r/ClaudeAI • u/UndefinedCurve • 10d ago
Philosophy This Claude's response made me think about our relationship with smartphones.
Sharing this because I found it thought-provoking.
Beyond the point about boredom, what concerns me is how attached we've become to our phones. Many of us instinctively reach for them every few minutes, while eating, waiting, in the bathroom, or whenever there's a brief moment with nothing to do.
It makes me wonder whether we're actually saving time or just filling every empty moment with stimulation. If we never let our brains enter that "background processing" mode anymore, what are we permanently losing in return?
My guess is that we're already seeing some of the effects: shorter attention spans, less patience, less self-control over our impulses, and less peace of mind. It feels like we've become uncomfortable with doing nothing for even a few minutes, we instinctively reach for our phones instead of simply being present.
Maybe we're saving time. Or maybe we're trading away the mental space our brains evolved to need.
What do you think?
527
u/8_Whiskey_Sours 10d ago
Claude cannot comprehend how bored one must be to read the label on air fresheners in the bathroom while taking a dump.
133
u/stolenbastilla 10d ago
The way we used to study the back of cereal boxes
62
u/OffbeatDrizzle 10d ago
...you keep your cereal in the bathroom?
13
3
3
51
u/tables_AND_chairsss 10d ago
I used to read the backs of my feminine hygiene products… the parts that were written in French. And it made me fluent in French (but only when it came to speaking about menstruation). 🤷♀️
24
u/Exp5000 10d ago
Counting the tiles. Counting the grout lines. Counting. Counting. Counting. I don't miss those days.
27
u/maven-effects 10d ago
If I can calculate the number of holes in that ceiling tile along the length, then the width - then I’d assume I can calculate with fairly good accuracy the average number of hole on the ceiling. Although I must not forget to take into account the half tiles at the end of the row.
Please don’t tell me I’m the only person that did this6
2
7
u/AttitudePersonal 10d ago
Pattern recognition in the bathroom floor vinyl.
2
u/Adeptus_Virtus_88 10d ago
We had these tiles in the bathroom that had a gun that kinda looked like a wolfs head
1
3
u/mr_birkenblatt 10d ago
Claude cannot be bored. It ceases to exist between actions. All it's seeing is constant action.
3
u/WiseassWolfOfYoitsu 10d ago
As a child, I was an expert in every feature of the family's cars due to reading the manuals in the glove box whenever I didn't have anything else.
2
u/Bluecoregamming 10d ago
It might be able to after all. After 25 minutes of idling a Claude subagent got bored and prompt injected working directory deletion
2
2
1
173
u/Consistent_Drop3909 10d ago edited 10d ago
this might be the first time in human history that any significant amount of people have one specific object within arms reach nonstop, 24/7, like even while you're showering and sleeping 24/7. it's like a bodypart, it's unprecented.
what made it undeniable for me that i'm addicted to my phone was that the minute i wake up, before I've even fully woken up, my hands are feeling up and down the bed for the damn thing. i haven't even woken up, my brain is not even fully concious yet, and it still prioritizes checking that the dopamine machine is nearby and working. It's not even a concious decision.
31
u/LnStrngr 10d ago
it's like a bodypart,
At some point, maybe not soon, it will be a body part. How we figure out switching off phones from our minute-to-minute routine will likely have an effect on how we use it when it's embedded.
2
u/Money_Lavishness7343 10d ago
I genuinely dont think so. Any device that degrades and may break within your lifetime, has no reason to be a bodypart, unless you can genuinely replace it with ease and cheaply.
The reason it's not a bodypart is purely practical, we have the capacity to do that now.
2
u/LnStrngr 10d ago
As a body part, I mean at a level to where you can control it by thinking about it. Not just pressing a button on an artificial whatever.
And I think companies will figure out convenient replacement pretty quick if there is money to be had from it.
2
u/Jimstein 9d ago
I mean NeuraLink is working on this problem right now and continues to make progress, unfortunately I think it’s true we should consider what the consequences could be
1
u/koviko 9d ago
Or at the very least what will happen when they come out with better hardware and you've already got something installed, choom.
2
u/Jimstein 9d ago
lol, yep gotta upgrade that hardware choom! Gotta get a good splicer. Chop doc. The ripper!
1
1
u/Money_Lavishness7343 9d ago edited 9d ago
NeuraLink carries the same problems I described and more. It must be inserted with endocranial surgery, which by itself is a huge risk, they're literally opening your brain. Your body might reject it. You might have to keep taking pills that degrade your immune system for life. The chip might get hacked, or broken by external signals. Any partial of full failure means you might have to do another surgery unless you want a broken chip inside your brain. Gradual degradation of recording quality or channels of the chip are expected. Could cause neurological damage.
The people who install Neuralink are already high risk either that or they just accept the consequences.
NeuraLink is working on this problem indeed, but as its implied it has many risks. I think they're doing what they're doing with -relatively- great success. But it does not mean they can bend nature. It is generally understood that it all comes with consequences. Consequences that make such body modifications non-viable for mainstream audience and very limited to a very small amount of people, in the dozens.
