Nobody Wants To Be Bored Anymore

 

I genuinely don’t think people know how to be bored anymore.

And the more I think about it, the more I think that might actually be a problem.

At some point, boredom stopped being something temporary that we experienced… and started becoming something we actively try to avoid at all costs.

The second there’s silence, we fill it.

The second we have downtime, we reach for our phones.

The second a thought has enough room to exist in our heads, we drown it out with music, videos, scrolling, notifications, or background noise.

Everything now is constant stimulation.

And honestly? I don’t think we even notice we’re doing it anymore.

There used to be moments where you just… existed.

Waiting rooms. Car rides. Standing in line. Sitting outside. Laying on the couch doing absolutely nothing for a few minutes.

Now every tiny gap in the day gets filled immediately.

There’s this unspoken pressure to always be consuming something.

A podcast. A TikTok. A YouTube video. A livestream. Music. A second screen while the first screen is already on.

And if we’re not consuming something, people almost feel uncomfortable.

Like silence itself has become awkward.

The weird thing is, some of my best thoughts happen when I’m bored.

Not distracted. Not entertained. Not multitasking.

Bored.

That’s when your brain actually starts wandering naturally.

That’s where shower thoughts come from.

That’s where random creativity comes from.

That’s where self-reflection comes from.

But if every quiet moment immediately gets replaced with stimulation, when does your brain actually get time to breathe?

I think a lot of people are overstimulated and don’t even realize it.

Not physically—mentally.

There’s always something happening.

Always something playing.

Always something refreshing.

Always something demanding your attention.

And eventually your brain gets so used to constant input that normal life starts feeling “too slow.”

That’s probably not good.

Even entertainment feels different now.

People skip intros. Skip ads. Watch videos at 1.5x speed. Scroll while watching TV. Watch short clips of longer videos they’ll never actually sit down and watch in full.

Everything is optimized for speed now.

Consume faster. Move faster. Swipe faster.

And because of that, patience feels like it’s disappearing.

People quit things faster.

Attention spans feel shorter.

Even moments of peace feel harder to sit through.

And the thing is, I’m not pretending I’m above any of this.

I do it too.

I catch myself opening apps for no reason.

I’ll unlock my phone and immediately forget why I picked it up in the first place.

Everything we want is just one finger swipe or tap away.

But boredom is the absence of all of that.

Sometimes I’ll put something on in the background just because the silence feels weird.

That’s how normal this has become.

But I think boredom actually serves a purpose.

I think boredom resets people.

It slows your brain down.

It gives your thoughts room to exist without interruption.

And honestly, I think some people are afraid of that.

Because when things finally get quiet, you’re left alone with your own thoughts.

No distractions.

No noise.

Just you.

And maybe that’s why people avoid boredom so aggressively now.

What’s funny is that some of the best things in my life creatively started from boredom.

My blog started from boredom.

My podcast started from boredom.

Even my “Go Live And Say Stuff,” also known as “G.L.A.S.S.,” started from boredom.

None of those things came from a perfectly crafted business plan or some deep strategic vision.

They came from moments where my brain finally had enough open space to think:

“What if I just created something?”

And that’s the part people overlook.

Boredom is a blank slate.

It’s open space.

You can go in literally any direction from there.

That’s why boredom can either become something destructive… or something meaningful.

You can use boredom to mindlessly consume.

Or you can use it to create.

You can doomscroll for three hours.

Or you can start a project, write an idea down, record something, learn something, build something, improve something.

That open mental space has value if you actually use it intentionally.

I honestly think a lot of creativity gets buried underneath constant stimulation now.

People don’t give themselves enough room to think naturally anymore.

Every quiet moment gets interrupted before an idea even has a chance to fully form.

And that’s a shame, because some of the best ideas don’t arrive when you’re actively searching for them.

They arrive when your brain finally has enough room to wander into them.

That’s why some people get their best ideas:

• in the shower
• while driving
• laying in bed
• taking a walk
• staring out a window doing absolutely nothing

That mental stillness matters more than people realize.

There’s also something important about zoning out that I think people underestimate.

Not while driving.

Not while operating heavy machinery.

Let’s establish that immediately before somebody deliberately misses the point.

But in general? Daydreaming and mentally drifting for a little while is probably healthier than people think.

To me, it’s like hitting the reset button on a stubborn electronic that isn’t working properly.

Sometimes your brain needs that moment where it’s not actively trying to process information, solve problems, respond to notifications, or absorb content every second.

You just let your thoughts wander naturally for a bit.

And weirdly enough, that’s often when things start making sense again.

That’s when ideas connect.

That’s when random thoughts become actual concepts.

That’s when something small suddenly turns into:

• a project
• a hobby
• a routine
• a goal
• or even something that becomes part of your life long-term

That’s literally what happened with my blog.

That’s what happened with my podcast.

That’s what happened with G.L.A.S.S.

All of those started from moments where there was empty mental space and my brain simply went:

“What if I tried this?”

That’s the power of boredom when you use it correctly.

Because boredom itself isn’t good or bad.

It’s a blank slate.

And what you choose to do with that blank slate matters.

You can use boredom to waste time.

Or you can use boredom to create something meaningful.

There’s a time and place for everything.

Sitting in silence is one of the most powerful things that you can actually do.

And honestly, boredom might be the missing link between:

“I have nothing to do…”

and

“This is now part of my routine, and it actually improves my life.”

That shift starts way smaller than people think.

Sometimes it starts with nothing more than a quiet moment and a random idea.

I don’t think the solution is to throw your phone into a lake and disappear into the woods for six months.

But I do think people need more moments where nothing is happening.

No scrolling.

No autoplay.

No second screen.

No constant stimulation.

Just a few minutes where your brain gets to exist without being fed something every second.

Because maybe boredom was never the enemy.

Maybe we just forgot what it was good for.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this, folks. Let's do it again next week!