We are so bored in an information-overloaded world
It's about turning emptiness into purpose
Image by Freepik
We live in an era of both abundance and emptiness. Despite being surrounded by endless entertainment options, people feel more detached than ever before. Surveys reveal that boredom has increased over the years, especially among young people. A large-scale study of 106,784 students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades found that boredom has surged significantly from 2008 to 2017. People are also bored at work. A survey of 2,000 workers found that 46% were bored at least three days a week.
Boredom is more than just a fleeting discomfort; it’s associated with negativity, lack of purpose and meaning. When prolonged, it becomes ennui, and can lead to anxiety, depression, and a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction.
What causes boredom? It’s a void created when challenge or stimulation are missing. But boredom means far more than simply lacking something interesting to do; it’s the absence of meaning in our information-overloaded, frenzied, cluttered lives.
So why is it that we’re so bored, despite the fact that we have seemingly endless choices--we can read books, visit with friends, take a walk, go to a concert, or play pickleball? One reason lies in how we choose to alleviate boredom—instead of engaging in these activities we often reach for the closest thing at hand. We pick up our smartphones, go online and browse social media. We’re still bored because we’re not addressing the real issue underlying boredom.
Research supports the link between boredom and digital media use. A large meta-analysis of studies on boredom found an association between being bored and using digital media, and in fact, the correlation is even stronger with excessive digital media use. Another study specifically examined smartphone use and found that when people were bored they quickly addressed the problem by picking up their phones. What is concerning is that after using their phones, they reported being even more bored and fatigued.
So why does this happen? One reason is the mental effort required to constantly switch attention on a phone—when scrolling, texting, toggling between apps. Each switch demands cognitive effort to reorient to a different context, and when we do it enough, it leaves us mentally drained.
In the same way that we pick up the TV remote and start flipping through channels when we’re bored, we do the same with social media: we switch between apps or scroll through Reels or TikTok hoping to find content to stimulate us. And this only serves to fatigue us.
Another reason we get more bored when using our devices is that we can speed up the playback of books or podcasts. Our devices have enabled us to manipulate time. Why listen to a long description in an audio book passage when we can simply fast-forward through it, skip sections, or speed up the playback speed?
Research does indeed show that the more switching that people do, the more bored they feel. When they are switching between screens, skipping sections of a book, or fast-forwarding videos, they actually experience more boredom. This quick-fix mentality lets us consume content faster but it’s not curing our boredom because we’re not immersing ourselves in deeper, more fulfilling activities.
When we habitually turn to social media or gaming to alleviate boredom, we create a feedback loop of instant gratification. Over time, this reliance on surface-level stimulation fails to address the deeper underlying causes of boredom: a lack of purpose or meaning in one’s life.
To counteract boredom, we must engage in activities that provide depth and fulfillment. Social media falls short because it offers only shallow glimpses into others' lives, lacking the substance to truly engage us or touch anything deeper in us.
We cannot gain meaning from fragmented attention. Meaningful engagement requires sustained attention. To combat boredom effectively, we need to break the cycle of reaching for our devices and instead seek out activities that immerse us deeply.
What can we do? The first step is to break the feedback loop of reaching for our devices when bored. But for that to work we need an alternative to our devices.
Of course the best antidote for boredom is reading. Not reading shortform content, but rather reading a deep, challenging and inspirational book. It can be fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or older—it doesn’t matter as long as it captures your attention and gets you to think. A good book can give us a different perspective on the world or can change something within ourselves.
Another proven way to overcome boredom is to take up a hobby. Instead of reaching for your phone to go on social media, spend some time researching what hobbies you might be interested in. For example, you might want to take up painting, gardening, learning a language, filmmaking, woodworking, reading, or writing. You can even start a Substack like I did.
Boredom can weigh us down or it can be a trigger for creativity. It can spur us to uncover passion for something. It might take several starts to find what you like, so be patient. You might discover the inner poet or songwriter in yourself. Give yourself time: passion can grow when you’re on a path of gaining expertise and knowledge in something.
View your creative pursuit as an exit ramp from a dependency on your device and an entrance ticket to an exciting experience. The key to counteracting boredom is to be active, to learn something, to engage in an experience where you have intrinsic interest (yes, reading is active).
Join a community with others who share your new interest. As a novice, you will start out at the periphery of the community, say of a bird watching group, but as you learn more you will gradually move to the center and become a full-fledged member. That kills two birds with one stone (a distateful pun), as you’ll be overcoming boredom and social isolation at the same time.
Boredom is a reminder that the human spirit craves depth and purpose. No app can serve that need. Reading a challenging book can give you a whole new perspective. Learning a whole new area, say horticulture, offers the fulfillment of nurturing growth through your own efforts. Having a creative conversation with another person can make you feel alive. These are the type of activities where passion resides, whereas scrolling on social media provides only surface stimulation, leaving you emptier the longer you stay on it. Consider how boredom can be a gateway for discovery.
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You can learn more about how we can control our attention with our devices in my book Attention Span.