This might have been an experience specific to childhood. I remember summer vacations, no money to go do anything, or buy any new media, and then my neighbor friend’s family would leave town for a week and I’d be BORED
Replies
As a kid I was bored enough to walk the dirt trail out to the settler's graveyard, make pencil rubbings of the old gravestones (written in German), and kick a pine cone all the way back home
apr 19, 2025, 3:43 am • 2 0 • view
I miss being bored.
apr 19, 2025, 1:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Today, we call it scrolling.
apr 19, 2025, 4:12 pm • 2 0 • view
I literally pulled petals off daisies to see “if he loved me.” Then squeezed the center and blew the seeds into the wind. If any landed on the back of my hand, that’s how many kids I’d have. Did this over and over and over… 😆
apr 19, 2025, 10:15 pm • 4 0 • view
"You're not bored, you're boring." <-- said to me repeatedly, by adults as a child. True now, my child is never bored if there's a screen nearby. It's hard to reach the end of the Internet. (he has tried)>
apr 19, 2025, 5:36 pm • 1 0 • view
I was never bored, because being bored led to getting assigned chores.
apr 19, 2025, 5:58 pm • 9 0 • view
What neighbor friend? I lived outside the city limits of a small town, and there was a gap between the kids in my family, so my siblings were married or in college. Boredom was my default setting.
apr 19, 2025, 3:20 pm • 2 0 • view
We didn't have a library and the nearest theater was 30 miles away, so I read and reread our books and rode my bike.
apr 19, 2025, 3:21 pm • 1 0 • view
I remember when we didn't go away for a weekend I would just play outside all day. No phone, tablet, etc. Just my bike, sometimes my dog. A Walkman (?!) When I was older. Play football, basketball, baseball. Walk to my local comic book shop. I was an only child so I figured ways to entertain myself.
apr 19, 2025, 4:01 pm • 3 1 • view
A guy I knew has an iPad kid who would throw a tantrum every time she'd get bored, insisting he entertain her. If I told my parents I was bored as a kid, they'd tell me, "tough shit, go find something to do. I'm busy." Now kids like her lose their mind the second their tablet dies
apr 19, 2025, 12:02 am • 3 1 • view
I feel sorry for kids today.
apr 19, 2025, 12:11 am • 3 0 • view
Being Original Resolves Each Dilemma
apr 19, 2025, 1:08 am • 1 0 • view
I was never bored as long as I had a library to go to and a book to read.
apr 19, 2025, 6:42 pm • 4 0 • view
Same. My main source was the school library but my mother scoured garage sales to find books I could read over vacation. I read a weird assortment of books but I always had something.
apr 19, 2025, 7:58 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve always told my kids & grandchildren being bored is the best as your creative imagination kicks in❤️
apr 19, 2025, 2:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes it is still a thing, just addressed thru doom scrolling. keep up the nice mushroom pics please!
apr 19, 2025, 3:08 am • 2 0 • view
I'd say it's an experience more specific to suburbs. Even if you had money, there's nowhere to buy anything because it's all residential property. Meaning you also need a car. And since suburbs are nothing but private property and road for cars, there's nothing for children to actually do.
apr 19, 2025, 1:59 pm • 2 0 • view
I have no idea if my teenager is bored because when he was small and complained about it all my suggestions were cleaning.
apr 19, 2025, 4:05 pm • 1 0 • view
I saw an article from NPR re a study on disabling your phones internet and just using it as a dumb phone improved happiness and or cognitive function in 90+% after a 2 week. Being bored probably helped bring those improvements on. I think we need it.
apr 18, 2025, 11:44 pm • 7 0 • view
I used to watch at least a few movies a week at the dollar theater 5+ miles from my house. I don't mean that in a "I was biking and that's why everyone's fat now" but it was summer and I was that bored.
apr 19, 2025, 2:30 pm • 4 0 • view
I think a lot of the angst over lockdowns was people were bored being stuck in their homes. 🤷
apr 19, 2025, 10:02 pm • 1 0 • view
I let my kid be bored 🤣 he comes up with sick lego builds when he's bored and awesome drawings. Constant stimulation is not good!
apr 19, 2025, 3:29 am • 1 0 • view
Grateful I lived within a mile of the public library. The ultimate boredom cure plus AC, since our 1921 house had it but leaked more air than it contained because of the poor insulation and single pane windows
apr 19, 2025, 3:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Super bored ! My mom sent us outside to play. If I complained about boredom, she would suggest “fun” stuff like picking weeds or ironing. Hard pass. Thank God there were city pools all over and we would go like three days or four a week. Of course we also walked there & back without problems.
