11 Superior Life Skills Boomers Learned From Taking Time To Be Bored & Alone Without Constant Stimulation
Modern-day society, riddled with unrealistic productivity demands and competition, often demonizes embracing boredom.
Stock 4you | Shutterstock Just like any other age group suffering from generational tension or resentment, understanding baby boomers' core principles and values helps contextualize their reality today, allowing for more empathetic interactions and understanding. Things like independence, freedom, family time, and work ethic are important for this generation, according to Psychology Today experts, often fueled by their childhood experiences and smaller things like the hobbies they used to fill their alone time.
In today’s world, boredom is generally demonized for the sake of productivity. Still, boredom was a natural part of life for baby boomers, who grew up outside technology and social media. Many of the values they grew into directly resulted from the hobbies they cultivated when they were bored or the things they spent energy on when they were alone. Many of the superior life skills boomers learned from being bored and alone without constant stimulation can remind young people that it’s okay to prioritize yourself, unplug, and focus on what you genuinely enjoy, rather than what social media pressures you into.
Here are 11 superior life skills boomers learned from taking the time to be bored:
1. Patience
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Patience isn’t just a virtue; it’s also a life skill that baby boomers have mastered from a young age. They understand that some of the best things in life come from being patient, because they’ve never been pressured by social media or unrealistic standards online from a young age into believing otherwise.
From waiting in line at a store to saving money and even investing in their careers, they aren’t privy to the same kind of instant gratification pressures that many young people are today. They value hard work and perseverance because they've learned the power of delayed gratification from a young age. They tackled boredom as kids with creative hobbies and used their alone time to work on long-term projects or plan their days, so they understand that patience can pay off.
Of course, for baby boomers — many of whom followed a “traditional path” to success with higher education and the corporate world — their patience and hard work paid off with stable careers and a comfortable financial life. For many young people, however, they haven’t had that same luxury, making hard work and delayed gratification less enticing.
2. Creative thinking
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Sadly, many young people today would rather experience physical discomfort — like an electric shock, according to a 2014 study — than be forced to sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Still, for baby boomers, who spent much of their time alone or bored growing up, this free time is rejuvenating.
Boredom has the power to spark creativity, but young people who use distractions to avoid alone time and their cellphones to keep themselves from feeling bored tend to struggle with life skills like innovative thinking, critical thinking, and creativity.
Creativity is one of the superior life skills boomers learned from taking time to be bored. They used hobbies, niche social interactions, and creative thinking to fill their alone time away from technology and social media. Not only does that allow them to tap into creativity and innovative thinking more easily in adulthood, but it also makes spending time alone or with nothing to do exciting rather than anxiety-inducing.
3. Finding joy in the little things
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For baby boomers, who spent much of their childhoods and early adult years filling their alone time and finding hobbies to grapple with boredom, it’s much easier to find joy in the little things.
From interacting with neighbors, to spending a few minutes on their artwork, and even reading the newspaper, the little habits they used to cope with boredom became intentional hobbies that allowed them to de-stress, unwind, and be present in the current moment.
Rather than relying on distractions like the internet or social media — the kinds of “time fillers” they largely didn’t have access to until adulthood — they found joy in the small, subtle, and unsuspecting parts of their routines.
4. Independence
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Baby boomers are often praised for their perseverance and self-reliance, considering they spent a lot of time learning to be comfortable with alone time and boredom. When nobody (or nothing) was around to distract them from their boredom, they relied on themselves and their creative thinking to fill the time.
Many of the superior life skills boomers learned from taking time to be bored and alone revolve around this kind of independence—they were forced to grapple with discomfort, fill their free time, and learn their own interests and needs from a young age, giving them the ability to advocate for themselves later in life.
According to the Child Mind Institute, boredom — especially for young kids — boosts self-esteem, creativity, and critical thinking. Baby boomers’ sense of independence comes from this experience of boredom — they have the autonomy and confidence to feel control over their own time and happiness.
5. Reading comprehension
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Baby boomers often read for pleasure a lot more than other generations. Still, it’s not necessarily because they’re “better readers” than others, but because they relied on books and reading as kids when bored or alone. Reading more often boosted their reading comprehension, which assists them in professional success and even interpersonal relationships. Still, they also found joy in little things like reading a book after school or unwinding from a stressful day.
