As short social media videos and flashy screens take root in modern society, people lose an integral truth: the world is not always in motion. These days, teenagers and adults alike spend much of their time on social media, news or games — constantly in a state of scrolling, playing and always attempting to avoid the boredom that comes from remaining still.
According to the addiction treatment organization Samba Recovery, humans’ attention spans have decreased from an average of 12 seconds in the 2000s to a mere 8.25 seconds. This shortened attention causes people to constantly seek the next source of entertainment to stave off boredom. Outside of entertainment, most turn toward productivity to fill the gap. While efficient and arguably a better use of time than TikTok, working takes away time from boredom in the same way that entertainment does.
Today’s world moves fast, and many people struggle to catch up. In addition, society places pressure on people who fail to be productive and celebrates those who work hard. These financial, social and mental pressures all make it immensely difficult to find time for boredom. These pressures can be from assignments that are past due, fridges being devoid of food, or the current culture of work and advancement. Thus, in a world that prioritizes activity and energy, why should the lack of boredom be something to worry about?
However, some artists, such as Clare Thorp, point out that being bored often helps with creativity. This downtime causes people’s brains to daydream and think outside of the box. This notion is further supported by the Creativity Research Journal. In a study conducted by the journal, when asked to complete a task, subjects who were bored gave more creative answers than the subjects who were not. Although the level of creativity was judged to be equal, the amount that was produced differed greatly.
Psychologist John Eastwood builds on this connection between boredom and creativity, stating, “When you feel bored, because it’s an aversive and uncomfortable state, you’re motivated to look for something else. In that gap, there’s a real chance to discover something new. What matters to me, and what am I passionate about? I think that looking can be a source of creativity.”
Mason Currey, a Los Angeles-based writer, studied patterns of various writers and artists and came to similar conclusions about boredom. He found that many of them had common themes of boredom and creativity. However, Currey still believes that boredom itself is not important, but instead, what comes after it is. Said Currey, “Doing something familiar with a kind of diffused focus that allows your mind to wander elsewhere — that’s something I’ve noticed over and over in my research, and it seems to be one of the essential elements of the creative process across history.”
With many people who work in creative industries sharing the sentiment that boredom leads to creativity, Arthur C. Brooks offers an additional connection. “You go to uncomfortable existential questions when you’re bored. That turns out to be incredibly important.”
Brooks posits that the reason why depression has increased is society’s lack of boredom and people’s general lack of meaning in their lives. This lack of meaning comes from the removal of crucial time for introspection that stems from boredom. Without this time, people fall into what Brooks calls “a doom loop of meaning.” Said Brooks, “If every time you’re slightly bored you pull out your phone, it’s going to get harder and harder for you to find meaning, and that’s the recipe for depression and anxiety and a sense of hollowness.”
Today’s society has a distinct lack of boredom, encouraged by hustle culture’s pressure to be productive and the constant stream of content found online. Combined with our decreasing attention spans and the rapid pace of the world, we lose our ability to feel boredom — and by extension, our creativity and meaning.
Said Brooks, “Tomorrow, when you go to the gym in the morning after you wake up, don’t take your phone. Can you handle it? Not listening to a podcast while you’re working out. Just being in your head. I promise you, you’ll have your most interesting ideas while you’re working out without devices.”