apr 19, 2025, 6:24 pm • 8 0 • view
time.com/5480002/bene...
apr 19, 2025, 9:23 pm • 1 0 • view
Had a factory job for a couple years and it was brief moments of teeth breaking chaos between oceans of boredom from no phones allowed bc of safety. Thought i would die but i just quit
apr 19, 2025, 2:05 pm • 3 0 • view
Had the same experience and everyday I think about how glad I am it’s not my life anymore
apr 19, 2025, 2:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Wouldve stayed for more money but the two 40 year old grind bros that owned the place needed it to build giant homes and amass a fortune. Was funny, they hated when i called the place a factory
apr 19, 2025, 2:18 pm • 2 1 • view
I remember not having an instant source of varied electronic entertainment in my pocket at all times. But then I'd go for a walk, or bike ride, or grab a book, and I'd be fine.
apr 19, 2025, 1:08 pm • 7 0 • view
Boredom as an adult is what rebooted my artwork. I used to draw and sketch all the time as a teen and then adulthood happened. When I was self-quarantined with Covid a few years ago, I started it up again due to being bored of watching TV/doomscrolling . I'm so glad I had that moment of boredom 😌
apr 19, 2025, 6:04 pm • 1 0 • view
Boredom’s not a thing anymore but ennui is making a big comeback.
apr 19, 2025, 3:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Boring is peaceful.
apr 19, 2025, 2:08 pm • 3 0 • view
🤣 Your post reminded me of the title track on Duncan Sheik‘s 2006 album, White Limousine.
apr 19, 2025, 4:55 am • 1 0 • view
I never really got bored. I was also poor and alone and with less access to books in the summer, but I could easily watch dust float for hours or take off my glasses and watch the light swell and shrink as my eyes tried to focus. If anything I get bored more often now from oversaturation.
apr 19, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
There's the difference. My neighbors were all too poor to leave, too. 🙂
apr 19, 2025, 2:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Some of my friends got bored in summer...but many of us had parents who, if you admitted to being bored, found ever more boring chores to be done. Scrubbing woodwork was one of mine. Most of us had chores. By HS, I was doing all the cooking, dishwashing, and some housework (as little as poss.)
apr 19, 2025, 6:21 am • 2 0 • view
If you didn't complain about boredom, you might be left along to read, write, draw, etc. If you were allowed a chemistry kit (I wasn't) you could do experiments. I took my dog for long, long walks, often solo.
apr 19, 2025, 6:21 am • 3 0 • view
I was 72, we were free kids. We were never bored. I was a country farm kid. We played in brooks, fields etc. we worked in the woods cutting lines and firewood, planted vegetable fields, helped neighbours, spent time with family and grandparents. It was fantastic. If we did get board, we played.
apr 19, 2025, 1:48 pm • 1 1 • view
I have never thought "I'll buy some new media today".
apr 19, 2025, 1:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Finished all the books in the library—couldn’t wait for school to start.
apr 19, 2025, 11:25 pm • 3 0 • view
We kept ourselves busy roaming the parking lots for lost pennies to get a 10 cent Thrifty ice cream. Double chocolate malted crunch.
apr 19, 2025, 10:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Same situation except…they took me with them. My own family was bored, and boring.
apr 19, 2025, 2:55 pm • 1 0 • view
grew up in a semideep southern bodunk town & so little to do that it erupted our creativity! was never bored. tis z paradox of limitations/envelopes forcing imaginations to thrive. same still occurs with musical🎶synthesizers &…❤️🔥💞💝 &why max/msp & touchdesigner &…with unlimited options=tougher ✍️❤️🔥🫠
apr 19, 2025, 10:15 pm • 1 0 • view
so i agree with you. (perceived) boredom is a healthy part of growing up. being inundated with entertainment perhaps 🤔 atrophies synaptic connections for creativity ironically… /rndm reflections. ❤️🔥💞💝 nice 😊 mushrooms 🍄 do increase neuroplasticity! 🫠
apr 20, 2025, 2:24 am • 0 0 • view
My mom just told me about her recent experiences with boredom. She stepped back from all her social media platforms a couple months ago. Without the ability to fill time with scrolling, boredom comes back; She just got a library card and got back into reading books.
apr 19, 2025, 2:15 pm • 12 0 • view
As a kid on summer break, boredom drove me to dig a hole on the next door vacant lot. I kept at it until the hole was over 8 ft wide and 4 1/2 ft deep. My Dad measured. When the lot was being excavated, the tractor fell in the hole, tipped over, and had to be pulled out. Dad was kind of proud of me.
