Hustle culture taught us to multitask and view boredom as laziness.
But somewhere between fun-centric offices and bottomless social media feeds, we lost the plot.
Increasingly, we’re seeing boredom through a different lens—not as emptiness, but a space for vital psychological processes. We’re considering that not every moment should be force-filled. In fact, our best creativity, clarity, and recalibration are born out of empty spaces—if we make room.
The urge to fill every gap remains strong, with many defaulting to familiar digital habits—refreshing apps, jumping between tabs, or playing slot machines online as a way to inject a burst of stimulation into otherwise idle moments.
But we also remember long, lazy afternoons of childhood with a kind of nostalgia. We know the free moments were filled with intangible value that we miss.
Slowly, people are intentionally unscheduling. They’re taking the long route and returning to comfy cafe nooks instead of drive-thrus. They nap. This quiet insistence on making space is a rebellion. And boredom, once feared, is becoming sacred.
Constant Stimulation Is the Theft of Invention
Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and co-author of The Anxious Generation, studies the phenomenon of smartphones hijacking attention spans and programming our brains. His findings are sobering: kids today miss out on unstructured play more than previous generations and spend far more time in dopamine loops.
Parental fears of boredom result in closely controlled childhoods, digital babysitters, and restrictive structure. Instead of building forts and worlds out of sticks and dirt, children increasingly scroll and swipe their days away between scheduled appointments.
The natural alchemy of the boredom gap causes young minds to utilize space for experiments, insights, and agency over their environment. Without reasons to test ideas and limits, they’ve become increasingly anxious, with shorter attention spans, decreased creativity, and resilience.
But here’s the good news: awareness is growing. As parents, psychologists, and educators sound the alarm, we’re viewing boredom in a new light. Left alone with “nothing to do,” a child doesn’t become stagnant. Instead, the vacuum fills with an impulse to invent. They make up stories. They notice, construct, and collaborate. Boredom becomes fertile soil for healthy development.
We Need Boredom
Grown-up brains aren’t so different from kids’. We’ve spent a couple decades outsourcing our downtime to devices and entertainment, but studies point to short-term and long-term drawbacks of chronic busyness.
Dividing attention between shifting inputs impairs the quality of our analysis, empathy, and awareness in each area. This “switching cost” depletes our effectiveness while jumping between tasks. Studies even suggest that heavy multitaskers have less gray matter density in brain regions connected to emotional regulation and cognition.
If you feel like your mind needs a little space to breathe, you’re onto something. A rising tide of wellness experts are promoting the old, slower way of being. Boredom isn’t our enemy, but a necessary and valuable state where good things happen.
The Rise of Unscheduling
Unsurprisingly, even rest and relaxation have been commodified, from meditation and yoga classes to apps that track self-improvement.
Truly doing nothing—not even mindfulness practice—is radical. When was the last time you had a whole Saturday to putter without goals or lists? The last time you stared out a window with a cup of tea? Letting your mind drift can accomplish the quiet work of processing and unlock clarity that task engagement can’t.
The unscheduling movement prioritizes white space in your calendar without a plan to fill it. It’s about removing pressure to produce, consume, or entertain yourself every moment. It’s about letting children unlock their own creativity.
The absence of input may seem uncomfortable at first. We’re conditioned to ride continual waves of sensory stimulation. However, people increasingly find that unplugging allows boredom to bloom into benefits.
Progress Looks Like Balanced Boredom
Of course, smartphones aren’t going anywhere, and activities for kids can be fun and enriching. We don’t need to unravel our lives, stop working or planning. But recognizing that we may have drifted into stimulation addiction is a turning point for change.
It’s okay to be a little bored, and “nothing to do” may be a blessing in disguise.
So, the next time you feel an impulse to grab your phone, fill the silence, or plan the entire weekend—pause. Boredom isn’t our enemy. Sometimes children need only sunshine, dirt, and imagination. Sometimes closing tabs—on your browser and in your brain—is an invitation to grow.
