Picture this, you are at a party, but none of your friends are there yet. You are bored out of your mind so what do you do? Sit down and pull out your phone immediately checking social media. The question is, why is it that every time we are bored or have “down time” we turn to our phones and look at social media? We all do it, whether it is scrolling through facebook looking at videos, or snapchat seeing what your friends are doing that night. It is almost like a bad habit that no one can break. Through the years, technology and social media have had more of an impact on our lives and it is almost as if we are dependent on all of it. I believe that the social phenomenon of turning to our phones and social media when we are bored could actually be put to an end if we learned that we do not need our phones 24/7. When we are bored, it could mean that inside we could be feeling empty or lost. We use our phone and social media so that we can feel connected to the world, when in all reality its disconnecting us from the real world that is around us. I found this really interesting article about a woman who decided to quit social media for a month, and she talks about how it actually changed her life. You can find the article here. Relating this theme to what we have been reading about this week, Soren Kierkegaard talks about the rotation method. The rotation method is a mechanism that is used in order to try and avoid boredom. A quote that really stuck out to me explaining boredom from Soren Kierkegaard is:
“Those who bore others are the mob, the crowds, the infinite multitude of men in general. Those who bore themselves are the elect, the aristocracy; and it is a curious fact that those who do not bore themselves usually bore others, while those who bore themselves entertain others.”
Shortening and simplifying this, if you are a person who is so called the “life of the party”, outside of that party, crowd, or group that you are leading you are a person who bores themselves. On the other hand, if you are a so called “follower” you are the person who will bore others that are in the crowd. Its almost as if your mood brings everyone else down and gives them a sense of boredom. All of this relates to the social phenomenon of using phones to avoid boredom because it talks about how if you are in a crowd, bored, and you take out your phone to try and decrease amount of boredom that you have. While doing this, not only are you taking yourself out of the real world, but you could also be boring the other people that are around you no matter what your surrounding is. Will the social phenomenon of being attached to our phones ever end? Maybe, or maybe not. I do feel that it would be an interesting social experiment to see if people were able to delete their social media and stop feeling as if they need their phone at every second of the day to make them feel complete.
Gabrielle Boncal's Philosophy 210 Blog 
Hi Gabrielle!
I really connected with your post because, like you said, we all do it. We are all attached to our phones, glued into our twitter and instagrams. I myself am guilty of spending hours on my phone for no reason other than pure boredom. The statement that caught my attention was: “We use our phone and social media so that we can feel connected to the world, when in all reality its disconnecting us from the real world that is around us”. I completely agree. We think we are staying up to date with the latest statuses and news when really we are only detaching ourselves from real life.
Everything happens online now so maybe that is why we feel the need to constantly being absorbed into our social media, so we don’t miss out. The news, television, and even dating can all happen within our phones. I wonder the same as you, what ever happened to personal connections? Maybe were not bored, were just afraid of that personal connection we once had and with the growing use of technology who knows if we’ll ever develop those vital relationships ever again.
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Thank you so much for your feedback! I am guilty of sitting there for no reason scrolling through my phone. It would honestly be very interesting to see how much time we waste on our phones where we could be doing more productive things!
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I’m really glad you decided to take this subject on Gabrielle! It’s a nagging guilt that is in the back of all of our minds as we drone away hours on our phones. I think we justify a lot of the wasted time with the notion that it has become a cultural norm; it has become the web of our generations existence and to defect is to venture into solitude, but it is not so. I deleted my Twitter and Facebook about a year ago because I couldn’t stand the negativity (I still keep a small following of close friends on Instagram and Snapchat because I find that the thousand words that pictures speak tend to be more positive); I’ve started reading and appreciating what is in front of me so much more. I find myself much more equip to deal with the inevitable boredom of everyday life because of how much more diverse real life is compared to the redundancy of social media.
I love the quote you’ve added to this because of how relevant it is to modern culture; the balance between the psyches of leaders and “followers.” Overall a good start to a very powerful message; our phones should merely supplement our existence, not define it.
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Hi Gabrielle!
I really enjoyed reading your post because, like many of us, I am guilty of the same thing! I think that just scrolling through our phones on social media, or any other website is a huge phenomenon. Ill find myself scrolling when I have down time at work, in between studying, when I’m waiting for someone or something, or even when I can’t sleep at night. Its crazy to think about! Social media created a great platform for people to share businesses, ideas, connect with old friends etc., but it also has created a platform for other things as well, such as disconnecting ourselves from the world. I was actually thinking about doing a “social media cleanse for 5 days”. This is just as it sounds, going without any form of social media for 5 days. The fact that these challenges, and cleanses are even a thing just goes to show that we as a society have a problem! Lol, and like in the article you added the author even realized a change in her life as well. I think this was a great topic to talk about for your first blog because so many people can relate, and it gives us something to think about!
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I agree with Mikayla as well about your point on using social media to feel connected to the world but rather it is disconnecting us. It appears that if we stay up to date on our phones we are living in the past because it is the past that is posted and reported not the here and now. This allows us to not only live through others but through the past.
I was seeing a connection between your ideas and that of the other reading “from The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge”. You say, “When we are bored, it could mean that inside we could be feeling empty or lost.” I wonder if it is why the narrator felt as if he were nothing when in deep thought and if we avoid that same feeling by using social media.
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Gabrielle, I love your opinion on social media and the boredom phenomenon. It is so much easier to scroll through your phone when you are at a party by yourself then to actually engage with other people. I have been guilty of doing that. Also I feel like it would be hard for some people to just delete their social media because it seems like some people have an addiction. People are obsessed with being the life of the party and proving it through social media I just think it is going to get worse before it gets better. I spoke with a couple older nurses and they will joke that when they are on their death bed, their medical aide or nurse will be documenting it on Facebook live instead of helping. That is an extreme I hope we never get to!
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Gabrielle, I also enjoyed this topic. I am completely guilty of this as well! I find myself checking my phone for social media, texts, snapchats, searching for things online, or checking emails all day long! It is not that I NEED to be constantly in check, it’s that I’m bored and have found such a habit in using my phone to avoid eye contact with strangers, to “waste” or pass time, or even just to distract my mind from other things! When I think about a lot of the concepts we read about in the text, I almost picture them to be ancient and irrelevant in today’s day in age. However, this specific topic relating to the rotation method completely applies and makes sense! I never thought that I could be filling a void!
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