[00:00] ARTHUR BROOKS: You
need to be bored.
[00:01] You will have less
meaning and you
[00:03] will be more depressed
if you never are bored.
[00:05] I mean, it couldn't be clearer.
[00:10] Let me give you the good
side of boredom in general.
[00:14] Boredom is a tendency
for us to not be occupied
[00:18] otherwise cognitively, which
switches over our thinking
[00:22] system to use a
part of our brain
[00:24] that's called the
default mode network.
[00:27] That sounds fancy.
[00:27] It's really not.
[00:28] The default mode
network is a bunch
[00:30] of structures in your
brain that switch
[00:32] on when you don't have
anything else to think about.
[00:35] So you forgot your
phone and you're sitting
[00:37] at a light, for example.
[00:39] That's when your default
mode network goes on.
[00:42] We don't like it.
[00:43] My colleague in the
psychology department
[00:45] here at Harvard, Dan
Gilbert, he did experiments
[00:48] where people had to
sit in a room for 15
[00:50] minutes with instructions
to do absolutely nothing,
[00:53] and there was nothing
in the room to do,
[00:55] except there was a
button in front of them
[00:57] that they could push.
[00:58] And if they did,
they gave themselves
[01:00] a painful electric shock.
[01:02] Sit there bored, or get a shock.
[01:04] A big majority of
the participants
[01:05] gave themselves shocks instead
of thinking about nothing.
[01:08] We don't like boredom.
[01:09] Boredom is boredom is terrible.
[01:11] Why is boredom so bad?
[01:12] Well, because the default
mode network makes
[01:15] us think about things that
might be kind of uncomfortable.
[01:18] When you think about nothing
while your mind wanders
[01:20] and thinks about, for example,
big questions of meaning
[01:23] in your life.
[01:24] What does my life mean?
[01:25] You go to uncomfortable
existential questions
[01:28] when you're bored.
[01:29] That turns out to be incredibly
important, incredibly good.
[01:32] One of the reasons we have
such an explosion of depression
[01:35] and anxiety in our society
today is because people actually
[01:38] don't know the meaning
of their lives,
[01:40] much less so in
previous generations.
[01:42] Tons of data show this,
and furthermore, we're
[01:45] not even looking.
[01:46] Why not?
[01:48] I'll tell you why not.
[01:49] We figured out a way
to eliminate boredom.
[01:52] We've been able,
almost completely,
[01:56] to shut off the default
mode network in our brains.
[01:59] How?
[02:00] The answer is that thing in
your pocket with the screen,
[02:03] which you take out even when
you're standing on the street
[02:06] corner waiting for
the light to change,
[02:07] is like, I might have to
wait here for 15 seconds.
[02:12] What are you doing?
[02:12] You're actually trying to not be
bored because the default mode
[02:15] network is mildly uncomfortable,
because it sends you
[02:18] to the types of questions that
you can't get your mind around.
[02:20] You can't get your arms around.
[02:22] Well, that's a big problem.
[02:23] That's a doom loop of meaning.
[02:26] If every time you're slightly
bored pull out your phone,
[02:29] it's going to get harder and
harder for you to find meaning,
[02:32] and that's the recipe for
depression and anxiety
[02:36] and a sense of hollowness,
which, by the way,
[02:39] are all through the roof.
[02:42] I get it.
[02:43] You don't want to be bored.
[02:44] You need to be bored.
[02:46] Be bored more.
[02:47] Tomorrow, when you go to
the gym in the morning
[02:49] after you wake up,
don't take your phone.
[02:52] Can you handle it?
[02:53] Not listening to a podcast
while you're working out.
[02:56] Just being in your head.
[02:57] I promise you, you'll have
your most interesting ideas
[03:00] while you're working
out without devices.
[03:02] It's probably been a long
time since you've done that.
[03:04] Commute with nothing,
not even the radio.
[03:07] Can you do that?
[03:08] Start getting better
at periods that
[03:10] are 15 minutes and
longer of boredom,
[03:13] and watch your life change.
[03:16] Number one, you'll be less
bored with ordinary things
[03:18] in your life.
[03:19] If you get better at
the skill of boredom,
[03:21] you'll be less
bored with your job.
[03:22] You'll be less bored
with your relationships.
[03:24] You'll be less bored
with the things that
[03:25] are going on around you.
[03:27] But more importantly,
you'll start digging
[03:29] into the biggest questions in
your life, purpose, meaning,
[03:33] coherence, significance.
[03:36] And who knows?
[03:38] You might just get happier.
[03:40] People ask me all the
time, is the doctor
[03:42] taking his own prescriptions?
[03:44] And the answer is, yes.
[03:45] Yes, I am.
[03:46] I'm prone to the same
pathologies as anybody else
[03:49] because I have the same brain
chemistry as everybody else.
[03:51] So what do I do to fight that?
[03:52] And the answer is, well,
I do a number of things.
[03:54] I have a no device policy
after 7:00 in the afternoon.
[03:59] I don't sleep with my phone.
[04:01] We don't have devices when
we have meals in my family.
[04:06] Because we're there
for each other.
[04:07] We're not there for
people who aren't there.
[04:10] Three, I have
regular social media
[04:12] and screen cleanses where
I don't use my device
[04:16] for longer periods of time.
[04:18] First, it's like children
screaming in my head
[04:22] because that's how dopamine
is saying, get the phone,
[04:25] get the phone.
[04:26] That's addiction.
[04:27] But it calms down
and I feel better.
[04:30] And I feel sort of
blessed by the end.
[04:33] And I pick the
phone up by the end
[04:35] because I have to
check my emails.
[04:36] And I have to be a normal,
functioning, connected person
[04:39] in the world.
[04:40] But it does remind me that my
life doesn't have to revolve
[04:43] around these devices.
[04:44] These protocols are
really, really helpful
[04:46] and I recommend them to
anybody and everybody.
[04:49] Don't sleep with your phone.
[04:50] No phones during meals.
[04:52] Regular social media fasts.
[04:54] You'll get better.
[04:56] People worry that if
they do these things,
[04:58] they're going to miss something.
[04:59] There are ways that
you can remedy that.
[05:01] One of the things
that you can do
[05:02] is you can have your phone on.
[05:03] You're just not looking
at it, and there's
[05:05] only one or two numbers
that can reach you
[05:07] in case of emergencies.
[05:09] Phones can do that by the way.
[05:10] If you don't have to
do that, ask your kid.
[05:13] But don't use emergencies
in as an excuse.
[05:15] Here's something that's
not an emergency.
[05:18] What's going on Twitter.
[05:19] That's not an emergency
answer nothing.
[05:23] It doesn't matter.
[05:24] The news can wait.
[05:25] Seriously your
grandparents didn't
[05:27] what was going on every single
second in Washington, DC.
[05:30] You're killing yourself
with this stuff.
[05:33] Are you kidding me?
[05:34] It's bad for you.
[05:35] So let me say it
straight to my kids.
[05:38] Put down your phones.
[05:41] You need more
meaning in your life.
[05:43] And so do I.