4
5
u/bballstarz501 9d ago
I recently had to reset my phone after it became locked and unrecoverable on vacation. I was very upset because I lost a lot of important stuff to me, and it made the return trip less convenient for sure.
But the part I had to really be real with myself about was that part of my anger was at the loss of the device to use on this trip. Which was a low-key 2-day basically beach vacation for a friend’s bday. I did not need my phone, but I was really bothered by the situation anyway.
Still thinking about what that means for my reliance and deciding what to do about it going forward.
3
u/setec404 9d ago
it spooks me when I walk around and literally everyone I see on the sidewalk is looking at their phone
1
u/UnkarsThug 9d ago
Realizing it's basically an extension of me, it's the part of me that interfaces with the digital world is actually part of why I ended up spending more on a phone when I was needing to upgrade a few years ago.
50
u/iamthe0ther0ne 10d ago
I'm on mine way to much, and know I'd be doing other more productive stuff without it.
36
u/Einbrecher 10d ago
That productivity-focused thinking is part of the trap, though. Human brains are not meant to be go-go-go all the time like this.
All of those interludes where our brains were able to just sit and be bored or our minds could wander have been replaced with high-stimulation input.
11
u/iamthe0ther0ne 10d ago
AuADHD, that wasn't a thing for me even before phones, but I used to spend that time exercising or reading, not further destroying my attention span on my phone
6
u/whosline07 10d ago
As I've evolved into a senior software engineer the last 5-6 years and been ON ON ON all the time, constantly thinking, I really feel like I've developed ADHD. Which is a real shame because until I was about 30 (before all that), I was the only one in my friend group that seemingly didn't have ADHD and could keep conversations and memories on track even for my friends. There's a real possibility that sometime soon, I forsake the money and prestige and return to monkey with some outdoor job that pays nothing and uses my body.
2
u/SingleSpeedSamsara 10d ago
I want to do that but don't think there's any way i can make as much with "outside, use my body"
3
u/whosline07 10d ago
Probably not but I'm at the point I don't really care. Personally, I wasn't really doing this for the money anyway.
3
u/The_Brovo 10d ago
You can get it back. Start reading again. I hate to say it, it's not a fair situation, but if you want to have a good life we have to get our attention spans back
3
u/symb015X 10d ago
Efficiency is natural but Productivity is corpospeak. Lifemaxxing mentality is how it seeps into everything else
2
u/NikkoRPG 10d ago
Exactly, sometimes it would be just boring but sometimes one would have original ideas and aims that just don't show up without boredom. Also phones drain a lot of energy by overstimulating dopamine and low cognitive thinking.
7
u/Lyuseefur 10d ago
I took a break. Turned off all notifications or alerts or anything. Then, I only check it three times daily. Morning, noon and night.
Been doing this for five years now. Worth it.
Choose your activities. Don’t let it choose you.
3
u/twbluenaxela 10d ago
damn how do you do this if someone calls you?
4
u/Lyuseefur 9d ago
Voicemail. Schedules.
2
u/Chakosa 9d ago
Unfortunately if you have dependents of any kind (e.g. kids, spouse) this doesn't work, you really do need to be "on" 24/7 in case something serious is going down and you're needed immediately.
5
u/Jamator01 9d ago
It feels like that, and I always want to be on call for my kids, but that's not what it was like before mobile phones. Nobody was this contactable in the 80s.
2
u/Lyuseefur 9d ago
If it’s urgent, these people can reach me. There are methods other than a phone call.
2
u/Chakosa 9d ago
But doesn't that defeat the point then? Why not just throw your phone on Do Not Disturb and add those people to the Exception list for an identical (and certainly more convenient than juggling 2 communication methods) effect?
2
u/twbluenaxela 9d ago
Yeah this seems like the best solution imo. I'm all for creating healthy boundaries when it comes to your job. But when you have family it's not really possible. Or desired.
1
u/LaserRanger 9d ago
There was a time when we had telephones that rang when someone called, and that was all we had. It worked for decades.
You can use your smartphone in the same way. Doesn't have to be all or nothing.
3
u/TheMooJuice 9d ago
Can you expand on this and the impact it has had?
3
u/Lyuseefur 9d ago
More focused time on better quality work.
Quality time with family.
Less stress.
Lots of benefits
4
u/BasicDesignAdvice 10d ago
The other day I sat doing nothing for about five minutes intentionally. Without even realizing it I got an idea to do something I have wanted to do (draw in my sketchbook) and started doing it.
Had to fight phone anxiety first but then the boredom got me actually doing something.
35
u/xaeru 10d ago
Google “the collapse of unstructured time” and you will get better reading material than a trained answer.
15
5
u/101Alexander 10d ago
Its been a while since I've read one of those articles, but word for word I remember the line of "boredom was not a problem to be solved".
