More than 500,000 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s 57 years worth of content. It’s like if your parents started going through YouTube videos when they were 3, they’d still be at it by the time you’ve graduated college and created your own life.
There’s a lot of content out there to consume. And we go through them like eating at a buffet.
But when we’re constantly eating, we don’t give our stomachs a chance to digest anything. It’s a recipe for indigestion. Our stomachs can only hold so much food — much like our heads can with content.
We sit at our desks all day, watching videos, listening to podcasts or music, and reading articles. Then when we get up to move but we’re still plugged in somehow, whether through wireless earphones or smart watches.
At least when we head to the bathroom to do a number 2, it means that the food we ate was digested. But our eyes and mind continue munching on content on our phones.
This is why I think it’s important to be bored sometimes. It’s space for your mind to digest.
I used to think that being bored was a bad thing. “You’re better than that”, I’d chastise myself. thought it meant that I had grown somewhat ungrateful for everything around me, as if boredom was equal to complacency. But that may not always be accurate.
What I do know is that boredom can be a gateway to insights. It’s where good ideas come from.
After all, it’s only when we’ve digested our food are we empowered by its nutrients.