Now, consider every second of free time you have a day––when you allow yourself no obligations. During this time, how much do you spend on a device?
I don’t want to generalize, but likely a large portion of it is spent looking at a screen. With the average screen time of a teenager being close to 9 hours a day, one cannot deny that this is a significant portion of one’s waking hours.
I want to be clear that I am not demonizing screen time or social media––it’s perfectly healthy when balanced. But, it would be foolish of me to not recognize that our relationships with these things can easily skew unhealthy.
The downsides of excessive screen usage are widely known. By now, there are countless sources describing the troubling effects hours of screen time have on teenagers, including disrupted brain development and altered sleep patterns. But, I want to reference a specific side effect of being overly online: our brain’s inability to just “be.”
Our world is fast-paced and attention-grabbing. We experience stimuli constantly throughout the day. Now, the times we would usually experience fewer attention-grabbers, like the hours before bed, are interrupted by the presence of our phones. We fill these quiet moments with scrolling on Instagram or TikTok, reading or viewing news or playing the latest Wordle.
Simply put, our brains are constantly processing information during our waking hours with little rest. This constant barrage of stimulus and content has no end––there is always something waiting to grab our attention at the whim of our impulses, mitigating boredom.
But being bored should not always be cured immediately. I believe we should welcome this dull state of mind.
Embracing boredom seems counterintuitive––but there are essential benefits, as research shows. According to the Mayo Clinic, boredom resets the brain and encourages creativity. Our brains never turn off, but boredom allows them to return to a resting state where we can consolidate memories, implement self-reflection and think creatively. In addition, according to Neuroscientist Alicia Walf for Forbes, this resting state also can replenish our motivation and encourage the fostering of new ideas.
This is certainly useful for anyone––for students, any extra morsel of motivation is appreciated. Often, the best ideas for papers or assignments stem from quiet walks outside, showers or any “mindless” activities that allow us to exist in our heads (in fact, this editorial was born from a moment of boredom!).
Of course, the benefits of boredom extend far beyond our work; one could use a moment of nothing for pure enjoyment––engaging creativity to inspire a painting, a work of writing or a song.
I encourage you to consider implementing more moments to allow your mind to wander. Our brains were also meant to think––not just to process stimuli or react. As the busy humans we are, we deserve moments of nothingness.
So please: gift your brain some boredom.
