Boredom pushes us into the arms of technology so much so that we cherish it and endlessly seek to develop new and better forms of distraction.

Take a look around you and you will see so many people’s eyes glued to their phone screens.

They are cinemas and DJs; sources of entertainment, allow us to keep in touch with family and friends; a sense of connectedness, notify us about traffic and weather; allowing us to navigate out environment.

None of us can deny that the connected age of information offers us many conveniences, we have to ask ourselves at what cost?

These habits that have begun to engrain our mind eventually start to take their toll on how we use our brains and where we allow our brains to go.

Arguments such as this are commonly cast in the light of being disruptive to our productiveness. While this is one aspect that we could consider detrimental, there are far more important things than being productive 😜.

How does the abundance of information sources competing for out attention disrupt what the Italians have lovingly name “il dolce far niente”- the sweetness of doing nothing.?

This might be the biggest threat that information overload offers, the inability to turn off, the ability to always feel the need to be in the illusion that we are satisfied and content and being in a brain state of always consciously processing information.

How does the abundance of information effect us when we want to do nothing?

Effects on the Individual.

With the information floodgates being well and truly off their hinges, content rushes us from endlessly for seemingly every angle.

The start of this torrent dates back to Gutenberg; a German inventor who is credited with inventing the movable type printing press in the 15th century. The invention of movable type led to a proliferation of printed matter that quickly exceeded what a single human mind could absorb in a lifetime.

From that came carbon paper, then the photocopier a means which made replicating existing information even easier. Once information was able to be digitised, documents could be copied in limitless numbers, distributed anywhere, in real time, at virtually no cost.

Which leads is to where we find ourselves today, almost totally submerged and gasping for breath in the powerful currents of free flowing information.

In a paper titled “Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress” (2012, Mark) revealed it took people took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an e-mail interruption.

Of course this isn’t limited to just e-mail interruptions, take checking Twitter for an example. Let’s be very modest and say someone will login 3-5 times a day for 30 seconds.

“2.5 minutes a day, that’s not so bad” I hear your say. However as the study suggests it isn’t just 30 seconds down the drain. It’s 25 minutes and 30 seconds- 2 hours each time and which totals a whopping 2.5 hours of being in a state where the brain is state of disarray, desperately swimming for the shore.

According to a few other papers, there are even claims that the relentless cascade of information lowers people’s intelligence. “Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber?” (Ellison, 2012) and, “Is Your Smartphone Making You Fat and Lazy?” (Morin, 2013) are a few really insightful studies into this concept.

The average U.S. adult checks their phone every 6.5 minutes. Roughly 58 times a day, totalling a whopping 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phones per day. This is just time on the phone- we’re not even taking the time it takes for the mind to settle into account!

Boredom: Humanities Greatest Gift.

There’s little need to pay attention to what’s going on within you when the world is at your fingertips.

Boredom is often viewed as an unpleasant state of mind and traditionally associated with a range of negative outcomes, both within the workplace and outside, but research suggests that it may actually be beneficial for creativity and mental health.

“Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative?” (Mann, 2014) shows that allowing yourself to be bored can lead to increased creativity and problem-solving abilities by virtue of a wonderful thing called day dreaming or “mind wandering”.

Mind wandering is a key driver of creativity, it allows us too mentally escape the confines of the present, may be beneficial to personal goal striving which is why other studies have found that bored people score significantly higher on creativity tests.

One important idea is that boredom is not just a feeling of being uninterested or unengaged. Rather, it often indicates that our psychological needs are not being met.

Without boredom, we’re less likely to think about our inner lives and without thinking about our inner lives, we lose a stronger sense of connection with ourselves, our values and our goals.

Boredom encourages people to explore because these areas as it signals that your current situation is lacking so it’s kind of a push to seek out something new.

The conclusion of “Approaching novel thoughts: Understanding why elation and boredom promote associative thought more than distress and relaxation” (2014 Gasper) would suggest that boredom allows the mind to wander and explore new ideas, leading to not only increased creativity, but increased relaxation!

A New Mind State.

Our devices are designed to be addictive and although it may be true that people can’t overcome an addiction without help, whether support group or technology, it us down to us take control of information stimulation problem, which means modifying our thinking and behaviour.

The truth is being bored is hard! It’s uncomfortable.

In fact there is evidence to suggest that the human mind finds inner reflection unbearable.

Studies have shown that many of the people, particularly men, would rather inflict themselves with a mild electric shock rather than be deprived of external sensory stimuli. (Wilson, Brown, Reinhard, Westgate, Gilbert, Ellerbeck, Hahn, Shaked 2014)

But there is hope! First we need to understand what’s going on underneath our figurative cranial hood.

When our brain is stimulated for example consciously searching out, reading and processing information the frequency of our brainwaves resonate at a particular frequency.

It’s important to understand that the brain cycles through two distinct types of creativity. On the one hand, there is the type of creativity that is driven by intense focus and concentration, where the individual is able to generate new ideas through a deep understanding of a particular subject matter.

Convergent thinking:

Divergent thinking:

What scientists have found is that you are more likely to come up with divergent, original, ideas when you are in an alpha state, a destination that boredom can potentially take you when your mind starts to wander! (Fink and Benedek 2014)

Conclusion

Too much information in itself isn’t a bad thing. The problem arises when our brain is constantly striving to stay in a particular state that external information and stimulation is consumed in.

Boredom can serve as a catalyst for creativity. When we are bored, our minds are free from distraction, it gives us an opportunity to explore our inner world and we may be more likely to engage in creative thinking to alleviate our boredom or to realise something that we are currently lacking in our life, something that is often quite difficult to confront.

Research has shown that boredom can promote creativity, as it can stimulate daydreaming, introspection, and other forms of mental wandering that can lead to novel ideas and insights. When our minds are not occupied with tasks or stimuli, we may be more likely to make connections between disparate ideas and to think more deeply and creatively through divergent thinking.

While a little boredom may be helpful in inspiring creativity, it's important to strike a balance and find ways to engage with the world in meaningful ways.

If you allow yourself to daydream, then you’re allowing yourself a chance to make positive connections. If you find yourself without any inspiring ideas you can try simple things like doodling, staring at the clouds even just looking at the world going on around and try and notice something there.

Next time you find yourself reaching for phone, don't be so quick to try and distract yourself. Instead, embrace the boredom and see where your imagination will take you.