apr 19, 2025, 5:39 am • 5 0 • view
Ah, so you're an only child too? I remember this same feeling
apr 19, 2025, 3:00 am • 1 0 • view
It’s actually healthy to be bored on occasion
apr 19, 2025, 5:29 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s the phones.
apr 19, 2025, 5:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Good call 👍 They used to say it was because I was boring, now I feel vindicated seeing how it has become history, I now cherish it as if it were the very last Twinky left on earth, heading into obscurity!
apr 19, 2025, 1:53 pm • 3 0 • view
Also: it was very helpful to have a bicycle during those times
apr 18, 2025, 11:48 pm • 16 0 • view
Enter: IMAGINATION 💫
apr 18, 2025, 11:47 pm • 10 0 • view
Remember white dog poop?
apr 19, 2025, 2:23 pm • 3 0 • view
My dog still poops white after I give him a bone
apr 19, 2025, 8:44 pm • 1 0 • view
And thus we see an “epidemic” of anxiety that seems to mystify everyone.
apr 19, 2025, 3:08 pm • 1 0 • view
I forget the study, but the lack of boredom is supposedly why creativity is lacking. And I'm a walking billboard for that
apr 19, 2025, 10:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Must agree with most. Being bored meant extra chores.
apr 19, 2025, 8:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Born 1957. I knew better than to tell a parent I was bored because they’d find something totally boring for me to do. Ironing was always a good possibility. I read like a fiend, though, and played outside even if I had to take my little sister.
apr 19, 2025, 8:36 pm • 14 1 • view
Same here but I always entertained myself and figured it out. Same with chores as a prescription for the alleged boredom. I never uttered those words but once. Dusting - no thank you. It has to be a generational thing. 1999 is a long ways from the 1960s and the culture of the era. I'm a 1961 baby.
apr 19, 2025, 10:49 pm • 1 0 • view
Like that same little sister I dragged around!
apr 19, 2025, 11:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Those little pesky sisters 😹. I'm the oldest. Maybe that's why I never got bored. I was busy escaping them and trying to keep them from following me around😆 🤣 😂
apr 20, 2025, 12:54 am • 1 0 • view
Boredom is a great teacher and muse.
apr 19, 2025, 2:46 pm • 2 1 • view
Occasional boredom is good for your brain tho, so there’s that
apr 19, 2025, 7:31 pm • 1 0 • view
I taught school for 20 years and have been subbing, a little, for 4 years. The two biggest complaints I hear from the kids is I’m tired and I’m bored 🤷🏻♀️
apr 19, 2025, 3:34 pm • 1 0 • view
Every summer day was incredibly long. Hot, no AC, 3 channels to TV, no place to go, only ingredients in the fridge. I read a lot of books, sat outside and watched cars go by, played on the swing, and climbed trees.
apr 19, 2025, 9:50 pm • 2 0 • view
No offense, but a guy that goes out & takes exquisite pictures of Mushrooms & posts "Some Nice Mushrooms" with those pictures can't be an Authority on Boredom.
apr 19, 2025, 5:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Boredom is good sometimes, it fuels creativity and imagination. We could use more boredom, especially now. It’s better than the cortisol fueled roller coaster we are on now!
apr 19, 2025, 2:25 pm • 15 0 • view
Roller coaster? Roller coaster? More like a freak show
apr 19, 2025, 2:39 pm • 4 0 • view
I was born in the '50s and don't remember ever being bored. If being babysat by your phone keeps you from being bored, then you really should examine your life and values. Just sayin'.
apr 19, 2025, 3:54 pm • 0 1 • view
In my childhood, plastics had just hit the scene (recall The Graduate) and the toy industry didn’t miss a beat! Good, clean fun - and cheap, too!
apr 19, 2025, 12:59 am • 2 0 • view
Not to say I don’t lament what plastics have done to our environment…
apr 19, 2025, 1:14 am • 1 0 • view
it never was... #readabook
apr 19, 2025, 10:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Trying to fill our children’s time with quality time was a big mistake. Being kicked out of the house in the morning and told to be home for supper was the essence of freedom. In my case it led to lots of bad things but never boring.
apr 19, 2025, 4:36 pm • 7 0 • view
I think boredom is one of the most important requirements in the world and leads to creativity.
