Bored and Brilliant

Do you remember the last time you stopped to look into nothingness? And just let your mind wander? Like real mental downtime?
This book discusses how technological devices are keeping us from spacing out. It seems like we cannot be still anymore. Why do we behave as addicts filling every idle moment of our day with newsfeed/social media checking?

The book goes through the results of the Bored and Brilliant project: 7 days, each day with a challenge. It took place in 2015 and the challenges are fairly simple, like: Put the phone in your pocket (don't reach your phone while walking/commuting), Photo Free Day (no taking picture with your phone), , Delete that app (you know the one), Take a Fauxcation (be offline), Notice a hidden detail in your world, Get creative (create something).

I particularly liked the idea of the last challenge which was to observe a kettle of water until it boils or write down “0101...” in a piece of paper until it's full. And then think about one project or problem you want to tackle and write down the steps, plan out a strategy and start doing it.
The idea is that boredom leads us to be creative.

So, instead of reaching out for social media or mobile games it's better to allow ourselves to be truly bored. Zone out. And then our minds are more prone to make connections and have new ideas. There's research backing up this.

The only point mentioned in the book that I disagree with is the research about e-books: people who read e-books attain less information than the people who read paper books. There is some controversy there and it all depends on each person's preferences and cognitive abilities.
But the discussion about how younger people today cannot read a full book anymore is very interesting.

All in all, this book gives excellent food for thought specially about mobile phone use. It's not radical, the author is by no means a ludite. It just encourages moderation.