We have an endless amount of information and games at our fingertips, but it’s rotting our brains.

We need to soak in more idle time. No scrolling, music, podcasts, or audiobooks. Try it, even for a few minutes.

Notice how relaxed and grounded you feel when you simply observe and think?

We really don’t know how to stop and smell the roses anymore.... See more

But if the deep roots of boredom are in a lack of meaning, rather than a shortage of stimuli, and if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning, then the constant flow of information to which we are becoming habituated cannot deliver on such a promise. At best, it allows us to distract ourselves with the... See more

Boredom, for example, has become a collateral victim. It hasn’t disappeared — we’ve simply made it illegitimate. We erase it, fill it, scroll it away. At the slightest pause, we reach for our phones. It’s become a reflex. Boredom is seen as an error to correct, a glitch in the system.

And yet, it’s anything but useless. In philosophy, Heidegger saw... See more