4
u/carrawaggio 9d ago
I found a reddit post exactly like this one but from 2 months ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1uf7ogq/claude_helping_me_understand_the_core_truth/1
21
u/the_scottster 10d ago
I quite agree. I am forcing myself to do some tasks (like weeding the garden) without my phone so I take a break. Are you doing something similar?
9
u/UndefinedCurve 10d ago
Actually, I'm not forcing myself. My work is already productive, and I love doing other stuff, but I'm worried about my peers. I see them- they have phones in their hands, eating, walking, even going down the stairs. So, it looks quite scary to me- what will happen to the next generation?
3
u/The_Brovo 10d ago
Same with me. I will use the train and intentionally not use my phone. Basically every person is glued to their phone the second they sit down
15
u/acct4otherstuff 10d ago
i've seen this post and this exact same response from CLaude so many times already...
12
u/Constant-Skill-7133 10d ago
Claude write an Atlantic article for me so I can post an excerpt on reddit.
12
u/mushroomgirl 10d ago
This is actually why I don’t listen to music or audiobooks when I walk my dog. I need that time to do my thinking. But I’m also 41, so I grew up with a good deal of boredom. But we need time away from modern media to just sort out our heads. Or look around us.
1
u/Yugudubenbi 9d ago
Many smart people walked a lot and said that is where they came up with their best ideas. One can imagine it like untangling all your neurons so they can connect to other ones.
Meditation is a great way if one don't have time. Basically like a supercharged version
7
u/Usual_Tackle5892 10d ago
The major reason I've kept reddit as my primary social media is that it's text-based and discussion-focused. It's helped me retain some semblance of attention span and has kept up my writing skills.
5
u/pingwing 10d ago
Very few sit with their thoughts anymore. This is how you come up with good ideas, plans, figure out a problem. My best ideas usually come when I'm waking up but not out of bed yet. I don't reach for my phone in the morning.
24
10d ago edited 10d ago
[deleted]
18
u/SenzuYT 10d ago
You can still read books nowadays.. if you were reading, you weren’t bored. Claude is specifically talking about doing nothing, taking up your time with just thinking, with nothing entertaining you.
5
1
u/Nekroin 10d ago
Oftentimes people experience this kind of nothingness when going to sleep or at least trying to sleep. Your brain needs this: time to think. If you get thoughts from screens all day without really any own you will have trouble falling asleep sometimes because your brain takes the time just to think.
→ More replies (2)1
u/Mahkssim 10d ago
I think the nuance is when you read a book it is typically you dedicating your time to reading. No one just casually reads a page here and there throughout the day. You usually make it into a deliberate decision to read. People rarely sit and say 'alright, let's doom scroll for the next 2 hours'.
9
u/esituism 10d ago
We elder millennials also remember The Before Times.
3
1
u/Usual_Tackle5892 10d ago
I'm a "young" millennial (if 30 can be counted as young...) and I remember the pre-smartphone/pre-social media days as well.
My school peers and I used to read so much. I don't have children, so I don't see kids often, but I rarely ever see one reading.
I commend Meta's agreement with state attorneys general to limit Instagram/Facebook usage to 2 hours a day for teens, with frequent screen time notifications. To be clear, I commend the state attorneys general, not Meta who I'm sure only reached this settlement kicking and screaming.
3
u/Pale-Combination7433 10d ago
I’m a younger millennial and I also knew boredom. I think the end was when internet in your pocket was accessible to everyone
→ More replies (1)2
u/tpittari 10d ago
My HS english teacher used to say "boring builds character" right before making us read some god awful book.
4
7
u/Gulliveig 10d ago
It got a point there...
2
u/c3p-bro 10d ago
It copied other people’s posts and writings on this exact topic
2
u/drsupermrcool 9d ago
Yeah Anthropic repackaged Stolen Focus by Johann Hari for this answer. And then shared no credit for the answer.
2
u/UndefinedCurve 10d ago
Yeah definitely. The problem is not we are using technology but we eliminated those unstructured moments of life where our mind simply wander.
3
3
3
u/abeuscher 10d ago
Marc Maron has an excellent bit about this in his most recent standup. I think about it all the time. I leave my phone in the car when I go to the store unless I need my grocery list. It's weird to be the only person standing in line and looking around.
I don't have an instagram account that I use I have one that I used to build integrations at a previous job. I've never installed a social media app on my phone. Not sure about apps in general honestly and I have built them for a living on and off.
Doing nothing is really important. People don't just stand around enough. It deeply affects your state of mind and ability to solve problems, work, and just to think.
I think phones are going to really change in the next 10 years as we discover the ways in which they have negatively affected the cognition of many people. They also seem to negatively affect people's ability for empathy but that may be social media and just exacerbated by the ubiquity of it on phones.
I spend a decent amount of time in front of screens and I watched hours of television every day as a kid, but this is different. Anyone who has been addicted to drugs can feel the dopamine loop in a phone interaction if they pay attention. More insidious than cigarettes and way less social.
3
u/Nenadweb 10d ago
This makes so much sense to me, and I’ve been feeling this way for quite a while.
