I was meeting people to play cards, as previously mentioned, riding on the bus. I had already plotted the course of my trip, and knew which of the two buses were going to arrive at my destination close enough to walk in the time I had permitted by using Daum Maps. While on the bus, I sent a free message via KakaoTalk using the unlimited 3g Internet my service provides  to a group of people I was planning to meet. While I waited for a reply, I downloaded a podcast that had updated minutes earlier that I’d listen to later in the day, all while listening to music and surfing the web to read the news. I also sent out a clever tweet, and got about my business. About the time the bus arrived at my stop, I thought to myself, “Wow. Living in the future is really cool.”

I’ve got the entire Internet at my fingertips at any time, unlimited data plans, touch screens, and infrastructure in the city to support mobile information usage wherever I go. I can look up a word to translate, find a map, or look for the best price of something I see in the store.  I used to dream of having a handheld entertainment device when I was a lad growing up that would be as entertaining as a television that was available all the time. I have a phone that is all that and much more.

I just never thought that I would reach a point where I would exist to make the statement, “Boredom is dead.”

Growing up in rural Ohio, my entire time was long stretches of complete and total boredom punctuated with brief periods where being entertained was a short lived option while something fun was on the television, or there was a family trip. There are so many wasted hours being completely bored simply because I didn’t have the right frame of mind. Of course, even without a wonderful digital gadget, there really is no excuse to be bored anyway. There is always something to learn, or do, or see, or think about. There is always another block to go down, or another thing to ponder. I think about all the time I spent complaining about being bored, and I no longer have the tolerance for it.

That's right

Louis CK on Boredom

After hearing Louis CK talking about boredom, I realized he was right, and I had no excuse to complain, because it’s only the limits of my imagination, creativity and curiosity that would ever permit me to feel bored. If I feel like I truly have nothing to do, and all my work is done for the day, then I shouldn’t complain because that just means I’m just not doing enough thinking. Even if my phone died, why would I ever feel bored if I could think a new, novel idea and hold it in my mind to occupy my thoughts? If I’m bored, it just means I haven’t thought of something interesting enough to occupy myself quite yet. The only thing that has changed is that it is so much easier to occupy my attention without ever trying to think about anything because there is so much packed into my phone.