apr 19, 2025, 12:06 am • 5 0 • view
96 and yeah, got a knife one summer to whittle sticks I found in the woods because I just didn’t have anything else to do
apr 19, 2025, 12:09 am • 3 0 • view
As an adult, there is ALWAYS something to do and it's usually house or yard work.
apr 19, 2025, 4:16 pm • 2 0 • view
Gawd, yes. I don't want to do either.
apr 19, 2025, 4:59 pm • 1 0 • view
I remember being colossally board and my parents just saying we’ll go outside and play. Long as I was out of the house, they didn’t give a shit We had a weekend cottage that was five hours from my hometown and incredibly isolated. And I was expected to like it and do chores.
apr 19, 2025, 8:59 pm • 2 0 • view
We didn’t dare be bored (late 70s-80s). Expressed boredom =chores.
apr 18, 2025, 11:53 pm • 11 0 • view
Ah, had to scroll a bit, of course, but here we are! "Oh you're bored? I'll give you something to do!" Cackling in GenX!
apr 19, 2025, 3:08 pm • 2 0 • view
We had to be bored outside! Inside boredom meant washing dishes 😂
apr 19, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
Yep! 😁👍
apr 19, 2025, 12:11 am • 3 0 • view
No money to buy new media…… Life before media!
apr 19, 2025, 10:14 pm • 1 0 • view
I didn’t get bored as a kid in the 60s and 70s. I had two brothers and a little sister. We lived in the country and had a blast 💥! Good times 🌲🌳🌴 in Florida 🏕️
apr 19, 2025, 5:22 pm • 1 0 • view
I miss boredom.
apr 19, 2025, 9:14 pm • 1 0 • view
the 1970's are with you
apr 19, 2025, 4:10 pm • 1 0 • view
I always had a book. I was never bored
apr 19, 2025, 7:08 pm • 8 0 • view
I know how you feel. My neighbors are always out working or taking airplanes to Puerto Rico and they had a Trump sign on their front lawn so they voted for the Orange Clown. 🤣😂🤭
apr 19, 2025, 1:48 pm • 2 0 • view
My grandma raised us. She used to tell the 4 of us if we were bored she had plenty of things she could give us to do...we immediately found something to do on our own 😂😂 (She also made us clean windows if we were fighting over stupid stuff...one person on the outside and one on the inside! 🤣)
apr 19, 2025, 4:00 pm • 14 2 • view
I remember going over to my grandma’s house shortly after desktop computers & cellphones became popular and complaining that she had no internet and she’d say something similar to “why do I need that? There’s a million other things around here to keep me busy! Go play out in the yard.”
apr 19, 2025, 4:27 pm • 8 1 • view
Born in 1955. We were never bored. Outside from morning to night. Not sure how we survived though. Rode on back of buses, no helmets, seatbelts, playing in the streets. Mom called it benign neglect.
apr 19, 2025, 5:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes it’s because we didn’t have internet in our homes until then ! Since I’ve had wifi in my house I’ve never been bored
apr 19, 2025, 1:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Boredom is an important formative experience. I noticed this alarming trend as early as the late 50s. Our parents would say something about small minds and carry right on ignoring us as I recall. Being a boomer was not always a bed of roses.
apr 20, 2025, 1:07 am • 1 0 • view
When I was a kid, I was out of the house before 9, played baseball all day, rode my bike everywhere and went home for lunch and dinner. Back in before sunset. Never bored and always thin and healthy.
apr 19, 2025, 2:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Sitting in the car for 3 hour road trips with no phone or iPod or gameboy…these zoomers know nothing about that
apr 19, 2025, 4:22 pm • 4 1 • view
Yeah so bored. we would spend hours outside just wandering around harassing wildlife and looking at strangers houses. Didn't even have a bike, so there was some walking involved. Got a little better when I convinced my mom to let me keep a puppy I rescued from some preteen douchbags. Kind of miss it
apr 19, 2025, 3:04 pm • 0 1 • view
How can it be... we all have the cords in the back of our heads, MATRIX STYLE
apr 19, 2025, 2:37 pm • 1 0 • view
I still get bored sometimes but now that I'm older being bored is a great excuse for a nap. 😁
apr 18, 2025, 11:39 pm • 11 0 • view
I'm very easily bored.
apr 20, 2025, 10:53 am • 0 0 • view
I frequently tell my whiny kids, "I'm giving you the gift of boredom." And then back to the infinite scrolling doom box in my pocket. Hypocrit.
apr 19, 2025, 12:11 am • 2 0 • view
I was never bored during my summer vacations. Had my banana seat bike, played ball at the park, sidewalk roller skating.