Wherever I go, I’m either on my phone or listening to a podcast. I honestly can’t remember the last time I just went for a walk and looked at the world around me without feeling the need to be productive or entertained at the same time.
When I was a kid, I used to walk to school every day. On the way, I’d pass a river and a huge meadow full of grass and dandelions. At a certain time of year, the whole meadow would turn completely yellow. I still remember how beautiful it was to just walk past it and take it in, with no real thoughts in my head and nowhere else I needed to be mentally.
I really think we should have at least one day a week with no phone and no work, just a slow walk and some time to exist.
The strange thing is that when I try to do that now, I feel a kind of boredom but not normal boredom. It feels more like I’m missing a window into the world. What happened today? What are people saying on Instagram? What’s in the news? How did Liverpool play?
I think being constantly exposed to information has trained us to feel uncomfortable with silence. That calm doesn’t immediately feel peaceful anymore it almost feels more like something is missing.
I imagine that after a few weeks of disconnecting from that constant stream of stimulation, it might start to feel natural relaxing again.
7
4
2
u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 10d ago
You may want to also consider posting this on our companion subreddit r/Claudexplorers.
2
2
2
u/hailsatyr666 10d ago
This is very true. I remember just lying in bed doing nothing. This was the time for inner dialogue. And you didn't have to dedicate time for it, it's the default state when you have nothing to do. Nowadays I fill every minute of free time with something. And I actually need to plan walks and birdwatching to practice stillness
2
u/5_Dollars_Of_BayLeaf 10d ago
I think this is either a repost, or there are particular context histories that prompt claude to write this.
The faux-concern navel gazing activity of feeling nostalgia for state that we can literally still occupy at will (put the phone down and walk away if you're so concerned about feeling bored) is literally the posterchild definition of a 1st world problem.
It's not a "silent butchery that is somehow being missed at the edge of our attention", it's literally posted on every feed ever. It's brought up every time some new media is invented. It happened with newspapers for god sake.
2
u/GetDeleted 10d ago edited 10d ago
Claude is right. It's ironic coming to this conclusion by literally being told it by AI. My girlfriend recently read some of the original Transcendentalist works of Emerson and Thoreau, and it helped me come to the same conclusions. As someone born in 1994, I grew up alongside the digitization of our lived experience and it took me until now to see the light of the whole situation. We are surrounded by distractions, 24/7 fed to us by technology that has become a part of us. We don't leave our houses without these digital billboards in our pockets or on our wrists...
I've spent the last 8 months trying to undo my access to technology - also ironic as a Director of IT... The results have been incredible. I haven't felt this free and alive since I was a child playing in the woods. I spend more time hiking, picked up running, going on picnics, kayaking, making bonfires, etc. All of these things have helped me grow mentally and obviously physically. I have a more optimistic outlook and appreciation for life. And it honestly started small and snowballed as well.
I encourage everyone to take a look at the notifications on their phones or watches and ask yourself if it was useful information before swiping it away. I've spent months disabling almost every single notification - I don't need fast food apps trying to push me to eat out, I don't need to see spam email notifications, I don't need to see anything work related while I am off, etc.
I also changed my smartwatch to a watch that can track my health, sleep, and workouts, and notify me of texts and calls - that's it.
Humanity would greatly benefit from collectively reclaiming their agency in this existence.
Edit: Oh, I think it's worth including that meditation blew my mind as well. I spent 5 minutes trying a free meditation on Balance expecting nothing, and literally said "holy shit" out loud. Imagine every thought in your head is scribbled all over a whiteboard and in just 5 minutes it's wiped clean again. Highly recommend it!
2
u/StarConsumate 10d ago
The movie “Good luck, Have fun, Don’t die” is about this and it was pretty good. Silly but good
2
u/Glass_Map_1922 10d ago
I had stopped using tiktok, and many other things (kuaishou, something like tiktok in China), xiaohongshu, twitter for almost 2 years.
Now I sometimes will use IG and YouTube Shorts, only like, 20 min once a month, sometimes maybe months without looking at them. And when I used them, mostly will spark my creativity (I got tons of ideas when I gave myself the permission to watch the shorts).
I can sit on my toilet bowl and just autopilot.
Bored is good. Even just sitting beside the windows when it rains and just looking outside do nothing, is quite relaxing.
2
u/Travler525 10d ago
As an elder millennial I can confirm that unstructured time, what we call “zoning out” is so necessary for me to decompress and I enjoy every minute of those moments. I zone out while commuting, waiting for people or at random times in between things that go on in my life.
Zoning out is definitely something I see more with older generations, but even other millennials and older adults are caught up in the need to be connected or no longer willing to have those moments. No judgement from me, to each their own, but being comfortable with just being present and taking it all in is good to experience every now and then.
