I miss being bored.It sounds ridiculous, I know. Of all the things to miss, boredom must rank somewhere below delayed flights and lost luggage. Nobody ever wished for it. As children, we complained about it constantly, and adults had an infuriating habit of replying: “Then go and find something to do.” Somehow, we always did.These days, finding something to do has never been easier. Finding a moment when you're not is the hard part.I was thinking about this at a departure gate recently. The place was full but oddly silent. Not because nobody was talking, but because nobody was talking to anyone in the room. A man in a suit was watching what looked like a football match with no sound at all. A teenager was laughing at something the rest of us couldn't hear. A young couple sat shoulder to shoulder, scrolling through two entirely separate versions of the world. It struck me that we had all left long before the aircraft had.Flying used to be one of the last places you could not be reached. Once the doors closed, the world had to wait. Now the Wi-Fi is creeping aboard. Even when it hasn't, most of us have packed enough downloaded films and podcasts to circle the planet twice. The headphones go on before the safety demonstration is over. The one thing we can't seem to download is an idle moment. It isn't only flying. Watch anyone waiting for a lift. Nobody simply waits. They check. M...
This page contains an attributed headline and the preview text supplied through the publisher’s RSS feed. Copyright in the original reporting belongs to The National.
