Boredom is a blessing | Opinion

Summer vacation is finally here, and students across South Florida will be retreating to their rooms, shutting their doors, and getting on their phones or tablets, or even putting on a VR set and disappearing into another world.

Society is obsessed with technology, and there is an app to do everything short of living life for us. A lot of people would argue that our highly evolved species should not do without the wonders of technology. In the western world particularly, constant connection is a “virtual” birthright. But are our smart devices dumbing us down?

After 16 years as a classroom teacher, I can bear witness to a change in our children, and I can tell you that boredom is a blessing that should not be avoided.

I’m not recommending boring school lessons or saying that rich experiences do not fill a vital role in our lives. The problem arises when society is unable to recognize quiet time as productive and fulfilling. Since when did the “b” word become so intolerable?

Students come to school with devices that must be placed in cell phone pockets during most of the instructional day. But cell phones are sneaky creatures; they often find their way back onto the laps of unsuspecting students. Nervous twitches are a dead giveaway. So are those notification alerts that were not adequately silenced. Under tightly controlled testing conditions, some students exhibit symptoms of “the May blues.” In teacher land, this means that early finishers view unstructured reflective time as a punishment. Not to mention the audacious advice to reread questions, double check answers or — gasp! — quietly relax.

My adult son recently thanked me for choosing a focused high school for him rather than one with unlimited extracurricular options. I was always concerned that he might feel stifled without an endless supply of activity. His small technical high school was not structured for constant stimulation, but students learned volumes about themselves. Many of them graduated with a sense of maturity and other-centered focus that belied their years.

Unscripted alone time does not equal mental atrophy or loneliness. In fact, it is a valuable commodity in a world that pressures us to speed into unknown territory, often without the necessary skillset or a map for the journey.

If we want to know why kids are so focused on constant stimulation, we ought to look at ourselves. Are we modeling a healthy balance for the next generation, or are we even worse? Endless scrolling through social media has become the adult pacifier when waiting for an appointment — or even for a red light to change. And to be frank, most of it is mind-numbing material that does nothing to unleash the creative energy in our brains. So, do we really need to be entertained 24/7?

I grew up in the 1980s, with a lot of spare time on my hands and without being held hostage by a screen. My friends and I made our own fun as we barreled down the street on two wheels until sundown, carefully filling our bicycle baskets with tattered matchbooks, discarded receipts, rocks and bottle caps — all “clues” for future detective work. Our imaginations ran as wild as our wind-blown hair. These were times when weekend entertainment required the obligatory trip to Blockbuster Video. A cursory glance at childhood journals reveals “world-changing inventions” pondered in those mundane moments.

I love giving my students an occasional prompt about “Wi-Fi-Free Fun” and letting them brainstorm ways to fill a hypothetical summer calendar without any video games, streaming, texting or scrolling. Once their initial gag reflex passes, they turn out to be a pretty creative bunch. Divergent thinking requires space and time. If, as legend says, Isaac Newton was daydreaming when that apple fell, how many more discoveries await in the blessed expanse of boredom?

Are we addicted to activity? Does technology “autothink” for us? The scourge of the 21st century is the roar of overstimulation, but you can opt for the quiet stream and invoke the power of your own imagination. This summer, reach back to simpler times to reach forward with greater impact!

Wendy Miller-Aguiar, of Davie, is a middle school language arts and creative writing teacher at Somerset Academy Charter School in Pembroke Pines. She used the “boring” 2020 lockdown to write her first book.