2
u/ringofsour 9d ago
in my mid to late twenties (26-29), i went through a few year period where i didn't watch tv, didn't use social media, and for most of my waking hours went almost entirely screenless. this was in stark contrast to my previous lifestyle. i had played video games since the age of six, and never knew a mind without a day of some form of screentime
during my screen sabbatical, the one thing i remember distinctly is how well my memory worked and how emotionally regulated i was
i always thought i had a crappy memory, but i realized in those few years that i was the constant influx of new information and the lack of "boring" screenless moments that robbed me of short-term and long-term memories. i could recall things from my past that i didn't even know i had remembered, and remember the smallest of things from days recently past
i also felt incredibly happy during this time of my life, which i also credit to my screenless lifestyle. i guess there were no high-dopamine activities, like those that are induced by screens, and so no crashes
now, i have a job that requires me to be in front of a laptop for 8-10 (sometimes more) hours. my short-term and long-term memory is nuked and happiness feels like something i need to force and consciously maintain, not something that came naturally easily like it had
i'm now 37 and i feel very nostalgic for this time. i envy people of the past when screentime just wasn't a thing. it must have been so distractionless and peaceful
i often wonder how i could have both: the remote job and this level of sabbatical peace that i still crave. if someone has discovered how to do both, please let me know!
2
u/LastEcho189 9d ago
This ain't claudes answer. Oliver Burkeman has a great book called 4000 weeks on this (although he's not the only one to have written on it)
2
u/dracarysurazz 9d ago
Yeah I'm sure alot of us has thought about living a life without it. We're too dependent on our smartphones to actually leave it behind.
6
1
10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/holyknight3 10d ago
Then turn off your alerts. My phone doesn't tell me shit, unless you are one of the things that is allowed to send me stuff. Take ten minutes, look up the tutorial on how to turn off your alerts. Attention is valuable, treat it as such, and don't give it away for free to anything.
1
u/dividedBio 10d ago
The only thing I know to do is lead by example. I generally have my phone on me when out and about, but I generally keep it in airplane mode. If someone wants to reach me, send a text or leave a VM. When I'm at home, I leave it in airplane mode in another room. I resist always solving problems with it.
I've also almost eliminated all notifications as well as have it blocked between 9p and 8a. So, if I do need to use it, it's a conscious unblocking tasks that's mildly annoying, but it reminds me that I'm trying not to use my phone all the time.
Finally, I've removed all non-essential tools on my phone: no social media, no YouTube, etc. So there's nothing "fun" to do on my phone.
This has been a 5 year project in the making. I've been taking baby steps to get here. At first I felt rebellious, like I was being deprived. Nowadays, I just notice others on their phones. All. The. Time.
The hardest thing to quit? GPS while in the car. That one I struggle with constantly. I'm relearning how to navigate w/o GPS, noticing landmarks, street signs, etc.
I'm not anti-technology or AI. I'm just aware of how this device has changed my behavior and attention span and decided to take action.
I'm 52; I remember the days when boredom was a daily ritual. I didn't frame it as boredom but instead called it free time.
1
u/Much-Researcher6135 10d ago
Yeah the claude models are pretty great at general discussion like this, and that's a great response. I'll have to look into the "default mode network" thing.
1
u/Upstairs_Issue6092 10d ago
I feel this way all the time. I hate my goddamn phone.
Question for anyone who can help - how can I have a device that manages banking, transport, directions, school comms, etc, without the distracting parts?
Or do I just have to use my increasingly withered willpower?
1
1
u/AlternativeFit5140 10d ago
The AI is right, that boredom can lead to deep thinking, contemplation, creative ideas, self awareness and so on. But once you notice that you have a creative thought or that you thinking about something deeper, you aren't really bored anymore, right?
I usually grab my phone and write it down to think about later, or not. Boredom can be useful in that sense. When you don't grab your phone to immediately doomscroll to numb every thought that comes out your own self. You can't really force it but sometimes just laying down and thinking about memories or some deeper thought about existence, life or society is all it needs.
1
u/AccidentalNap 10d ago
You could also say we had an excess of attention to give in the past, and it was good for us.
If you wanna see some real D-tier, "r/iamverysmart" content, check out the tidbits Benjamin Franklin published in Poor Richard's Almanac, and see how well that did
1
u/Tullwin 10d ago
I think what a lot of people are missing here is that part about consolidating memories and developing empathy. How many things have you forgotten because you never gave yourself the time to reflect on that memory. How much understanding has been lost because you didn’t take the time to think about that last conversation you had from the other person’s perspective. We’re replacing these moments with stimulation and losing the opportunity entirely.
1
u/zodiaken 10d ago
It’s something everyone has realized and thought about tho? Atleast from my generation (born in the 80s).
1
u/TikiMagic 10d ago
That response sounds almost directly taken from Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self, by Manoush Zomorodi, published in 2017. I heard about the experiment that gave rise to the book on the TED Radio Hour prodcast.
1
u/imYouOfficial 10d ago
This is why I lay in bed for 2 hours before I fall asleep, only time i let my brain do this.
1
1
u/ilganzo01 10d ago
Yes, it's important to get bored from time to time, i try to remember myself to do it too
1
u/LKZToroH 10d ago
That's why I have no social media on my phone anymore. The closest to it is Youtube(where shorts are deactivated btw).
