Boredom is sometimes a virtue.  There have been many times, even recently,
when I have been somewhat bored or just generally not doing anything: Not
watching YouTube Videos or tv shows or movies, not reading a book, not
listening to music with lyrics, generally not consuming anything when thoughts
and ideas start to flood in.  I make a mental note to put those ideas down in
a text document, maybe a phlog like this.  In some way try to keep that idea
alive and not let is slip away from my consciousness.  But, more often than
not, I don't.  Probably because the reason I non-consuming in the first place
is because I was driving, or showering, or just lying in bed refusing to get
up and start the day.

It is much more difficult to get into this frame of mind in 2026 than it has
been in the past.  There is always more to consume and the itch to do it is
onmipresent.  I now have to carve out time to be bored.  I now have to
schedule a moment to do nothing, to consume nothing, to just hear my inner
thoughts.

How much of the noise, which I am consuming, is actually ideas or knowledge or
(small 'r') "research" coming from the person or people who are delivering it
to me.  How much of it is a real, original, idea and not just an echo of
someone else's because this "creator" is also in the same boat.  They are also
unable to think their own thoughts because they're caught in a deluge of
consumption.

Thinking, speaking, and listening are discrete and separate operations.
Although they work together it's helpful to think of communication less as a
telephone call (full duplex) where both parties can speak at once (although
it's rarely helpful to do so) and better to think of it as a CB or Ham Radio
communication (half duplex).  If one is speaking, the other cannot.  If the listener
tries to interrupt then they're just speaking into the void and the speaker
will not hear or even be aware because the speaker's own signal is so much
closer to them and so much more powerful that their radio will not pick up
the interruptor's signal.  (Although a 3rd party listening somewhere in the
middle might pickup both sides).

But, enough with that analogy.  Instead I'll just state the idea that as long
as you're speaking you will not hear and as long as you're hearing you will
not think your own thoughts because your mind is preoccupied "downloading" the
speaker's thoughts.  And those thoughts may well just be an echo of someone
else's thoughts.

We need new thoughts.  We need new ideas.  We need to actively try to
disconnect for a few hours every day, to shut out the voices of consumption
wait until those echoes settle down, and start to listen to our own minds.
And each thought should pass through a filter that asks: "Is this my thought,
or is it just a re-hash of something I heard from someone else?"

When we do resume consumption, we also need to ask "is the person delivering this
actually thinking this, or is it just a rehash of someone else's thoughts?"

It is important to resume consumption because for us all to only live within
our own heads is also unhealthy, not only for ourselves, but for society in
general.  We all need to speak, we all need to listen, we all need to think.

But we don't all need to have YouTube channels, podcasts, or followers.

Now, if I can just remember what that thought was I had last night ...
.