ESCHLEMAN: Boredom should be valued
Column: Shower Thoughts
In high school, many of my college friends boasted about the abundance of free time they had in college in comparison to high school students. And in a sense, what they claimed is true. For one, now that I am in college, I am no longer in school for 7 hours straight, so I do have more free time for activities such as studying, doing homework, exercising, socializing, participating in clubs and cleaning my room.
And, of course, I cannot forget that I need to use some of my time for the basics as well, such as eating, showering and brushing my teeth. That said, because a college student’s free time can be spent doing all these activities, I do not think college students are bored enough.
If free time is defined differently, as in, free time means time to do absolutely nothing, I feel like I have no free time. But why is this a concern? One would think college students want to be preoccupied constantly. I would have to disagree.
In an article by Time Magazine entitled “Being Bored Can Be Good for You — If You Do It Right. Here is How," Sandi Mann, a senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K., describes boredom as “a search for neural stimulation that isn't satisfied …if we can't find that, our mind will create it.”
Essentially, if we are truly bored, there are no external sources satisfying a person’s need for neural stimulation, for example your phone, so our own minds have to create ideas to entertain ourselves. This means that boredom opens up an opportunity to discover our most creative selves.
But how do you unlock this level of creativity? Mann suggests regularly doing activities such as, taking walks, swimming laps or simply sitting with your eyes closed. No music allowed. The article listed other similar demure activities, such as wandering in the grocery store or sitting in a waiting room.
After reading all these examples, a thought occurred to me. Why did I choose to title my column shower thoughts? Because in the shower, I am finally truly bored. I am performing a simple task with no technology to distract me. Not even music. My mind can wander, so most of my ideas arise when I am in the shower.
But, have I ever thought of an article idea while doing calculus homework? Nope. Except one time, I considered writing an article about how calculus classes are unnecessarily hard at Rutgers. Stay tuned.
Anyway, these examples emphasize the power of true boredom. That said, it is not so easy to find opportunities to be bored. For one, in a world of technology, boredom requires discipline. If a person truly wants to give boredom a shot, they have to resist the urge to just scroll their boredom away. But it is also more than that. It is not entirely college students’ faults for not necessarily valuing boredom.
College culture, higher education and society as a whole perpetuate a toxic lifestyle of nonstop work. As a college student, I always feel as if I should be doing something. I should be studying or doing homework or applying to clubs or networking or exercising or socializing. And if I am not doing one of these things, then I am behind or missing out. But, I believe this culture squashes not just creativity, but overall well-being by inevitably leading to burnout.
I think society and higher education need to do a better job of encouraging boredom, but college students cannot rely on them to do that. College students need to value and create boredom themselves. You will never know what your mind is capable of until you give true boredom a try.
If college truly values learning and growing as an individual, college culture should encourage boredom, stimulating internal reflection and creativity, instead of promoting the constant grind. If I had never been bored in the shower a few weeks ago, I may have never come up with my first article idea which led to the creation of my shower thoughts column.
How do you think books, music, films, business ideas and podcasts were created? People were probably bored enough, so their minds had to come up with something compelling.
So maybe next time you are on the bus, try staring out the window and letting your mind wander instead of catching up on your favorite Netflix show or scrolling on TikTok. See what happens.
Sara Eschleman is a Rutgers Business School first-year majoring in marketing and minoring in English. Her column, "Shower Thoughts," runs on alternate Thursdays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 900 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