apr 19, 2025, 5:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Boredom was the punishment. "Go to your room and don't do anything until I say you can leave." Some of my favorite games were invented in punishment.
apr 18, 2025, 11:51 pm • 5 0 • view
100% Now, kids don't even know their neighbors!
apr 19, 2025, 1:53 pm • 5 0 • view
My mother was a seamstress, so there was always needle, thread, and scraps of fabric around the house. When I was alone and bored, I'd sew clothes for my Barbie doll. They were hideous, but to me they were beautiful.
apr 19, 2025, 2:49 pm • 1 0 • view
It never was a thing for me, l was born 1961. Boredom personally, was a lack of imagination. There's libraries, there's riding bikes on jumps made from plywood, playing Barbies and making homemade clothes. There's picking flowers down the street from up on the hill. TV wasn't much back then either.
apr 19, 2025, 10:43 pm • 1 0 • view
that’s the rub tho is the experience of boredom is what motivates these behaviors
apr 19, 2025, 11:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Or the need to be busy because being still is tantamount to death in our family. We all suffer from this malady. I was bored once when I was a kid and decided doing something was better than that, I learned. Even when I was sitting alone during COVID, I started identifying trees, birds, plants.
apr 20, 2025, 12:45 am • 0 0 • view
Being bored wasn't even a thought. Being intrigued and having the time to investigate, was.
apr 20, 2025, 12:45 am • 0 0 • view
Boredom implies specific feelings of weariness and restlessness through lack of interest according to the definition. I did not feel any of those. The opposite of those is interest, entertainment, amusement and excitement. That's what I was feeling, the opposite. Not everyone gets "bored".
apr 20, 2025, 12:50 am • 0 0 • view
everyone feels bored sometimes it’s nothing to be ashamed of. i’m sure you stood in lines growing up, had liminal experiences. it’s good for you. being bored teaches you to entertain yourself and engage your imagination.
apr 20, 2025, 1:39 am • 0 0 • view
This might be why it seems only wealthy people are driving the arts & entertainment these days b/c they're the only ones w/ enough money to be bored & creative, unlike the peasantry (<$100k per yr) who are dealing with inexplicably high rising living costs & lowered quality everything...and Nazis.
apr 19, 2025, 8:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah I spent enough of my life being bored. Fuck that I'm glad it's not boring ever. What value is there in boring? It's a miserable emotion. One of my least favorite.
apr 19, 2025, 1:56 pm • 2 0 • view
And I am sure your parents were yelling just go outside and play which lead to your beautiful photos of shrooms and many followers today!!!
apr 18, 2025, 11:44 pm • 8 0 • view
I was hoping there’d be more (like this!) to the story 😅
apr 19, 2025, 2:34 am • 2 0 • view
If I said, „I’m bored“ after the age of seven, my mom‘s eyes would light up and she’d say, „I’ve got a job for you!“
apr 19, 2025, 6:58 am • 2 0 • view
Replaced by TIRED
apr 19, 2025, 10:15 pm • 4 0 • view
I remember being about 10 / 11 and being painfully bored sometimes for days on end.
apr 19, 2025, 6:28 pm • 3 0 • view
If we were bored we baked, or made fudge. Mostly out and about tho. We used to walk miles away from home and no one knew where you were and also no one cared too much as long as you were home by the streelights coming on.
apr 19, 2025, 3:37 pm • 1 0 • view
My dad, born in 1931, talked often about how boring summers were. Literally nothing to do even if you had a little money.
apr 19, 2025, 8:49 pm • 3 0 • view
That was a time of the great depression. I think there was a lot of stress for kids then and not a lot of fun.
apr 19, 2025, 10:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Currently in the hospital, under post-op observation, and lemme tell ya, boredom still lives strong here. I have IVs in both arms so I can’t scroll my phone for more than 1-2 minutes. The TV audio plays through a tinny speaker in my bed. Sitting in silence is my best option
apr 19, 2025, 4:50 pm • 8 0 • view
Going home today!
apr 21, 2025, 1:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Get well soon, Jules. The chaotic world isn't going anywhere, any time soon.
apr 19, 2025, 4:59 pm • 6 0 • view
Actually its going downhill in a hurry, but yes, please get well soon!
apr 19, 2025, 6:43 pm • 2 0 • view
I said I was bored once. My grandmother gave me a scrubbing brush and a bucket of soapy water and made me scrub the front steps and the entire sidewalk leading to them. I never claimed to be bored again. But that sidewalk was clean. I also got to learn to make lace because of being bored.
