As an elder-millennial, I’ve seen boredom evolve dramatically over the course of my life. It has happened slowly, gradually, over many decades. So slowly that I never realized just how radically it has been transformed. And just how deeply troubling it really is.
1980 – 1990: The Age of Socializing
As a kid growing up in a third world country, every single day was a war against boredom. We had no computers. No electronic games. No cable television. We did have broadcast television, but it was incredibly grainy and featured laughably bad programming.
Our only relief from boredom came from rented VHS tapes and … each other. I spent the vast majority of each day hanging out with my family, and playing with neighboring kids who ended up becoming intensely close friends. I’m certainly no extrovert, but you’d be amazed by how social someone can be when their only alternative is staring at a wall.
All in all, I would characterize my childhood as mostly non-boring. But only because everyone consciously went out of their way to create social activities designed explicitly to relieve boredom. The few occasions when I found myself alone, without my friends or cousins, literally felt like pulling teeth.
1990 – 2000: Books, Computer Games, and Television
My life evolved drastically as I grew into an adolescent and moved to a first world country. With the ability to read more complex books, reading became an omnipresent way to overcome boredom. I read more during my adolescent years than at any other time in my life. But that wasn’t the biggest change. Television and computer games were. With better broadcast television channels, and especially once we got cable TV, becoming a couch potato became an option for the very first time. Similarly with single-player computer games such as Sim City, Warcraft, and Wolfenstein. I no longer needed friends to play with – I could play all by myself, and have even more fun.
Socializing was still a big part of my life. I have fond memories of playing with other kids in my neighborhood every evening. But for the first time, this was only one small part of my life. And something I did mainly for variety, or out of necessity when I was away from my television and computer. For the first time in my life, I could spend an entire day locked up at home alone, and be reasonably happy about it.
2000 – 2010: Early Internet
As great as books, computer games, and television were, they still had their limitations. Reading was somewhat cognitively taxing, and it wasn’t always easy to find books that you enjoyed reading. Video games cost almost $50 each, and there was only so many times you could play a single-player game without getting bored of it. And with television, you were always at the mercy of whatever was playing at the time. Really feel like watching Friends? Too bad, you’ll need to wait until Thursday 8.30pm. You’ll just have to make do with reruns of The Cosby Show for now.
All that changed with the arrival of the internet. Unlike books, tv, and video games, the internet was a 24/7 world of infinite possibilities and no restrictions. Want to read the news? You no longer had to settle for today’s newspaper – you could hop online any time of the day, and find a million news sites reporting on a million topics. Feel like reading Star Wars fan fiction? You can find countless varieties at the click of a button. Are you into cute cat videos? Trust me, the internet has you covered.
The biggest change with the internet however, was the way it could satisfy your social and interpersonal needs, and use these to prevent you from getting bored of it. No matter how good books, games, and television shows were – they never satisfied your social needs. And their static nature would make you bored eventually. Not so with the internet. There were countless forums and IRC channels that could scratch every social itch of yours – without ever having a face-to-face conversation with someone. And video games radically transformed themselves from being primarily single-player to primarily multi-player. This added social and interpersonal aspect of video games made them far more dynamic. Whereas games used to get boring after a month, modern games can keep people hooked for a year or more.
Before the advent of the internet, every form of entertainment came with its intrinsic limitations, which naturally prevented you from “overdosing” on it. Limitations which inevitably gave rise to boredom after a certain point. With the internet, these limitations were largely eroded. I recall a terrifying thought in the mid-2000s when I first discovered World of Warcraft. I realized that I could spend the entirety of my free time doing nothing but playing this one video game, and never get bored of it. Every single hobby, activity, and real-life friend that I had – I could very easily replace all of them with a single addictive video game. It was a terrifying thought, and one that made me marshal every ounce of my willpower to quit cold turkey.
2010 and Beyond: Smartphones and the Modern Internet
As transformative as the early internet was, it was only the start. The following decade saw every aspect of the internet become hyper-optimized to maximize dopamine surges in our brain. Pixelated video games with loading screens gave way to smooth games with jaw-dropping graphics. Janky internet forums gave way to Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Downloadable video files gave way to TikTok, YouTube, and Netflix. Sketchy porn sites gave way to OnlyFans and PornHub. All this supported by the universal availability of high-speed internet and smartphones that keep you connected 24/7.
No matter who you are, what your interests are, or where you are, you can very easily keep yourself endlessly entertained through a 5-inch device that sits in your pocket at all times of the day. We are today, for the first time in the history of humanity, witnessing the end of boredom.
“Yeah, and so what? Boredom sounds awful, good riddance. Why would anyone want to be bored anyway?”
Because boredom has always served an absolutely vital purpose in our lives, which is why evolution imbued us with feelings of boredom in the first place.
- Boredom forces us to make meaningful social connections with people who can positively impact our lives
- Boredom forces us to engage in physical activities that promote good health
- Boredom forces us to be mindful, which leads to good mental health
- Boredom forces us to introspect and reflect on our lives, which leads to personal growth
- Boredom forces us to think creatively, come up with new ideas, and pursue meaningful activities like writing, volunteering, and community organizing – and in some cases, even lofty pursuits like philosophy, craftsmanship, science, and entrepreneurship
A world without boredom is a world with less creativity, less meaningful social bonds, and worse physical and mental health. Being bored was never a good thing. But the things that we did to avoid boredom made us far better off – both as individuals, and as a society.
A Day in the Life of a Dog
If the above sounds extremely preachy, rest assured that I am the biggest culprit of all. I’ve increasingly noticed in myself all the ways in which the lack of boredom has steadily derailed my life.
If you asked me to describe my ideal day, it would be one where I spend time connecting meaningfully with my wife and children, engage in physical activities like hikes, get my chores done proactively, pursue meaningful hobbies like writing, and reflect mindfully on my life and thoughts.
Realistically however, I don’t spend the majority of my free time on any of the above. I spend the majority of my free time watching on-demand television, playing video games, and browsing social media. I tell people that I like to spend my free time connecting with my family, hiking, reading, and writing – but anyone observing my daily life would know that is nothing more than a lie. “I like to spend my free time playing mediocre video games and mindlessly surfing social media” would be a far more honest answer.
As an experiment, my wife and I once resolved to spend an entire day with no television, computers, smartphones, or even books. It has been years since that experiment, but the experience is still seared into our brains. For the first time in decades, we both felt unbelievably bored. Bored out of our minds. A type of boredom that most people in the world today cannot even relate to.
And in a desperate attempt to relieve that boredom, I did every single thing on my list of what an ideal day would look like.
Objectively, that was one of the best days of my life. And yet, we never repeated that experience again. We simply lacked the willpower to put ourselves through that ordeal. An easy relief to boredom is the most addictive thing in the world.
Related links:
Starve the Beast – how to get shit done in your life
The Fascinating Science of Boredom: Is It Actually Good for Us?
Niksen Is the Dutch Lifestyle Concept of Doing Nothing
Outlook Zen 
It reminds me of Infinite Jest. The Entertainment is lethal in its capacity to entertain: those who watch the film enjoy it so much that they become obsessed with rewatching it. As a result they lose all desire for any other activity, including essentials such as eating, drinking and sleeping.