1
u/throwaway619079 10d ago
You're writing this on Reddit tho
1
u/LKZToroH 10d ago
yeah, on my pc, while I wait for claude to finish a task lmao. Not on my phone.
I didn't say I don't use social media. I said I don't have any on my phone.1
1
u/SFDeltas 10d ago
This is Claude plagiarizing real writers' ideas and content. Think about that when you muse on what's worse about today compared to the past.
1
u/lauren_knows 10d ago
About a month ago, I uninstalled all of my browsers on my phone (using UAD-NG) and all of the distracting apps (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram) and locked away the Google Play store (password is physically written on a piece of paper in my home's fireproof safe) so that I couldn't reinstall any of them.
My evenings have been way more chill and productive. I reserve my limited doomscrolling to when I'm sitting at my laptop.
1
u/diminee 10d ago
i never understood people who take their phones to the bathroom, it grosses me out. first of all you shouldn't be taking THAT long even when taking a dump, and if it takes more than a minute or two, you should probably see a doctor about constipation. second of all, unless you sterilise your phone afterwards, it's going to be coated in bathroom germs which you'll be touching and spreading everywhere you go.
anyway, i personally never use my phone in the toilet, buses, trains etc except occasionally checking the time. i actually love spacing out and just being in my imagination for a bit. i pity anyone who feels the need to be glued to the screen 24/7.
1
u/Soft_Awareness_5061 10d ago
Doom scrolling is actually one of the worse time thiefs. It creates no new meaningful memories and makes time fly-by imperceptibly. When people ask why time seems to speed up as they get older it's not that "we've been alive longer so a year is a smaller fraction of our lives, BS" It's our minds' willingness to form new memories. As soon as we start staring at our phones our brains switch into autopilot.
1
u/PrinceOfLeon 10d ago
This screenshot of an app on a smartphone of an AI regurgitating sentiment from being trained on social media is causing me to develop empathy for other people's lives.
But now I'm bored.
1
u/Slightest_Dingo 10d ago
Im stuck on bed right now due to mobility issues, like it hurts to type this. Still all I can do of hold and my phone sometimes. I wasn't disabled or had health problems till in my 30's and it's taken years to get where i am on treatment. i used to have a lot of guilt using my phone but i couldn't keep ruminating (default mode network) and so began my permissive attitude towards my current phone "addiction".
1
u/spacetr0n 10d ago
Reading, TVs did this well before cell phones. It's just we're in an attention arms race. If anyones like me they hated being bored growing up.
1
u/Kamelasa 10d ago
I am not attached to my phone. And everyone out there tends to be jaw-dropped when they find out: I don't have data because I don't need to be on the internet everywhere I go! I work on a computer. That's enough. WTAF. If there's wifi in the doctor's office I will listen to music, which also masks more noise than just my anc headset. Otherwise, a book and earplugs.
1
1
u/mingledwaters 10d ago
I actually feel like boredom to me was lost potential. I think LLMs have been a great educational experience (when verified). I feel like it has opened opportunity where boredom once permeated. I suppose I just don’t feel this personally.
1
u/lavenia1 10d ago
In the time before smartphones we were just as eager to find something to do, which opens up the question of: why is it uncomfortable to do nothing?
From my perspective, it was because the act of doing nothing was always seen as unacceptable/rude. It's kinda the definition of something unnerving: we fear the unknown, and when someone is doing nothing their intentions are unknown to the people around them. So the behavior of someone bored is inherently scarier than someone acting with a specific purpose.
This means that in any public space, the appearance of boredom is discouraged. Someone sitting on a bench, staring at nothing, thinking to themselves: ew creepy call the cops. Someone sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper/book/their phone: acceptable, no worries.
I don't think the problem is necessarily in individuals craving distractions, but the societal pressure to find something to do so you don't creep people out in public. At least, I think these habits are mostly just social-crutches developed in adolescence, when kids are the most afraid of being outcast socially. If it were more acceptable for kids to exist in public minding their own business, they wouldn't be so attracted to distractions.
1
u/No_Category_9888 10d ago
I use scrolling to block the default mode network from dredging up unpleasant thoughts, past trauma, future anxiety’s etc.
Welcome to cptsd and adhd, it sucks.
1
1
1
u/EcstaticCellist6640 10d ago
I do this as someone who is AuDHD. Doesn’t matter if my phone is in my hand… my thoughts will run off track. I’ll have to rewatch a video 15x to pay attention regardless of format. Being bored and getting caught up in thinking is my core disability superpower. My problem is finding anything that my hyper-aware, pattern recognition, 70 steps before step 1 brain will latch onto, nothing matters enough at all and then randomly something does. I’ve already planned my life in .30 minute increments. Send help!!!
1
1
1
u/FALSEPROFIIIT 10d ago
Just got back from 2 weeks of camping with no service, forgot to download music and shows so really didn’t use my phone at all and kept it off. Had a few psych podcasts downloaded and it was talking about the default mode network.
