Bye Bye Boredom, We Hardly Knew Ya

Boring by PhoenixDailyPhoto

I am writing this blog post from high above the US as I fly back to NY after a quick overnight trip to Chicago. However, I am not writing it on a computer, rather I am using just a smartphone.

This trip was unusual. For only the second time I left my laptop at home and traveled with just a smartphone (in my case an iPhone), a Verizon Mifi router and an 8gb Lacie Iamakey USB drive. Nevertheless, I was remarkably able to do just about everything I needed.

Despite the challeneges of working with a virtual keyboard I have become rather adept at typing on the iPhone. I use apps like The Thumb to train myself. In fact, I am composing this post using the outstanding QuickOffice suite, which is available on virtually every mobile platform. My experience this week is encouraging me to go "laptopless" on short trips from here on in, unless I feel I will need a computer to work on a PowerPoint document or to project one.

All of the excitement in technology sector these days is in the mobile space - especially this summer with the gaggle of new devices that are launching. TechCrunch even calls this the summer of smartphone love. But beyond all the hype of the devices, there is a fundamentally bigger story here about how these platforms are tranforming society.

What's notable is that pundits in the tech press aren't even calling the new devices "phones" - as much as they used to. Notice how both Ed Baig from USA Today and Walt Mossberg from The Wall Street Journal refer to the new Palm Pre not so much as a phone but rather a "pocket computer." (Palm is an Edelman client.) The same of course can be said for the entire group: Android, Windows Mobile, iPhones and Blackberries .

This language represents a subtle but important shift. The phone isn't a phone any more. It has become the connected computer that is with us all the time. And just as our PCs serve as a virually endless fountain of information and entertainment so too do our "pocket computers." And it's going to become the focal point for marketers in a short order

Even though I am disconected from the ether as I pen this post I am awed by the sheer amount of content that's sitting on my device just waiting to be consumed. It includes a rented movie, three video and audio podcasts, two thousand songs, five Amazon Kindle ebooks, 10 games, 125 unread RSS items in NetNewswire plus dozens of cached articles in Instapaper, the New York Times and WSJ apps. It would literally take me months to go through it all. Plus once I landed my magical pocket computer filled up with even more - emails, tweets, feeds, etc.

What this has me thinking is that it is simply impossible to be bored anymore. Anyone with a mobile phone (and these days that's everyone) has infinite choices to keep them occupied no matter how idle he/she might be. In addition we have a myriad of ways to use the device to create content as well. Just look at the runaway success of the Brushes application for the iPhone.

So boredom is dead. I for one am happy to see it go. However I wonder how this will impact those of us who grew up at times bored as well as subsequent generations who will never experience it. As always, I am eager for your thoughts either here or on Twitter, Facebook or Friendfeed.

Comments

[Karl Pearson-Cater]

Nice post. Agree! Difficult to be bored these days. The only thing I worry about is the likely decline in daydreaming. I suppose we can multi-task, right?

[Ryan Tate]

Just curious why you brought the Mi-Fi router if you didn't have a laptop. Ditto for the USB key drive.

[Thomas Maas]

Infinite choices can keep you occupied but that's not the same as not being bored. You can be very bored while being fully occupied. Occupied is about doing something or nothing, bored is about the feeling you have while doing something or nothing.

[John Forde]

Great insight and you're certainly right about the overwhelming options to be occupied, but I'm not sure how to feel about the trend. On the one hand, the march of technology is -- as ever -- awesome to watch. But on the other, what is it really that we're replacing?

I could have a memory that forgives too much, but I don't recall ever being bored (and I'm 43, so I spent at least more than half my life pre-Internet and more than three quarters of it without an iPod).

Books, drawing, listening to music or playing it, writing, photography, heck... even collecting beer cans there for awhile (in the late '70s) or just knocking around with friends in the woods, going fishing, etc. When we were kids, there were lots of options that didn't require a WIFI connection. You just had to be a little more creative about finding it.

I know that makes me sound like someone's grumpy old grandpa, but I can't help but wonder if some of what we lose from instant entertainment is that initiative to make things happen when nothing appears to be going on. Not that I think we'll all suddenly lose brain power, but that without the need to employ it... the desire to employ it might also be minimized.

Thomas Maas also makes a good point. It could very well be that the infinite number of choices will increase boredom rather than defeat it. Studies show that when there are lots of options, we tend to report not liking any individual one of them very much or for very long.

[Best Mobile Broadband]

I also never get bored nowadays thanks to the internet, and that can only be a good thing, so good riddance to boredom. I'm really looking forward to all the smartphone launches this summer as well.

[Eric Hansen]

@Ryan

I'm assuming so he could get faster speed (and maybe better coverage) from Verizon's data network vs. at&t 3G.

[Steve Rubel]

Correct.

[Chad Mustard]

My thoughts are on the same lines as John’s. I love technology and that I can work on the plane, in my house, at the park or anywhere else I want, but what is forfeit?

I was recently on a University Campus and was slightly disturbed at what I saw. Almost everyone I saw was either talking on their cell phone, texting, or oblivious to the rest of the world as they listen to their MP3 players. I’ve attended many networking events where I’ll see someone walk in the room, look around for someone they know, realize they don’t know anyone, start to look awkward, and then they pull out their phone to call or text someone and miss out on the opportunity to connect with someone new.

As more and more technologies take away our boredom, we are missing out on opportunities to meditate, enjoy nature, enjoy family, friends, and other sources of social interaction that aren’t just virtual.

The key is balance.

[Anthony Mora]

Great post. I'm also thankful for the extinction of boredom. However, information overload is now something to watch for.

Seems like the smart phone has taken over the laptop, which took over the desktop, which took over everything else. How do you think this shift will effect marketing?

Dare I say we're getting to the age of "textmarketers"?

[roland hachmann]

I know exactly how you feel, not being concerned about getting bored any longer. However, there are those moments, when you're not even allowed use your iphone, e.g. when a plane is taking off / landing. That's when I think newspapers still come in handy, even if your fingers are stained black afterwards :)

[Steve Rubel]

Roland that 30 minute window is tortuous. Sometimes I buy a magazine just toget me through them. I find it funny that the LCD screens on theseats can be on but an iPhone in Airplane mode is a no go.

[Joel]

Anyone who zapped through hundreds of similar looking tedious programs on cable TV knows that the assumption that quantity equals quality is deeply flawed.

[John]

Soon it will be white noise, and then it'll just be like the ocean.