Stastics show that human beings are more bored than ever. We’re more bored during work interactions, more bored during social interactions, and we’re bored when cell phones are present. 35 years ago, if you would have told Gen X kids that the coming era of technology was going to be utterly boring, we would have laughed in your face. We knew what kind of excitement we had to look forward to: flying cars, robot maids, and hot gourmet meals at the push of a button. The technology boom didn’t exactly wind up creating the kind of world we had seen on The Jetsons. Instead of forming a fascinating world of automation that freed us up to pursue noble interests, technology built a new way of thinking that, sadly, has caused us to think less.
The poet John Berryman wrote that his mother would often say, “Ever to confess you’re bored means that you have no Inner Resources.” This idea stuck with me when I encountered it as a young English major, and in solidarity with John Berryman’s mother, I have sometimes repeated the notion to my own children. Yet, as I’ve grown older and have spent another decade being trained to think less by the technology in my pocket, I wonder if I, too, have let my inner resources slip away.
We must fight against this. Boredom has a cure, and that cure is turning to the world inside our heads. We still have ideas–we just don’t dwell on them. We still have lightbulb moments–we just brush them aside because we’re distracted by the flashing screen in front of us. We could still have original thoughts, but instead we search the catalog of human history in a few seconds and see what smarter people thought. We have lost the ability to search our own minds, to sit in silence, to lose ourselves in imagination, to let our thoughts freely wander to whatever may come up in a long strand of connected ideas.
Quite by accident, a few days ago I found myself sitting in my car outside our small-town Dairy Queen, waiting for my order. I didn’t have my phone. It was a hot summer day, and I rolled down my window to hear the katydids singing their unmistakably loud summer songs. I closed my eyes and focused on the sound. For a few brief moments, I was transported back to my childhood, picturing summer days when my mother would wash my hair and send me out to the porch swing with a book. I would sit out there and let my hair dry while the katydids sang a song that sounded like it was written just for my enjoyment. From there, my mind wandered to other childhood memories that were fueled by the overwhelming noise of the katydids. I thought of God and of His goodness in creating such a creature and then allowing me to hear their summer night performances. But do you know how much of that moment I would have noticed or thought about if I had had my phone in my hand? None.
No memories. No thoughts connecting across separate ideas and time periods and disciplines of thinking. No dwelling on the goodness of God. Just mindless scrolling. Mindless.
It was motivating. Knowing that I have largely forgotten the value in letting my mind roam and formulate independent thoughts and make its own connections, I was in no rush to have that little computer in my hands again. How much am I missing that God would do through my mind? I have developed a bad habit of turning off my mind, and it’s no wonder, if the rest of the world is like me, that we feel bored by the constant, meaningless, mind-numbing stimulation of technology. Nothing is interesting if we aren’t thinking people. Everything is depressing and dumb and lacking in excitement if we have no inner resources with which to analyze it, discuss it, describe it, formulate ideas connected to it, accept or reject its validity or importance. We spend so much time just blindly looking at things. Just looking, not thinking.
What an odd turn for humanity to make. God has given us so much more to work with, so much more to bring us pleasure and interest, excitement and joy, and it’s all in our heads. To choose not to make use of the thinking abilities He’s given us is to choose a truly boring, flat, uninspired life.
John Berryman’s mother was right, but even more so than she might have known. God created us with a world of inner resources, but we’ve been neglecting them in favor of technology that turns us into glassy-eyed consumers. Those of us who love the Lord are forgetting the power of a Holy Spirit-inspired mind: the power of creation, the power of independent thought, the power of God-given ideas, all of which are stifled by much lesser things that technology relentlessly offers. Is God receiving glory through the wonders of our inner thoughts and the dynamic ways that our brains will dwell on Him if we give them an opportunity? Or do we glorify God with our lips and then abandon our brains to a world that doesn’t even acknowledge Him? The Holy Spirit is convicting me that I, at least, have gradually turned my mind over to meaningless things when He wants to do so much more with the thoughts that I could be forming if only I allowed my mind the room to think them.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8
I love hearing from you!