Why We Need to Bring Back Boredom

Remember when you had to plan to watch TV?  When Thursdays at 8:00 meant something specific, and you arranged your schedule so you could watch your favorite show?  If you had to miss it, you waited for reruns and dodged spoilers for months.

Maybe you talked about the show afterwards, either with family members or coworkers on coffee break the next morning.  Almost everyone watched the same popular shows, and the collective interest and speculation about plot twists created cohesion.  Popular culture wasn't splintered into thousands of pieces, and you didn't find yourself bingeing alone like an addict.

What we lose when we reject boredom

If you're old enough to know what I'm talking about, then you're old enough to remember something else – boredom.  Honest-to-goodness, nothing-to-do boredom.  No phones, no content, no ready-to-go distractions.  Just you.

This wasn't fun, but it forced something.  It forced you to rely on yourself – your thoughts, your daydreams, your ideas.  Some of your best ones probably came when you were just staring out the window.  Kids invented elaborate games with sticks, rocks, dirt, trees, puddles, boxes, or blankets.  Maybe you connected with a friend, found a creative pursuit, got some exercise on a walk or bike ride, or caught up on chores.  Maybe you went in a completely different direction you hadn't tried before.

I love this quote from author Farley Ledgerwood:  "Boredom is imagination's greenhouse."  But now that we've been trained to expect constant input, we not only fail to access our imaginations, but we're distracted, over-stimulated, on edge, and need everything to be fast, faster, fastest.

That's the definition of stress, my friends, and constant, low-level stress is not a good thing.

The space to grow and be free

Technology has solved some problems.  You don't have to be frustrated by a busy signal or an unwieldy phone book.  You can take, edit, and share photos within moments.  You can watch that TV show you like whenever it's convenient for you.  And it's pretty hard to get genuinely lost.

But we may have fewer things in common with the people we meet every day, and we've traded happy anticipation for instant gratification.  The gap between wanting and having has almost disappeared, which may actually be making us greedier and less satisfied as we search for the next purchase, treat, or experience.

And, most importantly, we've become more dependent.  Our first impulse is to Google rather than to think, remember, and puzzle out a solution.  We're easily influenced.  We consume.  And even "content creators" are often just re-packaging things they've seen somewhere else.  Their ideas are about as new and improved as a redesigned detergent bottle.  That "fresh new look" offers nothing of substance.

I think the answer is a little less convenience.  Leave the phone behind sometimes.  Slow down and take the scenic route.  Figure out how to make do without making a purchase.

And let yourself be bored.  As Viktor Frankl said,

Between stimulus and response there is a space.

In that space is our power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Don't let technology steal that space and decide for you.  Linger there a little longer.  Be uncertain.  Be curious, and ask yourself "What else might be possible?"  That's where growth and independence happen.

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