Are cell phones destroying creativity? Podcast host, author, and relentless examiner of the modern human condition Manoush Zomorodi believes that they are. When we are bored, the brain enters what is called “default mode”—think about the way your mind wanders when you’re in the shower or doing the dishes. This might not seem like valuable time but our creativity really kicks into high gear. We now use up a lot of that boredom-time by poking at our phones, and in doing so are starving ourselves of a main source of inspiration.

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So the original Bored and Brilliant challenge was based on an extremely mundane situation that happened to me in that I sat down to try and come up with some good ideas for my podcast. We were doing well. I wanted to like, you know, I wanted to kill it. It was 2014 and I sat down to sort of make a list which has usually worked for me and I felt like there was nothing. There was this blankness. It was almost as though there was sand in my brain. And I started to think like what the—you know, first of all, what the hell, and second of all, well wait a minute. When had I had my last best ideas and why was I potentially having so much trouble now? And I thought back and it was really when I was staring out the window – it was such a cliché. It was when I was staring out the window or I was in the shower or I was pushing my kid’s stroller for miles and miles. That is when I had my best ideas. And now I realize that all those little cracks in my day, all those moments when I used to sort of just be spacing out what was I doing?

I was looking at this thing, right? I was looking at my phone when I was waiting in line for coffee, when I was on the bus, every single one of those moments. And it made me realize like I was never bored ever in my life anymore. In fact, I might not have been bored since I think 2009 which is when I first got an iPhone. I was a late adopter. And so then it made me thing like well what actually happens in our brains when we get bored and what could potentially be happening if we never get bored ever again, if we got rid of this human state all together. Is boredom actually a useful sort of emotion. So I reached out to my audience and I was like are you guys thinking about this too? And you have to remember this is a couple of years ago, right. So are you thinking about this? Are you thinking about the fact that your phone could be disrupting the way you think, the way you come up with ideas, maybe your creativity. And people were like yes, absolutely I’m thinking about this. So I put it out to them. I was like well would you be willing to do an experiment with me where we take a week. We try to tweak our digital behavior and we see if we can indeed jumpstart our creativity by getting bored more often. And I kind of thought like 200 people would sign up to do this or something and 20,000 people signed up within the first 48 hours. So it was pretty exciting and gratifying that it wasn’t just me who was feeling like there was sand in their brain.

So what I wanted to understand first of all was what actually happens in our brains when we get bored. And it’s fascinating. I had no idea that we are at this moment in history where we are starting to understand what happens in the brain when we allow it to just sort of wander where it wants to go. And so what they know now is that when you get bored you activate a network in your brain called the default mode. And you can’t – this is different than mindfulness, right. This is when you’re folding laundry or like ambling down the street or just lying on the couch. Not watching Game of Thrones and tweeting at the same time. So what happens in the default mode is this network ignites your most original thinking. It is where you do your best problem solving and you also do something called autobiographical planning which I had never heard of. This is where you look back at your life, you take note of the highs and the lows and you build a personal narrative. You figure out what is your story and then where are you going to go from there. Where does the story continue. You set goals and then you figure out the steps that you need to take to reach those goals. Now, of course, you can’t ignite the default mode if you are focusing on something like your phone or you can’t tap the brain power if you’re tapping a screen. Now this is extremely important things… understanding who you are, theory of mind, what you want to be when you grow up because… it feels like we all want to know what we’re going to be when we grow up. This is really it’s long term planning.

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45 COMMENTS

  5. Boredom is basically what my entire day is. And I'm a jobless guy leeching off my parents! I guess default mode somehow failed me. I'm usually surprised when I get conscious of my thoughts and would go like "how did I even get to thinking of putting people in rafflesia chairs that would shut close and start rubbing them with a unique perfume every single time?"

    Sometimes I can backtrack 3-4 steps but usually just up to that. Guess I'm always "lost in thoughts" and need to find a way to be not always be in default mode.

  8. Yes! My best thinking has come when I've been hungover so that I'm awake, but don't feel good enough to get up and actually do something. Or when I've been couple of days in a cabin in wilderness so that there's really nothing to do. I start getting exited about piece of using just pen and paper and thinking through some deep stuff about physics and cosmology and free will etc.

  9. I recently discovered this myself. To get in some exercise at work, I take a stroll around the flight line, but the catch is, no electronics are allowed out there. So I am spending an hour a day walking with nothing to distract me and I find myself thinking clearly about so many things and solving problems I was having. I now walk with a pen and notepad so I don't forget what I came up with on my stroll.

  12. When flying back to Tampa from Honolulu in 2007, and seeing the smoggy sky, the ideas for my first novel began to coalesce.
    For the next month or so, I hand wrote up to 20 pages a day. My mother thought I'd lost my mind. Actually, I'd found a part of it too long neglected.
    Will it ever be published? I certainly hope so. It's a cracking good story, the first part of a trilogy. It would make a good film treatment, as well. I even have casting in mind.
    The point is, I did it.:)

  15. I find necessity works the best. Nothing brings about a great idea without a real need for it. Ideas born from boredom have little use, as boredom is a representation of all your needs being met

  20. Do you really have to press on each word so hard and also go so high pitch on so many of them? I couldn t watch all video. Too much…overcooked. Relax a little bit. You exagerate your ups and downs too much. Is not a puppet show for kids, where you need to do all those characthers. Ok. I hope you got it.

  25. Boredom usually kicks in after you've had to much fun or right before you decide to do something. I like this "default mode" expression of boredom. Explains why it is so necessary and why people run from it. Also helps with the explanation of long time relationships, and how it's usually those who cope while bored together can last.
    Interestingly enough, everyone I know think boredom is a bad thing. If you can make someone bored, and not just sleepy, you basically have the power to reset their mind. O.o

  26. media pending…

    My own thoughts are like two competing hurricanes with the goal to annihilate whoever is stupid enough to sit on an island between them. If I fight back the urge to escape, and focus intently on staying still, they smash into each other and cancel out just before tearing me away into the madness. I have to focus on my breathing, which lowers my heartbeat, in order to distill my thoughts to a point where I could sniff the cap, fall down, and cut myself on the lucidity of each and every particle of thought contained in both hurricanes. Then, over time I begin to stumble between consciousness and concentration as announced by the beads of cool sweat begin to swell from my brow. As those beads well up they form drops that tumble down the bridge of my nose like fleeing rats from a burning ship in the harbor… it happens.

    It is like time is on a reel and I can just sit there and fish forever.

  34. It's interesting that some people are afraid to be alone with their thoughts. Specially when you try to sleep, thoughts comes that you don't think during the rest of the day. That is the time when you think all the thoughts you should't think, some say. But sometimes the thoughts aren't so bad. If you watch Tv or YouTube or whatever right before you go to bed, it's a good idea to chose something light and not mind-boggling, and no horror or violent stuff, because the mind may need time to process it, and then you don't get to sleep. Sometimes the best way to fall asleep is while you watch something on Tv or listening to music. Or simply while you try to stay awake 🙂

  42. Let's hope that most of the upcoming phones are not too water resistant. This way there are at least a few tranquil moments in the shower where most people don't have their phones out. I believe I read somewhere that people in South Korea prefer water resistant phones because of this issue.

  43. I developed great self-understanding from spending much time during my childhood bored at family gatherings, where I was the only kid my age. In a time where results are expected at all times in a professional setting, and we are constantly stimulated and connected through digital networks, I feel that this message is very important for people.

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