apr 19, 2025, 2:35 am • 1 0 • view
I'd go down the shore & there'd be kuds or stray dogs there to play with. Fingers tirn & bleeding turning over barnacled rocks to find crabs, throwing sticks til my arm ached.
apr 19, 2025, 3:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Well I mean I was born in the 2000s but pretty sure I've been bored before so maybe this is just a being a busy adult thing and not a specific year thing.
apr 19, 2025, 6:54 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s interesting that it’s so easy to not be bored. In my case, it seems like I’m less willing to start new big projects because instead of starting them, I just doom scroll Reddit or whatever. It’s clearly bad for me, but I haven’t completely fixed it.
apr 18, 2025, 11:38 pm • 6 1 • view
Um, buy tools / materials? for one specific project. Then leave them out where you see them all the time & a little in the way.. 😂 I get a lot done, with this method
apr 19, 2025, 2:37 am • 4 1 • view
Doing nothing and enjoying it or being over it died for me when the towers fell.
apr 18, 2025, 11:51 pm • 1 0 • view
As a child I as old that only boring people were bored.
apr 19, 2025, 4:41 pm • 1 0 • view
An on-demand life where desire for a thing and attaining it are a click away with no effort or thought might have some impact on developing minds… but who can really say.
apr 19, 2025, 5:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Maybe I'm doing something right? My kids tell me they're bored all the time. I tell them to go play outside Or I'll give them a chore to solve the boredom. 😅
apr 19, 2025, 3:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Kids need to be bored to explore their imaginations on their own.
apr 19, 2025, 4:42 pm • 0 0 • view
I wasn't allowed to be bored. Sure I was bored, but I wasn't allowed to be visibly bored much less say it. But that's why and how I got into drawing. So I would not be bored.
apr 18, 2025, 11:32 pm • 18 0 • view
Growing up only one or two families a year in my neighborhood went on summer vacation. And it wasn’t the same families each year, rotated around the neighborhood. The rest us weren’t bored, we played with each other. We got tired before we got bored.
apr 19, 2025, 3:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Gotta keep us constantly entertained to control the masses. Can’t have a bunch of free thinkers roaming around conjuring up ways to make life better. Corporations gotta keep profitable!
apr 19, 2025, 5:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Idk man the overstimulation actually makes me feel like I’m bored all the time
apr 19, 2025, 4:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Boredom is the only thing for me at this point lol 🙃
apr 19, 2025, 4:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Not sure that being stimulated— or whatever it is—is the same as not being bored. The physical posture and facial expression of kids sitting on their phones for hours looks pretty much exactly like boredom.
apr 19, 2025, 11:31 am • 1 0 • view
We are overstimulated. Boredom gives rise to creativity, novel pursuits and new ideas.
apr 19, 2025, 2:48 pm • 1 0 • view
I miss boredom ...
apr 19, 2025, 3:45 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m bored was essentially saying “the f word “ in my house. The chores my Mom could come up with was astounding. So NO I was not bored (yes I was but I didn’t want to do more chores). So we found ways to entertain ourselves even if it was watching the grass grow. 😜
apr 19, 2025, 10:52 pm • 1 0 • view
Boredom is not a lack of potential distractions but a mentality' this is how super rich folk who can afford any life experience get so ;bored' when they literally have the entirety of the world at their feet but still end up craving some 'new' distraction or more intense experience
apr 19, 2025, 9:11 pm • 0 0 • view
I remember spending HOURS in the hammock in the yard. Just swayin' in the breeze.
apr 19, 2025, 1:57 am • 2 1 • view
Definitely remember getting bored in the long summer holidays... but not being allowed to say I was bored... because 'only boring people get bored'... and stuck in a village with nothing much to do... entertaining myself by wandering about... talking to people... and watching nature...
apr 19, 2025, 5:16 am • 2 0 • view
I remember staring at patterns in the walls. Soooo bored.
apr 19, 2025, 8:31 pm • 3 0 • view
I was never bored as a kid, frankly at that point in life I didn't have the psychological concept of "bored". My early life was basically dress, eat, out the door with the admonishment from mom to be home when the street light came on, I was allow the freedom to live my life ad-lib.
apr 19, 2025, 5:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Loneliness has been weaponized!
apr 19, 2025, 10:03 pm • 0 0 • view
So you'd make up some games with yourself, maybe get a pad and do some drawing, take yourself for a walk.. whatever. Boredom is the Mother of Discovery!
