The statistics are impressive: We check our phones an average of 344 times a day. Once every 4 minutes. It is as if we have developed a phobia of boredom, a terror of mental emptiness that must be filled at all costs. But this escape from boredom has a very high price that we are starting to pay: the loss of our natural creative capacity.
The Comfort Zone of Digital Distraction
I realized the extent of the problem one afternoon, watching my 7-year-old daughter doing her homework. Every two minutes her gaze would dart toward a screen. Any screen, be it the TV, or a tablet, or a cell phone: as if attracted by an invisible magnet. It wasn't concentration, it was a frenetic dance between book and screen. I saw myself in her: I too, like many of us, have fallen into the trap of doomscrolling, that compulsive scrolling of content that makes us feel always connected but paradoxically increasingly empty.
The great psychologist Jean Piaget had predicted this scenario decades ago1: boredom is essential for cognitive development. It’s like a muscle that atrophies if it’s not trained. And we’re raising a generation of “mental athletes” who don’t know how to train anymore.
Falling into the Digital Rabbit Hole
The tech industry has built a perfect system to capture our attention. Every notification, every “Like”, every recommended video is scientifically designed to stimulate the release of dopamine in our brain. It's as if we were all connected to a giant Matrix that feeds on our attention.
Attention has become the new currency of the digital economy, more valuable than gold
But the price we pay is very high. A study published in Nature (I link it here) revealed that our attention spans are dramatically shortening. We are literally losing the ability to immerse ourselves deeply in anything.
The Darkest Moment: When Creativity Dies
I hit rock bottom a few weeks ago when I realized that I could no longer read a book without checking my phone every few minutes. My mind seemed incapable of sustaining any sustained effort. It was as if I had lost a superpower I had taken for granted.
And I’m not alone. Teachers, for example, report that students are having a harder time concentrating. Designers are struggling to find moments of true inspiration. Writers are struggling with creative block. Boredom, that precious incubator of ideas, is disappearing. Save boredom.
The Rise: Rediscovering the Power of Boredom
I don't know what could move at a general level: perhaps the examples of France could be useful to us (about influencers) and Sweden (on the time spent by the very young in front of the display). On a personal level, the turning point came when I started treating boredom as an opportunity rather than an enemy.
I have created “free zones” from technology (still too small): dinner, the morning walk, the “break” in the bathroom, the moments before bed. At first it was hard, like detoxing from a drug.
Then something magical happened. Ideas started flowing again. I rediscovered the pleasure of letting my mind wander without a precise destination. After all, it is in moments of boredom that some of my best intuitions were born.
A new balance for the future
It's not about demonizing technology, but about finding the right place for it in our lives. As he suggested Ortega y Gasset, “Tell me what you pay attention to and I’ll tell you who you are.” We need to regain control of our attention.
Try this little experiment: next time you are in line at the supermarket, resist the urge to reach for your phone. Observe the people around you, let your mind wander. It will feel uncomfortable at first, but that's normal. You are awakening your "forgotten" superpower.
Returning to the Creative Comfort Zone: Everything Else Is Boring
The good news? Come on, you know it. It's not too late, that's the good news. Boredom is the famous Neapolitan proverb: it gets lean, but it doesn't die. It's like a gym for the mind: the more we train it, the stronger it becomes. We don't have to give up technology, but learn to create spaces of digital silence in our day.
Think of the great geniuses of the past: Einstein, who developed his theories during long solitary walks, and Leonardo da Vinci spent hours watching the birds in flight. Boredom was not their enemy, it was their greatest ally. Of course, I would have liked to see them struggling with notifications: would they surely have resisted? Who knows. The counter-proof is missing.
However, the next time you feel the urge to fill every moment with boredom and emptiness, remember that you may be wasting the opportunity for a great idea. Boredom is not the problem. It is the solution we were looking for.
- Piaget's studies on children's perception of time offer interesting insights into the topic of boredom. According to his research, 100% of children perceive the time of boredom or waiting as significantly longer than the time spent in pleasant activities. Piaget distinguishes two fundamental temporal dimensions: The metric time (objective), and the time lived (psychological). The perception of duration depends strongly on the “affective regulation of action”: when one feels boredom, fatigue or effort, duration is evaluated in a completely different way. In particular, a state of emptiness and immobility is perceived by children (4-12 years) as longer than moments of fun and movement. ↩︎
