IN PRAISE OF BOREDOM
When children complain that they have nothing to do, most parents hurry to solve the problem. They hand over a tablet, suggest a board game or sign the kids up for yet another after-school club. A growing number of parents and teachers, however, are trying a different approach: they simply let the children be bored. Their reasoning may sound strange at first. According to child psychologists, empty time is not wasted time. Young people who are left with nothing to do have to invent their own activities, and along the way they often discover talents and interests that they never knew they had.(lines 1–6)
Boredom is a feeling that all of us know well. It tends to appear when a task is too easy, when it seems to have no purpose, or when we are stuck somewhere we cannot leave, such as a dentist's waiting room. A recent study of 3,000 teenagers in five European countries found that most of them pick up their phones within a minute of feeling bored. At first glance, this habit seems harmless enough. After all, what is wrong with watching a funny clip while you wait? The trouble is that an endless flow of messages and videos never gives the mind a moment of silence. And according to many scientists, those silent moments are exactly where fresh ideas are born.(lines 7–13)
Psychologist Dr. Leo Hartman decided to put this belief to the test. He asked one group of volunteers to spend fifteen minutes copying long lists of numbers by hand, a task that was dull on purpose. A second group skipped this stage completely. Then everyone was handed two paper cups and told to think of as many uses for them as they could. To Hartman's surprise, the bored volunteers came up with far more ideas, although their dull task had lasted only a quarter of an hour. Next, he ran the experiment again, but this time the volunteers only read the numbers silently. His aim was to discover whether an activity that let the mind wander even more freely would lead to even more original answers. It did.(lines 14–21)
So when does boredom actually help us? Experts say that it pays off most when we allow our thoughts to drift instead of filling every empty minute with a screen. Staring out of a bus window or lying on the grass may be enough. Neuroscientist Dr. Ruth Alvarez points out that many people get their best ideas in the shower or on a long walk. "During simple, routine activities, the brain is not focused on any particular problem," she explains. "That is when it begins to connect pieces of information in new ways, and suddenly a solution appears."(lines 22–28)
Some schools have already started to put these findings into practice. Instead of filling every break with activities, teachers give their classes ten minutes of quiet time with no phones, books or tasks. Early reports are encouraging. After such a break, many students come back to class calmer, and they find it easier to concentrate on difficult material. The message for all of us is simple: the next time you feel bored, do not run away from it.(lines 29–33)