While young people may be just as interested in reading, they tend to split their time between social media, technology, and keeping up with people online. At the same time, baby boomers were much less likely to prioritize things like cellphone time growing up.
It’s not a habit they were forced to account for, so it’s much easier for them to set boundaries around it today, protecting hobbies like reading a book that feed into their superior life skills.
6. Delayed gratification
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Without online shopping, “doom-scrolling” on social media, or on-demand entertainment from technological devices to distract them from boredom daily, many baby boomers learned the art of delayed gratification from a young age. While younger generations struggle with their need for instant gratification to self–soothe from stress, boomers learned from taking the time to be bored to appreciate the journey.
Even in their professional lives and careers, many baby boomers’ life skill of delayed gratification fueled their work ethic, making long hours, intense projects, and the mundanity of office life more bearable with the end result in sight.
According to psychotherapist Ilene Strauss Cohen, the art of delayed gratification often aids baby boomers in truly addressing their life qualms and struggles, rather than seeking a temporary “Band-Aid fix.”
7. Resourcefulness
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According to the OKR Institute, baby boomers are often known for their resourcefulness. They grew up in a period of economic growth and relative stability that promoted their collective skills like perseverance, hard work, and goal-oriented behaviors. They’re resourceful — they know how to solve problems, motivate themselves, and make the best of a bad situation in adulthood — but it’s tied to their childhood boredom.
Considering they didn’t have the distraction of accessibility online or cell phones to connect with others, they had to get creative with their boredom and alone time. They found things to do, people to talk to in their neighborhood, or unique hobbies to fill their time, crafting a sense of resourcefulness that many young people today struggle to cultivate.
8. Crafting hobbies
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Psychology expert Kendra Cherry argues that modern-day critiques of alone time — revolving around social isolation or emotional turmoil — are generally misguided, missing out on the nuanced picture of the benefits of spending time alone. Of course, to a certain extent, spending too much time alone without social interaction has its consequences, but for the most part, having time to invest in hobbies, self-reflection, and personal interests is beneficial.
There are a number of healthy habits and hobbies people can use to fill their alone time, none of which have to do with technology or their phones. From going out to eat by yourself to reading a book or investing in other types of hobbies like art, cooking, or birdwatching, many baby boomers leveraged unique hobbies in their alone time and grappled with boredom by figuring out what they liked.
It’s part of the reason individualism is so important for baby boomers — they had the time and space to learn what they liked, outside the scope of comparison online, so in adulthood, they need the same freedom to make time for it.
9. Living within their means
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When they were bored in early adulthood or alone after work later in life, baby boomers learned to fill their time at home. Of course, they didn’t have the same spending pressures that younger generations have now — like social media, influencers, or online advertisements — so it was a lot easier for them to keep a budget and live within their means.
Even when stress, anxiety, or burnout was looming, they had hobbies and strategies to cope with their boredom and alone time, whereas younger generations today may be more prone to opening their phones, online shopping, or spending money as a misguided coping mechanism.
10. Building a routine
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According to surveys from Medigap, baby boomers value individualism and personal freedom. Even in their daily lives, healthy habits and routines feed into those values, but many were instilled from a young age.
The superior life skills boomers learned from being bored and alone without constant stimulation include building routines — they found hobbies, creative endeavors, and habits to fill their free time, often without the distraction or allure of social media or technology to distract them.
Especially today, where many young people struggle to build thoughtful routines tailored to their needs in the face of comparison culture and unrealistic standards from social media, there’s proof that baby boomers need to confront boredom, which has assisted them in promoting individuality and routines in their daily lives.
11. Knowing how to unplug
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Considering many baby boomers grew up without technology or cellphones, they are often better at knowing how to “unplug.” Whether answering emails on their phones after work at home or focusing on their hobbies in their alone time, they’re better at creating boundaries around technology because they didn’t learn to rely on it from an early age.
As experts from Adventist Health suggest, this ability to unplug helps boomers de-stress, but it also profoundly protects their emotional well-being, physical health, and free time. They’re not distracting themselves with social media or working from their phones at night — they have the freedom to enjoy family time or invest in hobbies.
Compared to Gen Zers and many millennials, who might’ve been distracted by technology as kids or prone to using their phones to de-stress themselves as young adults, baby boomers' knowledge of how to unplug is directly related to their childhood boredom, where they crafted routines, habits, and hobbies to fill their time rather than “doom-scrolling.”
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.
