I remember lazy summer childhoods, staring at the ceiling after I ran out of video game time.
I think this argument points in the opposite direction from your main post. The most salient question for ‘spend less time messing around on the Internet’ is ‘what will that saved time end up being spent on?’
Sometimes I watch cute Youtube video compilations of pets doing silly things.
If this time trades off against writing a novel, or learning an interesting skill, or making friends, or exercising, then Youtube is wasting my time on unproductive things and I should try to waste less time.
But if this time trades off against staring at the ceiling being bored, then Youtube is making my unproductive relaxation time more enjoyable and entertaining, and there is no problem.
That in turn is actually dependent on whether having your ambient thoughts occupied by YouTube is better overall than having them occupied by nothing for a while. There’s a lot of valuable background processing that I suspect gets starved by constant stimulation. Of course, carving out explicit time for reflection or for a meditation practice or similar is also something one can do.
Pushback against (what seems to me like) an implicit assumption: In all probability, you are not evenly and strategically trading off “bored time” for “entertained time.” You are trading off huge chunks of your non-bored time, not because you lack virtue, but because Youtube “wants” to waste your time. So this is, I think, a dangerous trade to try to make, at least without analyzing it first.
But if this time trades off against staring at the ceiling being bored, then Youtube is making my unproductive relaxation time more enjoyable and entertaining, and there is no problem.
Is there no problem? Sometimes being “bored” lets me focus on what it feels like to be a person, or feel grateful about my life, or just let my thoughts drift. This is pleasant, just like the quoted memory of staring at the ceiling. The sentiment was not “FML, my boring life sucks”, but rather “-------- [relaxation].”
I also used to have thoughts race through my head when I turned in for the night, as if some great dam had broken, now that no distractions were occupying my attention. That seems to happen less now. Which, in turn, seems good.
Anyways—empirically, I have not spend much time bored. So the point seems moot, in that I am not advocating increased “bored” time, but reallocation.
I think this argument points in the opposite direction from your main post. The most salient question for ‘spend less time messing around on the Internet’ is ‘what will that saved time end up being spent on?’
Sometimes I watch cute Youtube video compilations of pets doing silly things.
If this time trades off against writing a novel, or learning an interesting skill, or making friends, or exercising, then Youtube is wasting my time on unproductive things and I should try to waste less time.
But if this time trades off against staring at the ceiling being bored, then Youtube is making my unproductive relaxation time more enjoyable and entertaining, and there is no problem.
(Relevant xkcd).
That in turn is actually dependent on whether having your ambient thoughts occupied by YouTube is better overall than having them occupied by nothing for a while. There’s a lot of valuable background processing that I suspect gets starved by constant stimulation. Of course, carving out explicit time for reflection or for a meditation practice or similar is also something one can do.
Pushback against (what seems to me like) an implicit assumption: In all probability, you are not evenly and strategically trading off “bored time” for “entertained time.” You are trading off huge chunks of your non-bored time, not because you lack virtue, but because Youtube “wants” to waste your time. So this is, I think, a dangerous trade to try to make, at least without analyzing it first.
Is there no problem? Sometimes being “bored” lets me focus on what it feels like to be a person, or feel grateful about my life, or just let my thoughts drift. This is pleasant, just like the quoted memory of staring at the ceiling. The sentiment was not “FML, my boring life sucks”, but rather “-------- [relaxation].”
I also used to have thoughts race through my head when I turned in for the night, as if some great dam had broken, now that no distractions were occupying my attention. That seems to happen less now. Which, in turn, seems good.
Anyways—empirically, I have not spend much time bored. So the point seems moot, in that I am not advocating increased “bored” time, but reallocation.