If I complained to my mother when I was a child that I was bored, she either told me to read a book or to make up a story to amuse myself.
“I’m bored” was a common refrain in children and teens in the past, agrees Michelle Kennedy, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. In recent years, however, she says parents have scheduled their offspring’s time so tightly that there is no time for them to experience
boredom.
Even when there is time, children today frequently have a device at hand to capture their interest.
They are on their phones rather than “pondering and wondering”, Kennedy says. They have developed a screen habit reinforced by parents who do the same now when they have time on their hands.
Clinical psychologist Dr Christian Chan, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Hong Kong, agrees.