The National author in the UAE reflects on the loss of the habit of being bored
In the UAE, a communications consultant and columnist for The National reflects on how smartphones, streaming services and constant access to information are pushing moments of idleness and boredom out of everyday life. He described an airport waiting area where passengers were occupied with screens but hardly spoke to one another.
Pauses constantly filled
According to the author, it is now much easier to find something to do than to be left without anything to do. While waiting for an elevator or when milk is boiling on the stove, people, he observes, check messages, news, sports scores or the weather forecast.
The author notes that people carry more books in their pockets than old libraries held, more music than a radio station could play in a year, and enough films to last until retirement. At the same time, he says, people still complain that there is nothing to watch.
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He also mentions Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who said that the service's real competitor is not another studio but sleep. The columnist calls this an apt business strategy, but also an alarming description of everyday life.
Space for thoughts
The author recalls train journeys when the landscape outside the window became entertainment: houses, a farmer walking behind livestock, children playing cricket on a dusty field, or a cyclist hurrying in an unknown direction. He remembers such trips better than the last film watched during a flight because they left room for his own thoughts.
He does not call technology the main problem. In his view, people have begun to perceive boredom as a condition that needs to be eliminated, although temporary idleness can make it possible to notice details, reflect and imagine. On his next flight, the author plans to leave his headphones in his bag for a while and look out of the window.