apr 19, 2025, 5:35 pm • 1 0 • view
I remember my childhood in the 80s/90s without internet having long times of rest/ boredom. Now, with cell phones and the internet, we must be available and productive 24/7. Forget your phone at home and you incur the guilt of missing 20 messages. Seems like we were happier before.
apr 20, 2025, 12:05 am • 1 0 • view
I'd go and play in the woods by myself. Or color. Or read. Or write poems. Or just sit there and imagine myself in the books I had already read. Maybe it's hard to be bored when you have ADHD and an active imagination?
apr 19, 2025, 2:31 pm • 20 1 • view
Oh! Or use all of my dolls and stuffed animals and action figures to act out my favorite book/movie/TV show at the time. I would also pretend to be a spy in my own house. Like I said, I was pretty good at entertaining myself.
apr 19, 2025, 4:59 pm • 5 1 • view
Need to bring back boredom.
apr 18, 2025, 11:57 pm • 4 0 • view
I think our phones replaced boredom
apr 18, 2025, 11:36 pm • 5 0 • view
As a latchkey kid in the 70-early 80s, we mostly made up our own entertainment activities. Be it investing our own games (played in the street of course), bicycling somewhere, building forts out of salvaged scrap lumber, etc. We were rarely, if ever, bored.
apr 19, 2025, 4:01 pm • 2 0 • view
Also latchkey. Never bored but got into scrapes by being never bored. Played Arctic Explorer hacking ice from very old freezer & eating it, & Government Spy terrorizing mean neighbor kid w/ "nitroglycerin" she thought was real, & dancing w/ friends in my Mom's sheer babydoll nighties on sidewalk...
apr 19, 2025, 5:25 pm • 1 0 • view
Born 1945. If you were ever bored you made sure not to let anyone know...they would find something for you to do and it would not be pleasant.
apr 19, 2025, 7:46 pm • 9 0 • view
I remember that very well!
apr 19, 2025, 10:37 pm • 1 0 • view
I was born in 1948. I trained myself not to be bored by paying attention to interesting stuff. I wonder if access to tv is related to reports of boredom.
apr 19, 2025, 1:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Ooh I remember after summer break everyone would be talking about which states/countries they visited, while I spent all summer inside playing video games bc we couldn't afford shit
apr 19, 2025, 12:09 am • 2 0 • view
Most of the time I spend perusing social media is because I'm bored.
apr 19, 2025, 1:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah but I feel like there's something fundamentally different between "bored (scrolling through unsatisfying but constant streams of minimally entertaining content)" and "bored (literally nothing to do, staring into space)" They're both boredom but they're very different kinds of boredom imo
apr 19, 2025, 2:56 pm • 1 0 • view
My 16 year old son is almost always on some kind of screen… laptop, Switch, phone, etc. I’m actually uncertain about how to get him into other things.
apr 19, 2025, 3:57 pm • 1 1 • view
The loss of boredom has been a great loss to society. The generations of today are far behind those before them.
apr 19, 2025, 2:06 pm • 11 1 • view
I can relate. I remember summers where I spent a lot of time wandering around aimlessly.
apr 18, 2025, 11:51 pm • 3 0 • view
I never said I was bored around the old man. If I did, he would find me something to do.
apr 19, 2025, 3:02 pm • 0 1 • view
I remember what it's like to be bored. But it's been a very long time. I wonder if boredom is some sort of necessary emotional pressure valve and it's a contributing factor to our current societal predicament.
apr 19, 2025, 4:26 pm • 3 1 • view
Born in the 60’s, we made our own fun and didn’t get bored especially when we had bikes. If it rained, we read books (me) or comic books (brother).
apr 19, 2025, 9:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Waiting in line was the entire activity
apr 19, 2025, 1:27 am • 1 0 • view
Same. Whenever friends went away for the summer it suckeddddd!!!!
apr 19, 2025, 5:17 pm • 1 0 • view
It might have something to do with the little squares offering countless ways to simulate stimulation and trigger dopamine that we carry with us now
apr 18, 2025, 11:36 pm • 5 0 • view
What we didn’t know then was how amazing it was to just be bored! Just like all those naps and early bed times we fought! I’ll take a blankie and a cookie at noon any day! 😂
apr 19, 2025, 12:14 am • 3 0 • view
My guy I have adhd and I get bored doing things I like
apr 19, 2025, 3:59 pm • 2 0 • view
One of my close friends with similarly aged kids to mine says, “my job is to move the boulders, not mow the grass”. I just love that philosophy.
