Peace and Quiet

Peace and quiet.

Could these two words be powering our culture’s constant need to reach for a screen?  And if so, what is it doing to our kids?

Think about it.  Kids don’t ever have to worry about being bored if there is a screen to turn to.  There is no peace and quiet in their world: If you watch a group of kids they will reach for their phones to check out what is going on elsewhere the millisecond the present conversation becomes even slightly less interesting.

At every stoplight, the majority of adults have turned to their phones.  In the elevator, on the bus, or while waiting in line.

We have become a culture that fears boredom and quiet or heaven forbid, moments with our own thoughts.

But think about the repercussions of this constant “entertainment.”  When we are spoon-fed information and distraction we are consuming someone else’s creativity, we are not generating our own.

We are not allowing our imaginations to wander.  We are not listening to our own thoughts or generating our own ideas.

When we reach for a screen we tamp down the ability to create and imagine.  Our LACK of boredom limits our ability to wonder or the curiosity to find answers to questions.

“If we sit still long enough, we may hear the call behind boredom. With practice, we may have the imagination to rise up from the emptiness and answer.” – Nancy H. Blakely

Without creativity, imagination and boredom would the polio vaccine have been created? Would the theory of relativity have been uncovered? Would the Mona Lisa have been painted?  Without boredom could we have imagined what it would take to land on the beaches of Normandy and save mankind from a monster?  Would we have stepped foot on the moon or seen the floor of the ocean?

“The boredom our children experience is caused by a cacophony that blocks their ability to hear their own inner stirrings.” – Karen Patten

And it is those inner stirrings with which they have had the practice of spending little to no time, and it keeps them from diving deeply into boredom to spark the imagination and creativity that could take our world from conflict to peace, arguments to discourse, spectatorship to leadership.

Cacophony blocks the way.  From technology to over-scheduling, from the need to be constantly entertained to ignoring the thoughts and curiosities that bump around in our subconscious.

When kids say they are bored, instead of folding and giving them time with a screen, give them some of your time and then send them on their way to explore their world, be curious about what they find and imagine what it could be.

Let’s get out of the way and let kids play.