Recently, I read a New York Times opinion piece titled “Let Children Get Bored Again: Boredom teaches us that life isn’t a parade of amusements, it spawns creativity and self-sufficiency.” The piece laments that kids these days no longer make their own fun, that now “every spare moment is to be optimized, maximized, driven to a goal.” I don’t disagree. Today’s children have schedules packed with extracurriculars like lessons and sports. Looking back on my own school experience, my free time was certainly limited. Rigorous academics left me with only a few hours a week that I then dedicated towards music lessons and Latin club. Where I disagree with the article is that kids expect life to be a “parade of amusements.” For many of us, our lives were starting to feel more like a white-collar hell by the time we turned 12.
It’s because we value human capital more than we ever have before. Every parent wants their kid to be smart, skilled and successful. We prepare ourselves to be marketable to colleges so we can be ready for the job force. Even earlier than that, though, we’re signed up to learn piano or dance or join the T-ball team. Kids always have to be busy, always building skills. We’re told that our futures depend on it. For that reason, when a moment of free time comes along, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We freak out.
Kids of today don’t get bored, they get anxious. We don’t see the value in boredom because it feels like a waste. Why would we want to sit around or be creative when we’ve been told that it’s shameful to rest? We know from a young age that time is a precious resource and should be used wisely. Thus, it feels like time is fleeting or we’re doing something wrong when we sit around and do nothing.
I’m already seeing consequences of this “grind-‘til-you-die” mentality in my adult life. Most of my peers, myself included, have been diagnosed with some type of anxiety disorder. We don’t know how to manage time alone with our thoughts, since we’ve never seen it as a relevant skill. I feel pangs of guilt every time I sit down to play a video game or go out with friends. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve truly enjoyed a vacation because I could be doing something productive. Instead, I’m indulging in wasteful practices that don’t have any particular end goal. Having fun or doing nothing for nothing’s sake is never a good enough reason.
I agree with the article that boredom is essential. Kids should be allowed to be bored. It’s essential to creativity, self-sufficiency and stress management. We all need limits — without them, we become anomic and existential. If we’re always reaching for more, our self-improvement boundless, we break down because we are never enough. However, we can’t complain that kids expect to be kept busy all the time when we raise them to do so. I feel that it must fall to families and communities to instill values of a work-life balance from a young age. It is unhelpful to sign kids up for endless activities and advanced classes, and to later turn around and scold them when they feel unfulfilled doing nothing.
Learning to be bored doesn’t have to be monumental. Whether it’s taking one less work intensive class or taking a vacation without bringing along schoolwork, we all can take small steps to learn to appreciate stillness in life. We might as well try it and twiddle our thumbs while we see what happens.
Olivia Proe, a Viewpoints Editor for the Voice, can be reached for comment at OProe21@wooster.edu.