apr 19, 2025, 2:01 pm • 8 0 • view
Born in 1981 to a family with no money; negative money, in fact. Boredom was a way of life, but my sister & I never dared to reveal that we were bored because that would mean we’d get even more chores doled out to us.
apr 19, 2025, 1:48 pm • 1 1 • view
Yes, so reminiscent of childhood, and summer vacations. Now I see how valuable that feeling of boredom was. Without devices or constant stimulation, a child has the chance to dive into their imagination, or explore nature, or just lay on the grass under the passing clouds. Heaven.
apr 19, 2025, 12:10 am • 7 1 • view
I may be weird but I don’t ever remember feeling bored. I was 12 when we migrated to Oz in 1964 & I’d only been to the cinema twice. I’ve always said I wanted several lives to pursue all the things I wanted to do. Sometimes now I will describe a book I have to read for bookclub as a bit tedious
apr 19, 2025, 6:46 am • 1 0 • view
OTOH I have gradually realised that I tend to set myself projects (and need to finish them). In fact I think I need projects or to be learning something, even if on holiday and “relaxing”. I think of the next projects before the last one is done
apr 19, 2025, 6:52 am • 1 0 • view
I was lucky being born in the early 1950s because we learned to read for entertainment. I was rarely bored.
apr 19, 2025, 3:39 pm • 1 0 • view
Boredom is good for brains. A lot of children and adolescents are used to having every moment scheduled for them, micromanaged, despite people finally acknowledging over the last few years that it's not beneficial. I love seeing the creativity that comes from boredom- although one of my three needs
apr 19, 2025, 5:12 pm • 1 0 • view
- constant check-ins during said "boredom" because he's the type who will parkour on anything and doesn't yet judge the difference between thrill and Definitely Unsafe very well yet. Otherwise- boredom is fantastic (and a great way to learn the differences between thrill and safety too).
apr 19, 2025, 5:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Mine too! lol.
apr 19, 2025, 5:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Sigh. He's almost 12 and will be on the roof before you turn around and ask where he is! We fall into the trap of scrolling sometimes, I'm guilty of it (obviously 😆). But we try to stay conscious of taking nice long breaks.
apr 19, 2025, 5:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Mine likes to jump into furniture but will often miss or slide off them. They also like to crab climb the hallway walls and jump down stairs. Sigh.
apr 19, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
The crab climbs in the doorways 😆 WHY My sister sends me videos of kids at the top of huge trees like "this one yours?" 😑
apr 19, 2025, 7:20 pm • 1 0 • view
We make sure our kid is bored. They’re not over scheduled and have plenty of time to dawdle. They get up to all kinds of stuff which is good. It’s not just scrolling online.
apr 19, 2025, 5:17 pm • 1 0 • view
When I was young we just hung around street or park in case our pals turned up. They usually did eventually. Could be a bit boring
apr 19, 2025, 2:23 pm • 2 0 • view
As a teacher I have definitely noticed a huge decrease in children’s tolerance for boredom…and consequently, an uptick in behaviors
apr 19, 2025, 2:12 am • 2 1 • view
Exactly. I do think what has decreased is a general TOLERANCE for boredom. And a lack of initiative in finding something to do.
apr 19, 2025, 1:11 pm • 2 1 • view
Lack of Internet was for sure a big factor, or modern internet more specifically. Now we have "infinite" entertainment at our fingertips. As a kid I had a couple of games and most of the TV shows I enjoyed were off after 4pm, also realize I didn't have my own TV or PC for a long time either 😂
apr 19, 2025, 2:02 pm • 2 1 • view
I constantly needed new books to read. I was a voracious reader growing up.
apr 19, 2025, 7:11 pm • 14 0 • view
So was I. Our local library used to do a summer reading challenge -- we turned in reviews of all the books we read. IIRC they were published in a little pamphlet. (My memory is very fuzzy. Born in '53)
apr 19, 2025, 11:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Our library did reading programs through and I would finish an entire summer’s worth of books in a week. The YA department would make up special lists for me with more advanced books to slow me down a little.
apr 19, 2025, 11:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Car rides, only entertainment was looking out the window or sleeping... still can't stay awake in the car 40 years later...
apr 19, 2025, 11:18 pm • 3 0 • view
I remember knocking on friend’s doors to get groups together to walk to the park and play. After I discovered the library there, between that and my friends, no more boredom.
apr 19, 2025, 1:57 pm • 2 0 • view
Yep.
apr 19, 2025, 4:58 pm • 1 0 • view
I cant really ever remember being bored tbh
apr 18, 2025, 11:44 pm • 1 0 • view