08/28/2025
In my personal and professional life, I talk a great deal about technology and its drawbacks. Technology is not likely to go anywhere any time soon, and it’s not all bad. I’d rather live a life with it than not have it at all. However, it seems that technology has led to individuals having a more difficult time making time to explore their emotions rather than finding ways to avoid them, and we may struggle exploring our identity due to how much of our time is occupied with technology. The reason these two problems seem to arise is due to how difficult it is to pull ourselves away from technology because of the advent of sophisticated algorithms and that our brains can only do one task at a time.
It seems like we, as a species, do not handle boredom well. Many of us, including me, view boredom as something that is highly unproductive and uncomfortable. However, boredom may be an integral part for learning how to identify, process, and cope with emotion. When our mind is not occupied with other tasks, it has the ability to wander, exploring past events and playing out possible future scenarios. Through these imagined scenarios, we are able to relive what had occurred, explore how we wished it may have been different, what could go wrong, and how we hope it all goes well. We get to play pretend and figure out how we may respond to those outcomes. When we had fewer options for distraction, it’s possible that we had nothing else to do but to “follow the rabbit trails” and explore what those scenarios had in store for us. Therefore, we could identify how we felt, the severity of what we would feel, and what we may choose to do to mitigate those emotions. Boredom may not only help identify and process emotions, but it may also lead to better problem-solving and emotional regulation skills. When we don’t give time to really explore the possibilities, and the emotions that go along with those possibilities, we may often feel blindsided by, well, any uncomfortable emotions. Being caught off-guard may lead to an increased fight/flight/freeze response rather than allowing our executive functioning to best navigate the situation, whatever the situation may be. Rather than utilize our readily-available distraction tools, like our phones, it may be helpful to play though the entire scenario to more effectively assuage our worries rather than temporarily distract ourselves from them.
Finding ways to stave off boredom is nothing new (i.e. reading, painting, and neighborhood games like hoop rolling or kick the can). However, we were more likely to become satiated with these activities and move to another activity. Maybe even the activity we were waiting to do/avoiding in the first place. Now, we don’t have to move far, if at all, to switch to a new task. Our phone has Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other application you may use that has a never-ending loop of varied entertainment. All of the “for you” tabs are tailored to many of your interests, not just one like the book you were reading or the painting you were working on. Often times, scrolling does not become boring enough to move to a completely different task because our brain is tasked to rapidly make sense of the vast and varied topics of information in our feed. With each new unrelated item, our brain has to try to give us context of the information we are being exposed to. If we are looking for an option for low-effort pleasure, it’s always available. Therefore, it seems like more work to go and do things, like go hiking, go to the beach, visit a friend, go for a walk etc. When combating boredom I rarely choose “walk” over “scroll.” However, the way we explore who we are, what we like, and what we stand for, we learn by “doing stuff,” just allowing ourselves to explore new activities or activities we previously enjoyed. By doing the tasks that are more work, we obtain more in-depth information about ourselves. More work leads to more payoff, even if we learn something we don’t like about ourselves.
If you were to ask me what the difference is between mindfulness and boredom, I would state that mindfulness allows us to relearn to be comfortable with doing nothing. Boredom is allowing ourselves to reach a point of doing nothing that we want to do something else, either cognitively or behaviorally. Not just distract ourselves. The cognitive exploration likely aides with emotional regulation, and the behaviors lead to finding out who you are.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5-TR), the book that lists all of the diagnosable mental health disorders, does not yet list social media or video games as being potentially addictive. However, there seems to be an increasing amount of evidence that suggest that these addictions may be possible. Technology isn’t going anywhere any time soon because it’s incredibly lucrative, just like many of the other forms of addiction, legal or otherwise. The best rule for intentional distraction is to utilize these interventions in moderation. When we overindulge, it may lead to avoidance. The task/problem remains to exist or may even become more daunting when distraction is utilized without moderation. Moderation with these technological interventions may warrant benefit as well. You may be able to limit time spent on specific applications in your phone’s setting to lock yourself out of the application after a certain amount of time has been spent on the concerning application. You may be able to set goals or schedule time with/without electronics. You could rely on someone in your support system to help maintain accountability (think dieting partner, exercise partner, or an AA sponsor). The main takeaway is that you have the control to begin utilizing distraction in moderation if you desire to.
So, I would like to make a plea as a person, not a therapist: Try to be bored. If you don’t know how to allow yourself to be bored just yet, mindfulness may help you remember that doing nothing while being present is okay. It’s neither good nor bad. Doing nothing is more likely to lead to self-exploration, which may lead to a greater sense of satisfaction/fulfillment because your are setting aside time to get to know you a little better.
