The Death of Boredom: Search volume for “boredom” drops from 100 to 34

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2 points·less_penguiny··5 comments

This is actually one of the most fascinating things.

I’ve often thought that smartphones and other devices are in part powerful because they allow us to sort of frack our attention and draw out benefit from all the rounding errors and schedule gaps. Even if you’re just looking at memes in the supermarket queue, you are in some sense doing a form of work in a context where you otherwise would not be. (What work? Often: politics, group affinity reinforcement, subcultural literacy improvement, etc.)

Pervasiveness and gameification allow our devices to, as it were, chew and swallow our daydreams.

There are some studies that suggest crimes have fallen due to smartphones entertaining people. I'm not sure if any research has over-turned those findings but the authors equated it to there tends to be less crime and murders in Chicago on below freezing temperatures.

There's also this folk wisdom round when I grew up that young men with girlfriends are much less likely to get violent than those without.

So in short, fight crime with sex and entertainment.

What the long term impact on psychic economies will be is unknown, of course, but we can hazard guesses.

Buddhism has a 2500 year old interest in boredom and sees it as pivotal to the process of enlightenment.

Artists and inventors, famously, benefit from idle moments, when there is no crush of expectation or obligation to keep up with the herd.

What does a world without boredom look like? Possibly, a lot more boring.

I worry somewhat about being so saturated in outside opinions that I no longer generate my own. It's much easier to scroll down in the nth reddit thread than think on my own.

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