Keep Your Smartphone Pocketed And Be Bored For Creativity’s Sake

Smartphones have definitely struck a blow against boredom — while travelling, in the checkout aisle, when friends are running late. However, you should remember that boring moments are traditionally when your brain can reach out for some new input and ideas.

Picture: “PictureYouth”/Flickr

Brian S. Hall writes at ReadWrite about the findings and thoughts of many creativity researchers and theorists, whom have noticed our tendencies to use the phone in place of other traditional boredom killers — like daydreaming.

But this victory comes at a cost. Spending so much time texting and updating, tweeting and watching, calling and playing at every free moment, from every location, never alone with our thoughts, never allowing our thoughts to drift, impacts our creativity, which in turn can limit our full potential.

Edward de Bono, business consultant and self-described “father of lateral thinking” has authored numerous works on creative thinking. de Bono calls moments of boredom “creative pauses,” which allows the mind to drift, and avails the person to new forms of input and understanding.

As noted in the full post, nobody should throw themselves into a terrible meeting for the sake of inspiring daydreaming, but consider letting yourself go without a screen for a bit the next time you’re in line, or at a family function that’s not quite captivating.

The iPhone Killed My Creativity [ReadWrite]