some months ago, i randomly saw a video of a musician who is doing a year of “no smart screens”. it was a bit extreme and the person made her life really inconvenient in many ways (eg, going to the library for emails and meetings, etc). from what i gathered, she was very much addicted to social media and perhaps that was what was necessary for her to break that addiction. but by doing this, she eliminated the majority of distractions and things stealing her attention for hours every single day. on her reflections after a few months of this change (recorded on a camcorder and uploaded by a friend), she was realizing that one of the things that changed in her life is that she’s bored a lot — and because she has no easy escape from this boredom, she ends up using the time for reading or doing stuff she needs to do (or even wants to do!) but previously “didn’t have time for”.
it all sounds so logical and simple that it’s even a little silly to write about it… but i think i’m now realizing that in order to have time (and also to have the feeling of having time), you need to be bored and not be constantly chasing away that boredom with quick distractions. and it feels like we sort of killed that kind of boredom these days, in the era of smartphones, internet, social media, netflix, online gaming et al. hence, we’re never bored and we never feel like we have time for the things we really want to do. it’s even worse if those things are a little bit time-consuming or slightly difficult.
i guess i got a glimpse of that during the blackout last year, when i actually did other things for once — things like putting together a video that i’ve had on my to-do list for years, but “didn’t have time” to do. when the internet went away, i was stuck with what i had in my computer or around me, and worked within those constraints to fight the boredom and make something. it’s kind of wondrous, to have time to be creative and do things like that — or just time to reflect. i think this is the first long blog post i’ve written in years, and it’s part because of this realization that i need the boredom and the constraints more than the quick hit of a distraction. honestly, it’s been a little bit game-changing.
anyway, i’m rambling but i do want to turn this summer into the “summer of boredom”. i want my phone (and the internet) to become a tool instead of a toy that i use to distract myself. i want to be so bored that i read books and long articles, do crafts, clean the windows, research stuff, write letters, draw, take pictures with my dusty analogue cameras… the things that make me “me”. i want to be less distracted, and more looking for things to do. so… let the summer of boredom begin!