Harvard Professor Says ‘Be Bored to Be Happy’
When you stand in a queue or wait for a lift, what do you do? Like most people, you probably take your phone out of your pocket and start scrolling, swiping, or streaming. Why is it so common? How hard is it to simply do nothing? As this peculiar behaviour was prevailing throughout the world, a Harvard professor, Arthur C Brooks, came up with an odd yet incredible solution for happiness-boredom.
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Brook stresses on,
You need to be bored. You will have less meaning, and you will be more depressed if you are never bored. I mean, it couldn’t be clearer.
On the YouTube channel of Harvard Business Review, the social expert and the author of From Strength to Strength suggests that our discomfort with boredom fuels the modern health crisis. By eliminating free time, we miss the chance for creativity and introspection, which helps in connecting with a sense of purpose.
What Science Says About Boredom
According to the social scientist, boredom signals the default mode network (a set of regions) in our brain.
Boredom is a tendency for us to not be occupied otherwise cognitively, which switches over our thinking system to use a part of our brain called the default mode network, he said.
That sounds fancy. It’s really not.
According to the professor, our wandering thoughts depended on this network, which sometimes drifts our focus to big and uncomfortable questions like, ‘What is the meaning of my life? Is it the right path I am walking on?’ This discomfort is precisely the mechanism that triggers most people today to reach for their devices.
With his Harvard colleague Dan Gilbert, Brooks ran an experiment in 2014. The experiment required volunteers to sit for 15 minutes in a room and do nothing. In front of them, there was a button programmed to deliver an electric shock if pressed. In this experiment, the majority preferred a shock over doing nothing.
‘Oh No!’ We Have Killed Boredom
As his opinion goes, modern society in the 21st century has mastered the art of escaping boredom. And the cost was losing connection with any meaningful sensation. “We figured out a way to eliminate boredom,” he says.
We’ve been able, almost completely, to shut off the default mode network in our brains. How? The answer is that thing in your pocket with the screen.
The professor explains that smartphones are rewriting’s brain network to avoid the moment of reflection.
If every time you’re slightly bored, you pull out your phone, it’s going to get harder and harder for you to find meaning. That’s the recipe for depression and anxiety and a sense of hollowness, which, by the way, are all through the roof,
warns the social scientist.
Master Boredom As A Skill
As a prescription, the author suggests small periods of boredom to include in our routine. Here is one challenge from him: “Tomorrow, when you go to the gym, don’t take your phone. Can you handle it?”
“Not listening to a podcast while you’re working out. Just being in your head. I promise you, you’ll have your most interesting ideas while you’re working out without devices.”
According to the professor, boredom, just like focus or mindfulness, can be developed as a skill. This skill gets sharper when periods are 15 minutes or longer.
If you get better at the skill of boredom, you’ll be less bored with your job, your relationships, and the things going on around you.
He admitted that he himself is not immune to the gripping temptations of technology. But the professor has maintained certain boundaries to avoid overwhelming consumption.
Moving Beyond Screen to Find Meaning
Despite all this emphasis on boredom, the social scientist is not telling you to stop using technology entirely. He views reclaiming control over time and attention as a more crucial step here.
Here is the final appeal from the Harvard professor, which sounds more like a fatherly plea,
“Put down your phones. You need more meaning in your life. And so do I.”
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