The Death of Boredom

Rest in peace, dear friend

I live in a high rise building on the 17th floor, and our elevators are not especially fast. Whenever I have to leave, oftentimes I find myself loading some eye catching post on Reddit or some news article on my phone before I head out and get to the elevator where I have no cell reception. That way, I can avoid the 30-60 seconds of boredom and/or existential dread that creeps up between the time I push the elevator button to go down and when I exit on the ground floor.

Writing the previous paragraph did not make me feel good. It feels like I should just take that time out of my day to, I dunno, meditate in solitude or something. And it’s not like I can’t go without some kind of stimulation from my phone while I’m momentarily detained in a steel box. But if I’m given the choice? Yeah, I’ll take the semi-mindless scrolling on my phone. I’m not proud, but I’m not willing to change either.

This does not feel like a unique tendency. Sometimes I see other people scrolling on their phones as I enter the elevator. When I go to restaurants, sometimes I see 2, 3, 4 person tables all on their phones, presumably not looking at the menu because they all have plated food in front of them. Sometimes my wife and I are those people at the restaurant staring at our phones rather than talking to each other, simply because we’ve momentarily run out of things to talk about and we’d rather scroll on our phones than luxuriate in each others’ company.

The smartphone has become a near-infinite source of entertainment, news, and media. All in your pocket, ready to deliver the world to your fingertips. It may have shortened our attention spans, but it has definitely killed boredom. It’s impossible to be bored when you have a working smartphone. Intrigue and wonder are just a vibration and a tap away.

Progressing Through a Pandemic

The pandemic made things worse. When it dawned on the country that this was a thing to be taken seriously, we scurried back to our homes and… just stayed there. Anxiously watching the news, scrolling through our phones, and collectively experiencing cabin fever. And once people realized the world wasn’t going to end, tech stocks surged to record highs, as investors bet on society being permanently changed by the software that powers your phone and laptop.

For a few months we all were just stuck inside and communicated and worked through our phones and computers while furiously rubbing down the groceries that we had delivered by an army of lower class gig workers. Both work and play happened through some kind of screen, be it in your hand or on your table. By the time the scientists realized that we could go outside with little risk or developed an effective vaccine, a lot of us just stayed inside and permanently spent more time interacting with each other through a screen rather than in person.

We have all developed a constant need for some kind of mental stimulation as a result. If we’re not getting it from each other, we’re getting it from our phones. And if the person in front of me isn’t grabbing and holding onto my attention, my hand twitches towards my pocket and produces a metal and plastic rectangle that instantly creates a strong chemical reaction in my brain when it begins to glow. Are you beginning to experience just the tiniest bit of boredom? Just pull out your phone.

Swimming Against the Current

I’m a professional software developer, which means I spend at least 8 hours of my day looking at a screen for money. Once the work day ends, I’ll probably spend another 3 hours looking at a screen for entertainment before it’s time to go to bed, and then I wake up and do it all over again.

While I do churn out code for my job, the great majority of my non-work screen time is spent consuming content made by other people. Whether it’s reading an article, watching a movie, or playing a game, it’s time that I’m optimizing for the least amount of mental effort for the most amount of mental stimulation. Creating things is fun and interesting, but it’s also hard with an uncertain payoff. I know I’m going to be entertained by playing another round of League of Legends, or letting Netflix autoplay the next episode of Warrior.

It’s also what makes writing this article so frustrating. I have to think up of an interesting topic. I have to write a cohesive and narratively competent 1500-2500 words on it within a given time period (I try and write something weekly, but failing that, I want a minimum cadence of one post per two weeks). I then send it out into the world and hope at least a third of my 16 subscribers find the title interesting enough to read the first paragraph, and find the first paragraph interesting enough to read to the second paragraph, and so on and so forth before they eventually lose interest and pull out their phones (assuming they aren’t reading this article on a phone) and look at the latest dance craze on TikTok.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you didn’t feel too guilty in the last paragraph. I’m not trying to hold a pity party; I’m just trying to explain what I feel like is a problem that’s affecting all of us. We’re addicted to this need of constant and instant mental stimulation and gratification. And through this addiction, we’re becoming more selfish, less focused, and less capable human beings, like how humans were portrayed in the movie WALL*E. It would sadden me greatly if this is how humanity ends up in the future.

Copyright Disney/Pixar

Not With a Bang But a Whimper

To be clear, I’m not expressing a “this younger generation and all generations hereafter are shiftless louts” sentiment. This is affecting all of us, across all demographics. If you spend a day observing people in a busy intersection, you’ll notice that people of all ages, genders, and perceived socioeconomic statuses will be staring at their phone. We’re all becoming less tolerant of boredom.

It’s a cliché, but there really is value when you stop and smell the roses. We lose opportunities for introspection and rumination when we’re unable to tolerate boredom. If we constantly fill every waking moment with the content that other people are creating, we don’t have time to create our own content. To become our own person. To forge our own path.

This is not my first blog or unpaid writing gig. I had a few before this one, when I was younger, dumber, and a lot more energetic. Mercifully, those musings have effectively been lost to history (although I guess you could still find them if you knew where to look), but one thing that struck me about them is that I wrote a lot more frequently and I wrote a lot more about things that were vexing me rather than trying to edify and enlighten other people (which is the primary objective of this blog).

Since then, I’ve matured as a person. I’ve gained a lot of earned confidence. I’m no longer a tortured soul screaming out into the void. Just about everything rolls off my back now. But man, I wish I had the same desire to sit down at my computer and just write that mid-20s me had.

Let’s Take a Step Back

I’m not so naïve to think that we can all just ditch our smartphones and turn into the best, most enlightened versions of ourselves. And for all its faults, the information revolution that smartphones have been an integral part of has mostly been for the better. But there is a better way to harness the smartphone for our benefit and growth and minimize the harmful effects of it.

By all means, preload some interesting content when you’re about to enter an elevator with no cell reception. But you don’t have to do it every time. Take some time out of your day to be bored, to meditate, to think. Try and be as present as possible with your friends and family. If you run out of things to talk about and you find yourself taking a phone out of your pocket, try and turn whatever it is you’re looking at on your phone into a topic of discussion. Do whatever you can to get back to interacting with people in person.

There have been so many times when I’ve been reluctant to go out and hang with other people. It’s much more comfortable at home. It requires way less effort. It’s free and easy to just be alone and on my computer or phone. But if I do go out, 9 times out of 10 I think to myself that it was worth the hassle. It’s hard enough to get people in the same place at the same time, but it’s almost always worth it. Go ahead and have fun with your friends, the screens will be there waiting for you when you’re done.

And when you’re social battery is depleted, stop and smell the roses. Think about something. Anything. This is such an amazing world we live in. You’ll learn more about it when you take some time to think. And you’ll always be thinking when you’re bored.