Lit Lounge - 3 – Boredom and Brilliance

My Post:
I found that this video was a nice study that was different from most of the other Ted Talks I
hear. Zomorodi seems to style her speech like a research paper, with scientists and random
people, quoted using their voice, giving light to the fact that she is a journalist and podcast host,
which feels like it's more natural for her to talk about. My "beef" is that the quotes sometimes
throw me off from the speech, but I find it an interesting concept. The topic was very interesting
and relatable as well, I find myself not being able to look at a phone once per hour and when I
do, I get so consumed in it, that I could be scrolling through posts on social media sites and
youtube for hours on end. I found it interesting that the neuroscientists didn't anticipate a result
like this to happen, where it was more of a difference than anticipated. I also found it interesting
that people that work for these huge companies like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, all have
a bunch of people actively searching to get you more attached to their platform, it sounds quite
devilish if you ask me, especially since I know they do their job well. This talk about the
correlation between boredom and brilliance, really spoke to me, because it feels like I have lost
some creativity due to having a source that holds all the information in the world at my
fingertips. I also think that having all this information at your fingertips encourages a pattern of
lesser thinking, where scrolling through feeds, becomes the knowledge that you've accepted and
overwhelms the mind since there is so much of it, with differing concepts. This idea that makes
you content with what you mindlessly read, instead of going out to truly research a topic that
interests you, because there is so much info flowing through so fast, that you can't keep up. I feel
like I'm just kind of stating what the video discusses to a smaller degree, but this study was quite
fascinating and reminded me of an earlier time and similar experiments. There was one
experiment, if anyone remembers it, where kids would try to go a week without electronics, I
don't know if I can find it without extensive research, but it aired on Nickelodeon or Disney, I
don't remember which. Then there was, not so much an experiment, but it was a message from
Nickelodeon and Michelle Obama about the "Day of Play," where it encouraged kids to turn off
the TV and go out for an hour of exercise. There are a lot of things to this topic that could be
related, like how we as a generation were addicted to cable TV at one point, it's all very
interesting and makes it prevalent in almost all generations, not just the newer ones.
Comments:
David Benton’s Post:
This is such an interesting talk. Manoush Zomorodi made some fantastically interesting points
about phone use. Many of these were a little close to home as I am sure they were for almost
everyone. The challenge week that she proposed is a very interesting idea. More people should
attempt this challenge every once in a while to see how their phones control their lives. I know
that I am guilty of using my phone for much more than the two-hour average. I was interested to
learn that this was the average for people that listen to her podcast as recent as two years ago.
While it does seem probable that being bored is the best way to be creative, I do not believe that
the change seen in her study can be expected to scale to everyone. The participants were all self-
selected and were all listeners of a specific podcast. This is less than ideal in experimental
design.
As for the main point that boredom leads to brilliance, I can remember having wonderful ideas
when I am bored. For instance, great ideas come to me during showers and from lying in bed
waiting to sleep. These times allow the mind to wander, which allows the brain to go into the
default state that Manoush mentioned. I find that these are the only times that I get bored.
Whenever I feel that I am becoming bored, I switch tasks. I agree that the systemic lack of
boredom is a major issue plaguing our generation.
I know that I am not going to take this knowledge to increase my time spent bored. It is a large
undertaking and appears to be something interesting to try, but it takes so much conscious effort
to make any changes.
My Response:
It's interesting to hear your stories about when you are bored because it made me realize that
doing things like laying in bed and showering have been moments where I've certainly been
"bored." I feel like those tasks, where I go into the "Default State" leave me in confusion about
the topic. The reason I say this is because I feel like I would be multi-tasking, making my brain
do overtime by switching between tasks unnoticeably, which feels like a contradiction that
wouldn't put me into this state. I might be misunderstanding or forgetting something from the
video, I'll be honest, I checked my phone a couple of times, but that point seemed weird, at least
in the way it was explained.

Michael Eastland’s Post:

I think it is really interesting to think about the time we spend on our phones and devices daily. I
remember a couple weeks ago some kids were comparing how much screen time they had, and
one kid said they had over 24 hours in a week. That's over a whole day that they wasted on their
phone doing whatever they did. That 24 hours could have been productive, but if we are all being
honest, it probably wasn't. I feel like tons of time is wasted throughout the day that could have
been used for something else. For me, I know that I am always on my phone when there is a
break in what I'm doing. It results in me doing homework late at night which could be solved if I
just put the phone down, but as she was saying in the Ted Talk, a lot of these apps are designed
to "pull" you in. They make advertisements and push notifications to your lock screen that make
you wonder which results in you checking something on that app. After you check that, most of
the time you sit on the app for another 30 minutes. I think this is a huge problem our generation
faces as we have grown up with technology and it is practically normal for everyone to be on
their phones all the time. It was really interesting to hear about how boredom can bring out
creativity even though it may not seem like it. After watching this Ted Talk I will try to use my
phone less to see how much it really benefits myself and the work I have to do here at UNCC.
My Response:
You know, I'm on the same page as you are, I'm going to try and stay off my phone as well. I
think that I probably, no most definitely, spend more than 24 hours a week on my phone, which
like you said sounds ridiculous, but considering the times, it doesn't. It's kind of relatable in a
way, how much we spend on our devices, it's probably why most of us self-diagnose ourselves
with ADHD or some other variant because we'd always fidget if we didn't know what's going on
in the world. It makes me come to question if this phone issue has some correlation with the
average human being trying to stay in their "safe space" and companies that make these
ridiculous algorithms appeal to those tastes and keep you subjugated within the almighty grasp
that is social media. There also could be some commentary on how we as a society are more
susceptible to other people's opinions, becoming conformists to the social ideals of what is
observed. It's an extensive topic that has many psychological factors that could come in to play.