"I'm bored," were the two words that, while I was growing up, would absolutely pierce the ears of my grandmother. "There is no reason for you to be bored!" Meme would snap back. Annoyed at the time with her comment, my youthful mind could not wrap around the concept of not being bored. If I didn't have a game to play, or a craft to make, or a show to watch, how could she not understand that I was indeed, bored?
Luckily, my childhood just barely missed the wave of entertainment on a portable rectangular screen. I liked to play, read, create, etc. I think that because of the technological advancements that became popular in my preteen years, I was able to adjust to that in a different way than I would have if I had been indulged in it at an earlier age. To this day, however, I still find myself feeling "bored," most likely because of this new adapted culture of constant stimulation that we have.
Sometimes I feel like all I ever do are things I have to do.
Scrolling through social media can even feel like a chore to me. When I find myself not feeling content with the state of entertainment I'm in, I have flashbacks to my childhood of the words of my grandmother. When my sister and I complained to her about being bored, my Meme would become somewhat upset, but more so influential. She always pushed the act of reading a book to us two Disney Channel advocates- we never really liked the idea of turning off "That's So Raven" or "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."
Her insight, though, is useful in my life today. Sometimes it is good to get a break from technology.
There is so much life to live, see, and do outside of our screens. In addition, there is no reason to be bored. I would go to say that our love for technology is actually making this state of mind so prevalent in our culture. We expect to be constantly entertained and our minds just cannot understand the idea of doing "nothing." It is so easy for us to complain about it, too.
There are so many places to go, people to see, things to do, but sometimes, it is necessary to just be still (check Psalm 46:10). Sometimes it is good to ignore the "thank you, next" feeling we get in our everyday life with entertainment. We want, so much, to go onto the next thing.
When you find yourself feeling bored, or just not content with where you are or who you're with or what you are doing, the best thing to do may just be to take a deep breath- it is okay to not always be doing the most fun or cool thing, which is hard because of the jealousy and fear of missing out that social media causes us. Most importantly - there is truly never a reason to be bored.
