People Who Lived Before Smartphones And The Internet Are Sharing The Things We Lost Along The Way, And I Never Thought I Would Miss Boredom But Here We Are

"We lost downtime to just think. Waiting, commuting, or doing nothing used to let our minds wander. Now, every moment is filled with screens, and we rarely get that quiet space for creativity or reflection."

"As teens, we used to just hang out at the 7-Eleven in my small New Jersey town. We'd drink slushies, eat chips, and just crack jokes. Then we'd go home and do our homework until someone called everyone up to do a 'Sevie Run,' and we'd all go back and do it again."

"Ordering from paper catalogs. It was a whooole process. The arrival of the catalog. Thumbing through all the pages. Going back through and marking what you wanted. Thumbing through all the pages again to make sure you didn't miss anything. Asking your mom what you could actually order. Filling out the order form with page number, item number, item description, size, color, quantity, price, and weight of the item. Figuring out the total. Getting your mom to write the check. Sealing everything in the envelope, putting a stamp on the envelope, and walking it out to the mailbox. Then you waited six to eight weeks for its arrival. Every time you heard the UPS truck come down the road, you ran to the front door to see if it was stopping at your house. Rinse and repeat until the joyous day when your package finally arrived, then you'd revel in opening the much-anticipated package."

Ubiquitous screens have removed unstructured pockets of time that previously allowed for daydreaming and reflection. Teen socialization shifted from local, spontaneous hangouts and shared rituals to mediated, ephemeral interactions. Catalog shopping required deliberate, multi-step effort and a weeks-long anticipation cycle that produced excitement upon arrival; modern instant ordering removes that ritual. Television and public media once produced accidental exposures to diverse content, while algorithmic feeds now curate and filter experiences. The cumulative effect replaces slow, anticipatory, and serendipitous practices with constant connectivity, convenience, and reduced opportunities for quiet creativity and unplanned discovery.

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