The Best Part of My Childhood Was Being Bored

At 11 years old, I refused a smartphone—not because my parents said no, but because I was afraid I would become addicted.

I couldn't really explain my hesitation at the time. I simply watched people my age—and often twice or three times my age—reach for their phones whenever they encountered boredom, loneliness, or discomfort. Something about that dependence felt wrong.

Only years later did I realize what my decision gave me. Boredom. That decision may have spared me from becoming part of what psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls “the anxious generation.”

Today, boredom has become an endangered part of childhood. In May 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services warned that children spend about eight hours daily on screens, which is nearly as much time as they spend sleeping or in school. Growing evidence also links excessive screen use to anxiety, depression, and developmental challenges.

As Jonathan Haidt argues in The Anxious Generation, “The phone-based life makes it difficult for people to be fully present with others when they are with others, and to sit silently with themselves when they are alone.”