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The Death of Daydreaming
What we lose when phones take away boredom and interstitial time
In the rest of this post, I will explore the many ways our efforts to conquer boredom through technology have produced unintended consequences, including the near-total capture of our attention, the death of daydreaming, and the end of a healthy sense of anticipation in our daily lives. The late Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called these “the ‘microflow’ activities that help us negotiate the doldrums of the day.” These “small automatic games woven into the fabric of everyday life help reduce boredom … but add little to the positive quality of experience.” In everyday life, we can all try, however modestly, to shift our individual perceptions and behavior by embracing a more generous sense of anticipation and a healthier attitude about delay, by reframing waiting as an opportunity for daydreaming and idle time rather than an excuse for distraction, and by trying to be more patient with one another.
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