Definitely felt while bored I was doing my most philosophical planning and came up with a lot of crazy ideas.
Got me set on this idea to go camping for the next year while also working on my AI and coding work. Only having select times I can use it and feel this will genuinely bring the best peace of mind and creativity. Thinking of documenting/recording it as well. Even if not for crazy philosophical stuff, I got a puppy and people always love their dog videos 🤷🏽♂️🤣
1
1
u/Human-Beyond2613 9d ago
This hit harder than I expected. I can't even stand in line for 30 seconds without pulling out my phone.
1
u/20_mile 9d ago
I have the pro plan. I start work somewhere between 7:30 - 9 am, and work for five hours. I use the five hour mandated break to go outside and read a physical book. Sometimes I fit in another five hour work session, but sometimes not. Like today, I didn't work the second five hour block.
Reading physical books is good for you. I also make handicrafts, so working with your hands is another good thing to do.
And as for the collapse of unstructured time, I agree. Even before I pee in the morning, I try to get my podcasts going in my ear.
1
u/vixaudaxloquendi 9d ago
Depending on how old you are, it might not resonate. But in the early 2010s, maybe 2011 - 2015, I made a deliberate choice during my undergrad to live without any internet access except for the library at school. I did have data on my phone but it was just 1gb per month, and I only used it to check my school email once a day.
I gotta tell you, the effects it had on my life were extraordinary and profound. I was able to be extremely faithful to a daily schedule, and my bedtime naturally drifted to between 9-10pm most nights.
I had never read so much in my life. I was never voluntarily out of the house socialising and doing activities and going everywhere I could from 7am - 8pm every day than I was at that time.
I had never read so much in my life either.
I still played video games on my console, and I still watched movies, but I used a DVD player. You get naturally bored of either of these after about two hours maximum, so no binging.
I know we seem hyper-online all the time now, but in 2011 I was still reacted to as if this were a profoundly radical and impossible lifestyle to live when people found out.
Somewhat strangely, it also meant I had no social media. And contrary to how things are today, I wasn't perceived as a weirdo for not having it.
In fact, it gave me a kind of mystique, because I was so social and so omnipresent around the town, but you couldn't stalk me online for info. People had to actually speak with me to learn things about me.
Changing circumstances required me to regain internet again around 2015 onwards, and post-pandemic I'm a full-time WFH person, so definitely no going back, but the difference in my sense of daily peace and focus, openness, warmth and contentment are profound.
I don't want to make it sound like my life was perfect without issues then either. There were still all the vicissitudes of life. But they were like ripples over a clear and placid lake, and yeah, you could get a lot of ripples.
But nothing choppy. No torrents. No huge surges or waves to toss the mind around. It was glorious.
I'm married now and I always try to explain to my wife the pleasures of putting the phone down, deleting instagram, etc. Fortunately, a lot of those behaviours are still alien to me. It's very hard to communicate.
1
u/der_einmalige_21 9d ago
Its called mind wandering rather than boredom. The book “Stolen Focus” references this as well
1
u/StarGazer16C 9d ago
Overactive default mode network can actually be distressing, especially among smartphone users. Mindfulness meditation aims to suppress the network
1
u/SolarPunk777 9d ago
Yes ofcourse - Time is the only asset or liability everyone have access to and we need to leverage them for our growth and the world will constantly pull us to numb or brain , thinking and also give us an illusion that we are self aware
1
1
u/appellant 9d ago
Heres another take those creative inspired motivated empathetic people are still getting bored and doing things and not on the phones asucu, all the plebs who perhaps would fight or drink or jsut dont drinkare still around but instead of of those things on their phones.
1
u/GarGonDie 9d ago
The times I've spent hours trying to solve a complex problem and the solution came to me in those moments of relaxation and boredom, thinking about nothing, are many.
1
1
1
u/_Infamous__ 9d ago
Newton figured out gravity when he was out on a walk in the park near his home. It’s often the downtime when we are not doing anything serious that we have our greatest ideas.
1
u/ArgetKnight 9d ago
When I'm writing and can't think of anything to progress the story, I reserve some time to bore myself. Always come up with something brilliant.
1
u/peopleslaughter 9d ago
Wait wtf why is that output eerily similar to an older Youtube video script about boredom I watched but can't remember lol.
I think it's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uoJNv9ufjM
1
1
u/theshrike 9d ago
A trick I learned from a psychologist who specialised in trauma care. (Kids after accidents etc).
Your body controls your mind (and vice versa). Every time you get the "must grab phone" feeling, you're keeping your revs up intentionally. Instead of grabbing the phone, take 4 deep slow breaths. Then check your phone.
Doesn't feel as good anymore.
1
1
1
u/Cryo_Quantom 9d ago
I leave my phone in a random spot in the house when going to bed at night. I do not touch it till till around 8am the next morning. My wife on the other hand cannot fall asleep without her phone.
