My seven-year-old cousin, Evan, came in the living room a few days ago sighing heavily. He plopped down on the couch as I asked him what was wrong. “I’m bored,” he replied as he instinctively began to pick through the multicolored pile of disks which consisted of his Nintendo DS games. “I’ve played all these games,” he continued. Dissatisfied, he wandered out of the room and shortly came back with an iPhone; which he was content to play with for the next hour until becoming bored again. The situation illustrated here is indicative of a frequent occurrence in today’s society. An occurrence that is not uncommon to both adolescents and adults across the spectrum of race, religion, and nationality; boredom. Everyone experiences it, no matter how old you are, who you are, or where you’re from. Boredom can be considered one of life’s great equalizers. While boredom itself has not changed, how people deal with it has.
Today when people are bored, as if on autopilot, we immediately turn to technology. We scroll through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or play video games or watch a program on TV. Since digital technology has become so ubiquitous in everyday life, many people have questioned its effects on a range of topics including interpersonal relationships, health, and human creativity.
Boredom is essential to human creativity because when people are bored, they get inventive. Experiencing boredom puts a person in a position where the only available course of action is to get inspired. The mind wanders as the brain contemplates various information and compiles ideas it would not otherwise produce. In these situations, a person’s potential is tested and their creativity is sparked.
Using technology offers a temporary cure for boredom, and overstimulates our brains in such a way that does not allow the mind to be as creative as it could be. As the years go by and more research is conducted, neuroscience is making clear just how important boredom is for the human brain. In an article on WYNC.org called "The Case for Boredom," Jonny Smallwood, a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of York in the UK, stated, "There’s a close link between originality, novelty, and creativity... and these sort of spontaneous thoughts that we generate when our minds are idle." Another instructor studying the impact of boredom on creativity is Dr. Sandi Mann, a psychology professor from the University of Central Lancashire. In the same article, Mann stated: "Boredom has always been seen as something to be eliminated, but perhaps we should be embracing it in order to enhance our creativity."
