I remember reading an article saying the creativity that comes only after you experience profound boredom is what we’ve lost. We have so many options so easily available, the next dopamine hit is only ever minutes away a lot of people never need to make it past superficial boredom

https://archive.ph/OLGDp paywall

At first I was like wtf is with this author. I’m millenial/gen z and even I remember what we did. TV, books, and calling your friends on your wired phone attached to the wall.

But as I read the article, I kinda get it. There was a ton of down time and boredom. However, I disagree that the nothingness was this horrible thing. I think the “nothing ever happens” is what our brains handle much better than “there’s too much happening.”

Our brains literally can’t process the firehose of information streaming into our eyeballs 24/7 365. It starts to go in your eyes and right out your ears. My memory is shit now. I’m forgetting important stuff because it keeps getting deleted to make room for more garbage data like endless dank memes and posts. I think the nothingness, along with REM sleep (which is also disrupted by screens), is what’s needed to help process and therefore retain new information.

I’m trying to spend less time on screens because it feels like dementia and it’s freaking me out.