Sitting Quietly When Bored

Boredom is an ordinary condition which need not be announced to everyone sharing the room.

There was a recent time when a man could sit in a room with nothing to occupy him and simply be present. He could wait for a train, attend a tedious function, or endure a conversation that did not interest him without reaching for a device that would transport him elsewhere. That time has passed. Your era treats silence as a design flaw.

At dinners, meetings, and gatherings, conversation will sometimes turn to a subject which holds no interest for you. Reaching at once for the telephone communicates that judgement more clearly than most people intend.

A man who looks at his telephone while someone is speaking has announced, without words, that the person in front of him is less interesting than whatever is on the screen. This may well be true. Keep the information to yourself.

Sit reasonably still, maintain an attentive expression, and contribute when there is something useful to add. If asked a direct question, answer it; otherwise silence is preferable to sighing, fidgeting, and repeated glances at the wrist.

The discomfort you feel when bored is your mind objecting to the absence of entertainment, and it will pass. A slow evening does you no injury. You are being asked to exist in a room free of distraction, which is something every generation before yours managed with apparent ease and which you, with some practice, can manage as well.

If sitting still is genuinely intolerable, the constitutional is the correct response. The gentlemen of my era took a daily walk, purposefully, outdoors in all weather. A short walk will settle the mind more thoroughly than any amount of scrolling, and it also requires you to put on your shoes and stand upright, which is itself a kind of discipline.

The next time you wait for an appointment, a friend, or an omnibus, leave the telephone where it is for ten minutes and observe the room. If sitting truly defeats you and the circumstances permit, walk; quiet generally contains more than the first restless minute suggests.