A Small Piece on Boredom & Digitalization
Yesterday I was grabbing bagels in the West Village with a new friend, and our conversation took a turn towards my three "hill I'm willing to die on" points in regards to modern society. They are as follows
- Addiction to music is real, and very neglected
- Watching media while eating is worse for the brain than doom scrolling
- People get uncomfortable by being bored and avoid it at all costs
We honed in on the third point more, reflecting over what might be the reason for boredom to disappear from society. The main culprit is obviously the smartphone, which has given an on-demand dopamine hit regardless of where we are. People prefer to scroll on Reddit rather than standing in line and being bored. People prefer to listen to music while walking rather than taking in the views and sound around. It is much more "fun" to watch a YouTube video on the subway instead of thinking while you are on your commute to work. Evidently, it has become so normalized that it's almost instinctual to move your hand towards your pocket the second you are not entertained.
Upon further thinking, we came to the conclusion that it is all about convenience. People spend time on their phones shopping because it is more convenient than driving to the store, walking around, trying something on, and paying at the cashier. Phones and the internet have made everything from grocery shopping, to depositing money in bank accounts easier than ever, yet I feel that despite this looking positive from a quick glance, can actually be detrimental.
Let me put you in this scenario: it is the 1990's and you need to transfer money to a family member. The only way this is possible is by going to a bank, talking with the tellers, and going through with the transfer. If taking into account all the time spent (depending on how far away the bank is, how long the line at the bank is, how fast/slow their processes were), it would not be unreasonable to estimate it takes ~2 hours total to do this simple task. In modern day, with about 10 swipes and 3 minutes you can send money over to family member. Now, what happens with the spare hour and 57 minutes? You would think that it allows for more leisure, or other tasks? But ultimately, there is a higher chance that this time gets "spent" (I would be inclined to say wasted) on a fake illusion of entertainment such as TikTok, YouTube, or any media along those lines. While yes, you saved yourself a lot of hassle and time, you did nothing productive with that remaining time, so is it REALLY a good thing to digitalize all these processes?
Now, I am not saying I am not a victim of this (because if anything, I am worse than the average person for knowing yet not doing anything about it). I like to think that we are all frogs inside a boiling pot, in which the boiling water represents the addiction and dependence on phones and entertainment, slowly but surely harming us yet we do not realize it. Then there is people like me, who realize this yet still allow themselves to fall into this cycle again and again. I am also not saying that humans should rid themselves of social media or entertainment means, because they are necessary (we are not robots), but I do think there needs to be a drastic change in the way we approach media.
I would much rather lose 30 minutes to an hour going to/from the grocery store and being able to see, feel and choose my groceries rather than saving myself time from just ordering online and then wasting that saved time anyways. I feel like the human aspect to SO many things is being abstracted, and with the huge push of AI on every single thing it is not becoming any better. To keep it short, I will just say what I am aiming to do to combat this (and trust me, this is not a battle, but rather an endless war). I will purposely make myself more bored. When I am walking from point A to point B, I'll just think. When I am eating, I will just eat. When I am waiting in line for food, I will look around. This is how you un-fry your dopamine receptors one day at a time, and how you humanize yourself in a de-humanized society.