We used to have downtime. Waiting in a doctor’s office. Standing in line. Sitting on the bus. Zoning out at work. Moments where our mind wandered — sometimes to nothing at all, other times to the bigger questions: Am I happy with where my life is heading? Am I living in a way that aligns with my values? What’s for lunch? If my dog was a human would she want to be my friend? You get the picture.
Today, most of those moments are gone. We fill every gap with our phones — scrolling, tapping, streaming. It means boredom rarely gets a look in. And while that sounds like a good thing, research shows it’s actually a problem.
Boredom activates the part of our brain responsible for self-reflection. It’s where we reconcile our choices, our sense of purpose, and how satisfied we feel with life. When we lose that space, we lose the opportunity to check in with ourselves. Instead of clarity, we end up with a low-level hum of anxiety: Who am I? Am I happy? What am I even doing with my life?
The classic existential crisis.
This isn’t just an individual challenge — it’s generational. Every generation has been shaped by the major events and technology shifts of their formative years. For older generations, boredom was unavoidable; it trained a muscle for patience, reflection, and working through problems without immediate answers.
For younger generations, constant connectivity has meant less practice sitting with uncertainty. When every question can be answered instantly by Google or every idle moment filled by a screen, the natural process of trial, error, and creative problem solving doesn’t always get a chance to develop. Instead of wrestling with a challenge, the default can be to seek instant resolution or distraction.
That’s not a weakness — it’s an environmental influence. But it does show up at work. Some employees expect problems to be solved quickly or prefer to move on rather than persist. Others bring the endurance that comes from having grown up with less immediacy. Leaders who understand these generational fingerprints can create opportunities for younger staff to build their problem-solving muscles, rather than assuming a lack of skill or motivation.
Neither is right or wrong — they’re products of the environment we grew up in. But if we want to build workplaces that work for everyone, leaders need to understand how these generational experiences shape our relationship with boredom, purpose, and ultimately, work itself.
The takeaway? It’s not really about banning phones or romanticising the “good old days.” It’s about recognising that the world we grew up in leaves a fingerprint on the way we think, reflect, and engage at work. That’s generational intelligence in action.
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