We live in a time where everything is ever-changing.

I am inviting you to imagine this along with me. Think of a person that spends uncountable hours doomscrolling on social media nonstop, whether it be Instagram, TikTok, or whatever else. How many seconds do you think they spend watching one single video, before scrolling onto the next one?
Regardless of the answer, this undoubtedly leads to a shortened attention span.

Dopamine is right in front of them, ready to be collected. Why wouldn’t they take it? And so, they do. And again, with a scroll. And again, with another scroll. And so on. Whenever they do decide to end this activity of doomscrolling, they proceed to go on with their day-to-day activities, whatever they may be.

After scrolling through hundreds, if not thousands in some cases, of videos in a single doomscrolling session, what has this person obtained? Temporary dopamine? An “oh, that’s cool.” thought? Maybe a couple, if not more “oh, that’s cool.” thoughts? Maybe a “huh.” here and there. Occasionally a “wow!”.

We are very curious beings. It’s no wonder that an app that manages to deliver such a wide array of information to us would be, at least, intriguing. Humans love information. We live in a society, after all.

The trick is that, most of the time, this information has little to no use. I’ve seen so many of my friends doomscrolling. I’ve doomscrolled myself, it’s an activity that’s regularly “enjoyed” by our societies. Yet, after each time, I can’t help but think to myself how shallow such an activity is, if done out of boredom.

boredom

 noun

/ˈbɔːdəm/

/ˈbɔːrdəm/[uncountable]

1. ​the state of feeling bored; the fact of being very boring
   • I started to eat too much out of sheer boredom.
   • Television helps to relieve the boredom of the long winter evenings.
   • I noticed her short attention span and low boredom threshold (= she got bored very quickly).

~ https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/boredom

Looking at Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, they define boredom as something that, in my opinion, needs to be quickly dealt with. Let’s analyse the examples given together:
I started to eat too much out of sheer boredom. I became bored, so I started eating. In a world where the population is increasingly overweight.
Television helps to relieve the boredom of the long winter evenings. Not an overly terrible way to spend your free time.
I noticed her short attention span and low boredom threshold (= she got bored very quickly). Here, they’ve linked getting bored very quickly and a short attention span together. Which, considering TikTok was the earlier topic of the discussion, feels very fitting. One of the ways, nowadays, to “get rid” of your boredom is by shortening your attention span. Is a short attention span something to be proud of?

The wonders of our own minds. This is what any one person could engage in, instead of scrolling on TikTok. Instead of being so external, so reactive to what is given to us, any one person can be internal. Not just with their own thoughts, but with their own advanced thoughts. As less time is spent being so external, more time would naturally be spent being more internal. Instead of stopping at the first 3 thoughts regarding any one subject, any one person could advance past that 3rd thought and analyse it deeper, thus being able to reach more solidified conclusions regarding any one subject.

Maybe, boredom is what enables our creativity. The next time you’re bored, engage with your own thoughts for 5 minutes and see where you end up.