When was the last time you were truly bored? No music, no scrolling, no talking, just you and your thoughts?
Social media and constant notifications keep our attention spans fragmented, making stillness increasingly uncomfortable. A constant state of being alert trains the brain to need external stimuli for engagement. When this stimuli is removed, it can trigger extreme discomfort because we are so unused to self-regulation and stillness.
With attention spans shrinking and burnout on the rise, reclaiming boredom goes beyond nostalgia or anti-social media sentiment.
It is a form of resistance against overstimulation. In a culture obsessed with productivity and constant stimulation, boredom is not a problem, but rather a necessity. Allowing ourselves to be bored fosters creativity, reflection, and genuine rest, serving as a form of personal liberation.
Being bored feels bad, especially at first. It is easy to believe that it is unproductive, or at worst, harmful. Every idle moment is a missed opportunity to watch Reels or to stalk someone on LinkedIn.
The secret truth is boredom fuels creativity. People come up with more ideas after periods of mindless activity — not mindlessness like scrolling — but mindless in terms of stimulation. Boredom is a “variety driven emotion” which means it forces you to think of new things.
It also reconnects us with self-awareness. Arthur Brooks, professor at the Harvard Business school, says boredom ignites the default mode in our brains, which is critical for reflection, even if we don’t like it. This mildly uncomfortable default state of thinking is where we are able to find meaning in our lives.
In a 2014 study, psychologist Timothy Wilson found that people sitting alone in a room would rather administer painful electric shocks on themselves repeatedly than continue to feel bored. Our avoidance of boredom has gotten so extreme that even a few minutes of silence feels unbearable.
However, the rise of ‘do nothing’ challenges reveal that there is hope.On social media, a new trend encourages people to sit in front of a timer and do nothing for a set amount of time, usually between 15 minutes and an hour. This idea is emerging from the same places that are contributing to issues of stimulation withdrawals, proving people are craving stillness.
Boredom is not the enemy, but a space for growth. So, next time you reach for your phone in a quiet moment, resist. Look around the room, walk to class without music, be bored on purpose. See what happens when you retrain yourself to be still in the moment.