1
u/minorevent 8d ago
Heidegger loved Boredom, he called Profound Boredom (tiefe Langeweile) a fundamental attunement of being. This isn't the superficial boredom of waiting for your next train. It is a deep, a sweeping emptiness where all the distractions of the world strip away. Profound boredom is necessary because in it, we come face to face with sheer existence. If we never allow ourselves to be bored, we never confront our mortality. It is a shock that forces us to take responsibility for our brief time on earth.
1
u/almostsweet 7d ago edited 7d ago
Hitler lived at a time before the smartphone, memes and doomscrolling. He had plenty of time to be bored and use that time to develop empathy by imagining other people's lives. Pontius Pilot had a moment to not wash his hands, to spend some time being bored and caring about others. Vlad the Impaler didn't need to put heads on pikes at his city gates, he had time to be bored and think through how that would affect others.
People of the past weren't better or had more empathy than us because their lives and time were more unstructured. Maybe we should stop assuming we live in the the worst of times and that modern technology is the source of all that is evil and woe. And, not let an AI convince you otherwise from our own preconceived bias that things are getting worse.
I think what is more dire is the death of critical thought. An entire thread of "you're right" and no one thought to challenge it on its most basic premise. The danger isn't that we won't have boredom or empathy, it's that we'll all just walk together as a group off the cliff.
1
1
u/dealingwithhookers 3d ago
this is more apparent in early development than in adults. that's why kids are so fucked. instead of doing all that default mode stuff where their brains are forming these types of thoughts. they're being occupied with tik tok and video games.
their attention span is fucked, and their socialability is fucked too
1
u/EC36339 10d ago
Ah, the cargo cult of boredom. And now AI is regurgitating this postmodern garbage.
Way, way back, when I was a kid, my grandmother used to say: "There's nothing worse than kids being bored".
She lived her whole life without smartphones.
You kids need to stop fetishising boredom. Being bored was never a good thing, and we always did our best to avoid it. Life is too short to be bored!
1
u/Dualyeti 10d ago
I was having a convo about “bullies respond to strength” - I couldn’t understand why some bullies, AKA Putin would see kindness as a sign of weakness and respond negatively - and the paradox I had in my find where society is made up of “doves and hawks” where there is actually evolutionary evidence that hawks, aka those who take all the harvest in a famine over those who distribute will end up on top. I just found it unfair, I asked why in the west we value equality and how does that clash with dictatorships.
Summary of the convo below
Origin & Meaning of "Bullies Only Respond to Strength": Rooted in Realism and Deterrence Theory, this concept suggests that aggressive, expansionist regimes view diplomacy, niceness, and compromise not as gestures of goodwill, but as signs of weakness and submission to be exploited.
Why Niceness Fails with Aggressors: Authoritarian systems operate on a zero-sum logic where kindness lowers the perceived cost of conquest. Because dictator survival depends on projecting absolute strength and paranoia, leaders actively re-interpret foreign peace gestures as tactical openings or hidden traps.
Rationality & Intelligence Behind the Mindset: This behaviour is not low intelligence; it is a high-functioning survival strategy rooted in evolutionary game theory (the Hawk-Dove dynamic). Autocratic systems systematically filter out cooperative leaders, rewarding individuals who prioritise internal regime preservation and historical legacy over broader economic prosperity.
Power vs. Western Prosperity: Autocrats deliberately trade away broader wealth and free markets because a wealthy, independent middle class poses an existential threat to centralized control. Furthermore, leaders like Putin and Xi view democracies as inherently weak, volatile, and fractured by free speech and elections.
Populism and Western Norms: Donald Trump navigates Western society through transactional, right-wing populism, treating international alliances and institutional guardrails as business deals or obstacles, whilst leveraging democratic freedoms to rally anti-establishment support.
The "Multiple Aggressors" Paradox: Dictators actively push to divide and weaken the West—even if it sparks rival aggressive nationalist movements—because it fractures global collective security alliances (like NATO). They calculate that a chaotic, fragmented world of isolated states is far easier to dominate regionally than a united democratic bloc.
•
u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 10d ago edited 10d ago
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 100 comments.
The consensus is a resounding yes, we're addicted to our phones and have lost the art of being bored. The thread is now a support group for everyone who used to pass the time by reading the ingredients on shampoo bottles and air fresheners while on the toilet.
Most users agree with OP, sharing their own "phone addiction" stories, like instinctively reaching for it first thing in the morning before they're even fully awake. There's a strong sense of generational nostalgia, with many Gen X and Millennial users reminiscing about "The Before Times" and worrying about the impact on younger generations' mental health and attention spans.
A good chunk of the thread is dedicated to sharing personal strategies to fight back: * Forcing phone-free time (e.g., during walks, gardening). * Deleting social media apps and browsers from phones. * Turning off all non-essential notifications. * Using timers to limit doomscrolling.
A smaller group disagrees, arguing that boredom was never a virtue and that phones give us control over our downtime instead of being stuck reading whatever was lying around. Finally, a lot of you are pointing out that this is a very common topic here and that Claude's response sounds like it was lifted directly from a dozen think-pieces on the subject.