I want to be bored this year. I want to swim in unstructured hours that allow me to catch up with myself, where I can realise thoughts I didn’t know I had; to let my imagination roam and bloom into shapes only possible without the constant distraction of a screen blurring my vision.

We hound ourselves with an aggressive load the moment our eyes flutter open and just before they close – scrolling, checking, cross-checking, responding, reacting. Our brain is tender and plastic at these times, producing alpha waves – the state in which we’re most receptive to new ideas and can absorb information like a sponge. 

This wakefulness is a place of calm and creativity. But too often, we don’t have the chance to see where this flow might take us, interrupting it with a phone thrust in our face. The onslaught of information pushes us into a state where we’re alert but scattered, our minds fed with things we think will make us better, healthier, more interesting, more attractive. 

We’ve never had more at our fingertips, and yet, we’ve never felt less. This paradox is what Catherine Shannon explores in her essay Your Phone is Why You Don’t Feel Sexy, which prompted me to think about the following two questions: