my son and the iPhone were born three
weeks apart in June 2007 so while those
early adopters were lined up outside
waiting to get their hands on this
amazing new gadget I was stuck at home
with my hands full of something else
that was sending out constant
notifications a miserable colicky baby
who would only sleep in a moving
stroller with complete silence I
literally was walking ten to 15 miles a
day and the baby weight came off that
part was great but man was I bored
before motherhood I had been a
journalist who rushed off when the
Concorde crashed I was one of the first
people into Belgrade when there was a
revolution in Serbia now I was exhausted
this walking went on for weeks it was
only until about three months in that
something shifted though as I pounded
the pavement my mind started to wander
too and I began imagining what I would
do when I finally did sleep again
so the colic did fade and I finally got
an iPhone and I put all of those hours
of wandering into action I created my
dream job hosting a public radio show so
there was no more rushing off to war
zones but thanks to my new smartphone I
could be a mother and a journalist I
could be on the playground end on
Twitter at the same time yeah well when
I thought that when the technology came
in and took over that is when I hit a
wall so I want you to picture this you
host a podcast and you have to prove
that the investment of precious public
radio dollars in you is worth it my goal
was to increase my audience size tenfold
so one day I sat down to brainstorm as
you do and I came up barren and this was
different than writer's block right it
wasn't like there was something there
waiting to be unearthed there was just
nothing and so I started to think back
like one of the last time I
actually had a good idea yeah it was
when I was pushing that damn stroller
now all the cracks in my day were filled
with foam time I checked the headlines
while I waited for my latte I updated my
calendar while I was sitting on the
couch
texting turned every spare moment into a
chance to show to my co-workers and my
dear husband what a responsive person I
was or at least it was a chance to find
another perfect couch for my page on
Pinterest I realized that I was never
bored and anyway don't only boring
people get bored but then I started to
wonder what actually happens to us when
we get bored or more importantly what
happens to us if we never get bored and
what could happen if we got rid of this
human emotion entirely I started talking
to neuroscientists and cognitive
psychologists and what they told me was
fascinating it turns out that when you
get bored you ignite a network in your
brain called the default mode so our
body it goes on autopilot while we're
folding the laundry or we're walking to
work but actually that is when our brain
gets really busy
here's boredom researcher dr. Sandy man
once you start daydreaming and allow
your man to really wonder you start
thinking a little bit beyond the
conscious a little bit into the
subconscious which allow us sort of
different connections and take place
it's really awesome actually totally
awesome right so this is my brain and an
fMRI and I learned that in the default
mode that is when we connect disparate
ideas we solve some of our most nagging
problems and we do something called
autobiographical planning this is when
we look back at our lives we take note
of the big moments we create a personal
narrative and then we set goals and we
figure out what steps we need to take to
reach them but now we chill out on the
couch
also while updating a Google Doc or
replying to email we call it getting
done but here's what neuroscientist
dr. Daniel Levitin says we're actually
doing every time you shift your
attention from one thing to another the
brain has to engage a new
chemical switch that uses up nutrients
in the brain to accomplish that so if
you're attempting to multitask you know
doing four or five things at once you're
not actually doing four or five things
at once cuz the brain doesn't work that
way instead you're rapidly shifting from
one thing to the next depleting neural
resources as you go so switch switch
switch you're using glucose glucose
glucose exactly right and we have a
limited supply of that stuff so a decade
ago we shifted our attention at work
every three minutes now we do it every
45 seconds and we do it all day long the
average person checks email seventy four
times a day and switches tasks on their
computer five hundred and sixty-six
times a day I discovered all this
talking to Professor of informatics dr.
Gloria mark so we find that when people
are stressed they tend to shift their
attention more rapidly we also found
strangely enough we find that the
shorter amount of sleep that a person
gets the more likely they are to check
Facebook so we're in this vicious
habitual cycle what could this cycle be
broken like what would happen if we
broke this vicious cycle
maybe my listeners could help me find
out what if we reclaim those cracks in
our day could it help us jumpstart our
creativity we called the project board
and brilliance and I expected you know a
couple hundred people to play along but
thousands of people started signing up
and they told me the reason they were
doing it was because they were worried
that their relationship with their phone
had grown kind of codependent shall we
say the relationship between a baby and
his teddy bear or a baby in a pinky or a
baby that wants its mother's cradle when
it's done with being held by a stranger
that's the relationship between me and
my
I think of my phone like a power tool
tremely useful but dangerous if I'm not
handling it properly if I don't pay
close attention I'll suddenly realize
that I've lost an hour of time doing
something totally mindless okay but to
really measure any improvement we need a
data right because that's what we do
these days so we partnered with some
apps that would measure how much time we
were spending every day on our phone and
if you're thinking it's ironic that I
asked people to download another app so
that they would spend less time on their
phones yeah but you got to meet people
where they are okay so before challenge
week we were averaging two hours a day
on our phones and 60 pickups you know
like a quick like check did I get a new
email here's what Tina a student at Bard
College discovered about herself so far
I've been spending between 150 and 200
minutes on my phone per day and I've
been picking at my phone 70 to 100 times
per day and it's really concerning
because that's so much time that I could
have spent doing something more
productive more creative more towards
myself
because when I'm on my phone I'm not
doing anything important okay so like
Tina people were starting to observe
their own behavior they were getting
ready for challenge week and that Monday
they started to wake up to instructions
in their inbox and experiment to try
okay day 1 put it in your pocket take
that phone out of your hand see if you
can eliminate the reflex to check it all
day long just for a day and if this
sounds easy you haven't tried it here's
listener Amanda it's go I am absolutely
bitching I feel a little bit crazy
because I have noticed that I pick up my
phone when I'm just walking from one
room to another getting on the elevator
and even and this is the part that I am
really embarrassed to actually say out
loud in the car
yikes yeah well but as Amanda learned
this itching feeling is not actually her
fault
that is exactly the behavior that the
technology is built to trigger
I mean right here's former Google
designer Tristan Harris if I'm Facebook
I'm Netflix or I'm snapchat I have
literally a thousand engineers whose job
is to get more attention from you I'm
very good at this and I don't want you
to ever stop and the CEO of Netflix
recently said our biggest competitors
are Facebook YouTube and sleep I mean so
you know there's a million places to
spend your attention but there's a war
going on to get it I mean you know the
feeling.that amazing episode of
transparent ends and then the next one
starts playing so you're like okay fine
I'll just stay up and watch it or the
LinkedIn progress bar that says you are
this close to having the perfect profile
so you add like a little more personal
information as one UX designer told me
the only people who refer to their
customers as users are drug dealers and
technologists
and users as we know are worth a lot of
money here's former Facebook product
manager and author our Tony
Antonio Garcia Martinez you know the
saying is if any product is free than
your the product which is true and so
your attention is the product but what
is your attention worth and that's why
literally every time you load a page not
just on Facebook or any app there's an
auction being held instantly billions of
times a day for exactly how much that
one ad impression cost okay
by the way the average person will spend
two years of their life on Facebook so
back to challenge week immediately we
saw some creativity kick in here's New
Yorker at Lisa Albert I was born I guess
so I suddenly looked at the stairway
that went up to the top of the station
and I thought you know I've just come
down that stairway but I could go back
up and then come back down and get a
little cardio so I did and then I had a
little more time so I did it again I
think did it again and I did it ten
times and I had a complete cardio
workout I got on that art train feeling
kind of exhausted but like wow that had
never occurred to me how is that
possible
so creativity I learned means different
things to different people but everyone
found day threes challenge the hardest
it was called delete that app take that
app you know the one that one that
always gets you it sucks you in take it
off your phone even just for the day I
deleted the game two dots and nearly
cried yeah two dots players know what
I'm talking about
but my misery had good company
this is Liam in Los Angeles and I
deleted Twitter Facebook Instagram
Tumblr snapchat and vine from my phone
in one fell swoop and it was kind of an
embarrassingly emotional experience at
first it felt weirdly lonely to look at
that lockscreen with no new
notifications on it but I really liked
deciding for myself when to think about
or access my social networks not giving
my phone the power to decide that for me
so thank you
deleting the Twitter app was very sad
and I feel I may be over the last year
when I've been on Twitter have developed
an addiction to it and this boredom
brilliant
challenge has really made me realize it
after a brief period of really horrible
withdrawal feeling like lack of caffeine
headache I now feel lovely had a lovely
dinner with my family and I hope to
continue this structured use of these
powerful tools I don't have that guilty
gut feeling I'll have when I know I'm
wasting time on my phone maybe I'll have
to start giving myself little challenges
and reminders like this every morning I
mean yes this was progress I could not
wait to see what the number said at the
end of that week but when the data came
in it turned out that we had cut down on
average just six minutes from 120
minutes a day on our phones to 114 yeah
whoop-dee-doo so I went back to the
scientists feeling kind of low and they
just laughed at me and they said you
know changing people's behavior in such
a short time period was ridiculously
ambitious and actually what you've
achieved is far beyond what we thought
possible because more important than the
numbers were the people's stories they
felt empowered their phones had been
transformed from taskmasters back into
tools and actually I found what the
young people said most intriguing some
of them told me that they didn't
recognize some of the emotions that they
felt during challenge week because if
you think about it if you have never
known life without connectivity you
I never have experienced boredom and
there could be consequences
researchers at USC have found their
studying teenagers who are on social
media while they're talking to their
friends or they're doing homework and
two years down the road they are less
creative and imaginative about their own
personal futures and about solving
societal problems like violence in their
neighborhoods and we really need this
next generation to be able to focus on
some big problems climate change
economic disparity massive cultural
differences
no wonder CEOs in an IBM survey
identified creativity as the number one
leadership competency okay here's the
good news though in the end twenty
thousand people did boredom brilliant
that week
ninety percent cut down on their minutes
seventy percent got more time to think
people told me that they slept better
they felt happier my favorite note was
from a guy who said he felt like he was
waking up from a mental hibernation some
personal data and some neuroscience gave
us permission to be offline a little bit
more and a little bit of boredom gave us
some clarity and helped some of us set
some goals
I mean maybe constant connectivity won't
be cool in a couple of years but
meanwhile teaching people especially
kids how to use technology to improve
their lives and to self-regulate needs
to be part of digital literacy so the
next time you go to check your phone
remember that if you don't decide how
you're going to use the technology the
platforms will decide for you and ask
yourself what are we really looking for
because if it's to check email that's
fine do it and be done but if it's to
distract yourself from doing the hard
work that comes with deeper thinking
take a break stare out the window and
know that by doing nothing you are
actually being your most productive and
creative self it might feel weird and
uncomfortable at first but boredom truly
can lead
brilliance thank you
[Applause]