In pursuit of boredom

Also: In Taylor Swift’s songs, I hear my own story too [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser]( May 21, 2023 Dear Cog reader, I lived in New York City for five years in my 20s. Back then, in the early aughts, moving to “the city” was a [reasonable thing for recent college graduates]( to do (jobs to be had, apartments that weren’t too outrageously expensive). The subway was my primary mode of transportation, and I always had a book or magazine to keep me occupied. To make plans with friends, we called each other on our Nokia flip phones. (Texting took too long because you had to tap out each letter on the number keys.) Maybe you see where I’m going with this: the world was a lot different before we all walked around with tiny supercomputers in our pockets. Jonathan Fitzgerald is an assistant professor of humanities at Regis College. After realizing the depths of his iPhone addiction, he deleted nearly every app: social media, games, news, even Google. And then he wrote an essay about the experience. The research on what smartphones [do to our brains]( is well-trod, and I agree that the way in which we can easily capture life moments instead of experience them is alarming. But we’ve all read that before. Jonathan’s essay is about a bigger idea. He’s poking at the all-important role of boredom in the human psyche. Letting yourself be bored means escaping the trap of perpetual distraction our phone appendages all-to-easily offer up. In a very real way, his experience was about relearning to be alone with himself. “I watch people; I forgot how much I enjoyed doing that,” [Jonathan writes](. “I think and plan and talk to myself like I always used to. I realize now that I missed me — the me that always lives inside my head.” Last fall I took a day off from work and went for a walk. A long walk — about 20 miles over six hours. I brought snacks and water and my phone (in case of an emergency), but the plan was to walk in silence: no podcasts, no books on tape, no music, no phone calls. For the first hour, my brain ping-ponged all over as I remembered to-dos, thought about weekend plans and wished I didn’t have to “waste time” by plodding along in silence. But by hour two, my brain settled down. Without any distractions, it was open to taking in all the little wondrous things around me: dogs, rustling leaves, big truckloads of sand, teenagers on bikes. Serendipity in modern life can be hard to come by — apart from my Sunday newspaper, almost everything I read, listen to and watch is curated by an algorithm tailor-made for my interests. My walk was an exercise in letting life unfold. I don’t possess Jonathan’s fortitude to delete all my apps, but his essay did remind me how good it feels to be bored sometimes. Maybe you’ll give it a try this weekend? Yours in pursuit of boredom, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow](  Support the news   Must Reads [I made my smartphone dumb. I like it — and me — better this way]( I realize now that I missed me — the me that always lived inside my head, writes Jonathan D. Fitzgerald. For years, I was good company for myself until I fell into the trap of endless distraction. [Read more.]( [I made my smartphone dumb. I like it — and me — better this way]( I realize now that I missed me — the me that always lived inside my head, writes Jonathan D. Fitzgerald. For years, I was good company for myself until I fell into the trap of endless distraction. [Read more.]( [I traveled with my students to the Rio Grande Valley. I hope what they saw will stay with them]( Dr. Luz Marilis López took students on a 10-day trip to the Rio Grande Valley. They saw desperation and frustration at the border first-hand, but also got to know the families, and the stories that brought them there. 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