The Value of Boredom

When my kids were young and complaining about being bored, I would always tell them that it was their own fault and they needed to figure it out themselves. The complaining eventually stopped. The truth is that we've all managed to eliminate boredom with a device in our pockets that can fill even the smallest amount of downtime with information or entertainment. 

We hear a lot about the epidemics of depression and loneliness in the modern world, and that could be explained by the lack of real-life social interaction, or maybe it's the lack of introspection. When the dishwasher was invented, housewives didn't want them because washing the dishes was the only time of the day they could be alone with their thoughts. Being alone with your thoughts has value, so why do we find ourselves avoiding it? Some of it is FOMO, the fear of missing out, and some of it is the fear of wasting time. We are lucky to have the time to be bored. Professor Arthur C. Brooks explains why we should let ourselves be bored sometimes, and how we can do it.