standing in line? Check your phone. Commercial break? Check your phone. Even when we are watching a movie or a television show, our phones sit beside us in case we get bored.
We need to bring boredom back.
That does not mean we need to throw our phones away or spend hours staring at a blank wall. Technology is useful, and sometimes scrolling through your phone is a perfectly reasonable way to pass time. The problem arises when we feel like we cannot sit through a few minutes of doing nothing.
We’ve never had more ways to escape boredom. As The Guardian explored last year, our phones have made it incredibly easy to fill every quiet moment with something. The author also spoke with James Danckert, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, who studies boredom. He described boredom as more than just laziness or having nothing to do. It can be an uncomfortable feeling that motivates us to find something meaningful to do.
That made me think about how often we actually give ourselves the chance to experience that feeling.
If I have five minutes with nothing to do, my first instinct is usually to grab my phone and see what is going on. I do not even have to think about it. The phone is just there, and that is probably the biggest problem.
We have gotten so good at getting rid of boredom that we rarely get to see what happens after it.
Sometimes nothing happens, but sometimes your mind starts wandering. You think about something you haven’t thought about in a while. You come up with an idea. You decide to go for a walk, pick up a hobby or talk to someone instead of staring at a screen.
There might actually be something useful about letting your mind wander. Healthline recently looked at the potential benefits of boredom and pointed to research suggesting that occasional boredom can give our minds space to think, reflect and be creative.
That does not mean every boring moment is going to produce brilliant ideas. Sometimes boredom is just boring and I think we have forgotten that it is okay to experience it.
There was a time when being bored was normal. You could sit in the car without watching a video. You could wait for someone without knowing exactly what they were doing through Snapchat. You could lie in bed without scrolling through hundreds of posts before falling asleep.
People had to find their own ways to fill the time, and that is something we should get back to.
The answer does not have to be completely disconnected from technology. Instead, it could be as simple as leaving your phone in your pocket the next time you are waiting for something.
Go for a walk without putting headphones in. Sit outside, look around and let your mind wander.
At first, it might feel uncomfortable. You might reach for your phone without even realizing it. But that is exactly why we should try it.
We spend so much of our time trying to be entertained, productive or connected that we rarely allow ourselves to simply do nothing. Boredom is not something we need to be afraid of. We do not need to fill every quiet moment with another video, another notification or another scroll.
Boredom is not something we need to get rid of; it’s definitely something worth experiencing once in a while.