Its Ok To Be Bored

This week I deleted the Substack app from my phone. Despite turning off the alerts I still found myself constantly checking and refreshing. Dopamine, that slayer of boredom, definitely has a hypnotic hold on me and the Substack app is as effective a dealer as any.

It’s good for me to remember that it’s OK to be bored. Probably healthy, even.

Growing up there was only one screen in our house. It only played what was on and we had to share it. We spent hours as kids poring over the tv listings from the Saturday paper, negotiating over who got to watch what and when.

Boredom was very real.

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A good friend of mine texted me these thoughts last week:

Boredom is the fountain of curiosity

I’m just fascinated that we don’t let ourselves or our children be bored anymore, and honestly one of the great things about running or doing anything for an extended period of time that is dedicated to just one thing like biking or hiking is that your mind gets to finally get bored

They really resonated and directly inspired the zine. It seems as a society we’ve “fixed” boredom to such a degree that now we have to seek it out in deprivation chambers, or make time for it like exercise.

I love this scene from Back to the Future 3 where Doc Brown expounds on all the wonders of the 1985 to a bunch of drunk cowboys from 1885. Never would have guessed as a kid I would one day try to be bored - for fun. Life is so weird.

Further credit is probably due to over on Social Media Escape Club. I’d been reading his work these last few weeks and getting ever closer to that big red eject button. Thanks for the shove.

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has been drawing hands everyday as part of a 100 day challenge. Inspired, I decided to give it a go. I started a bit late but at time of writing I’m on day #6. I have noticed that in order to practice hands I’ve been ignoring The Practice. There’s only so much time in the day. Gonna have to find a balance.

I post them to notes so if you’re interested be sure to follow along there.

Day #1

Day #2

Day #3

Day #4

Day #5

Day #6