The Lost Art of Being Bored
Silence Is Not Your Enemy
Why do so many of us feel bored despite unlimited entertainment, information, and social connection?
I hear it all the time: “I’m bored.” Even while someone is actively doing something entertaining. Stimulation is just a tap away, yet boredom feels more pervasive than ever.
A 2022 Pew Research study found that 59% of U.S. adults felt bored at least once a week, even with nonstop access to digital content. One possible explanation might be the paradox of choice: the more options we have, the harder it becomes to choose. The result? Paralysis, not satisfaction.
It’s never been easier to drown in distraction. YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, and infinite scrolling offer us everything except meaning. These distractions don't cure our aimlessness. They amplify it.
The Evolution of Boredom
Boredom, like most states of mind, isn’t a flaw. It’s a feature.
It’s your mind tapping you on the shoulder and asking for something fulfilling. Studies show boredom encourages creativity, improves problem-solving, and acts as an internal compass. It exists to warn us when we’re drifting from meaningful goals. It often emerges when we lose our sense of why.
The problem is, we’ve stopped listening. We bury that signal beneath an avalanche of meaningless content.
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”—Friedrich Nietzsche
Ignoring Our Cues
Instead of exploring boredom’s signal, we smother it.
This isn’t a new dilemma. Humanity has been losing touch with boredom for centuries. With every technological leap, we’ve filled our time with more stimulation. First photography, then film, radio, and television. None of these were inherently bad. Many were cultural breakthroughs. Art, story, and media have always been vital to how we make sense of the world.
But that was then.
Now, with screens glued to our hands, even those once-revered mediums are losing their voice. The distractions have become louder, faster, and more disposable. We no longer consume art; we scroll past it. In that constant blur of content, the space boredom once held has all but vanished.
Our lives are saturated with digital entertainment that fills time but leaves us feeling empty. The average person taps their phone 2,617 times a day. That’s not an accident. Tech companies design apps to hijack our attention during “micro-moments” of boredom, triggering dopamine spikes with every swipe.
That’s why you open your phone to check one thing and find yourself scrolling 30 minutes later. Your brain is hooked, waiting for the next hit of novelty or pleasure. It’s addictive by design. Why? Because your swipes and attention have value. The longer you scroll, the more ads you’re fed, and the more money they make. And it works.
No Space to Think
In return, we’re losing something essential: the ability to sit quietly with ourselves.
Without boredom, we lose the space required for empathy, deep thought, and self-reflection. Evolution wired us to need that space. Boredom is the signal that we have time to reflect, imagine, create, or grow. Instead, we’ve outsourced that time to tech companies for their profit, not our development.
In one startling University of Virginia study, participants were placed in a quiet, empty room and asked to sit alone with their thoughts for just 6 to 15 minutes. No phones. No distractions. Just a chair and a small device they could use to give themselves a mild electric shock to pass the time. Most participants said they’d never press it.
But once the silence set in, 67% of men and 25% of women shocked themselves. Some did it repeatedly. One participant hit the button 190 times.
Faced with stillness, they chose discomfort.
In real life, we don’t reach for electric shocks. We reach for our phones. Constantly. And that stream of input erodes the space where focus, creativity, and meaning once lived.
A Rising Cost
It’s not just adults.
Boredom is rising sharply among young people, too. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, teen boredom has been increasing over the past decade, especially among girls. In 2023, over half of 12th graders reported feeling bored “often,” and experts are linking this rise to increased screen time.
One study found that heavy digital media raises a teen's baseline for stimulation, making anything slower, quieter, or less "instantly rewarding" feel intolerable.
It doesn't stop there. Chronic boredom in adolescents is increasingly linked to deeper psychological distress: higher rates of depression, self-harm, and even suicidal behavior. In this light, boredom isn't just uncomfortable, it's dangerous. Technology and screen time are robbing us of the very tool we need to face it, explore it, and transform it into something meaningful.
Boredom Is a Portal
Boredom is part of being human. If we can learn to sit with it and embrace it as a cue rather than a curse, it can lead us toward growth, not just distraction.
I always tell my son, “You’re bored because you’re not being resourceful.” The world is overflowing with deeply rewarding pursuits: writing, making music, art, hiking, building, learning, and having real conversations. I can’t imagine boredom leading to apathy, unless we’ve forgotten how to listen to it.
Boredom isn’t bad. It might be one of the most valuable tools we have. It’s your mind’s way of saying, “I’m hungry for depth, purpose, and something real.” The problem is that we fill that hunger with cheap, convenient substitutes.
We need to reclaim daydreaming. We need to schedule deliberate boredom sessions. Go for a walk without your phone. Meditate. Sit in silence and ask yourself what boredom is trying to tell you. Let the silence be a creative summons. Let it lead you down a path of self-discovery.
Because if you don’t learn to sit with yourself, you’ll always reach for what’s louder, cheaper, and easier. You’ll trade your most valuable human currency—your time—for clicks, ads, and someone else's profit, instead of investing in what’s real and meaningful: your deeper self.
I hate paywalls. They kill curiosity and reward clickbait. That’s why the core content here will always be free.
But this takes time, thought, and energy. If it helps you see the world differently, consider supporting it by buying me a coffee or becoming a paid subscriber for exclusive content, audio versions of each essay (coming soon), and deeper dives.
Thanks for being here. Stay Curious. Question Everything.
–Luis
🔍 Further reading:
Dscout Study (2016) — How much are we really attached to our phones physically, cognitively…
A detailed breakdown of how often we interact with our phones—and why it's no accident. | READ
Just Think: The challenges of the disengaged mind — Don’t leave me alone with my thoughts
67% of men and 25% of women chose to shock themselves rather than sit alone with their thoughts for 6–15 minutes. | READ
Communications Psychology — People are increasingly bored in our digital age
Heavy screen use makes teens less tolerant of slower, quieter, more reflective experiences. | READ