“I’m bored.”

I must’ve uttered that sentence a thousand times to my parents during winter and summer breaks. Usually Mom would tell me to sweep the garage or hand me a book to read. Very often she’d say, “Well, tweedle your thumbs until you think of something to do.” She always had a quick answer for her son’s boredom. But what can we say when boredom has afflicted an entire generation?

For many Gen Zers, boredom is the new cultural reality. “It’s not the quiet, porch-swing boredom our grandparents knew,” says Gen Z writer Luke Simon. “Not the kind that sends you outside just to see what happens or forces you to make up games. It’s not the boredom that arises in the absence of entertainment but the boredom that comes when entertainment no longer entertains.”

Gen Z has been handed amusements on a silver platter their entire lives. Many have scrolled every feed, binged every show, streamed every song, and chased every thrill. They’re overstimulated yet still underwhelmed. “We’ve grown up in dopamine heaven,” writes Simon, “and it’s boring as hell.”

What do we say to digitally native generations when they arrive at the end of amusement? What do we older believers say to ourselves when we come to the same jaded place? Simon has a wise answer. “Boredom,” he says, “might be a divine clue. It’s the hunger pang of the soul reminding us we were made for joy beyond chemicals, screens, and algorithms.” Perhaps our boredom is a restlessness that will lead us back to God, in whom we’ll find pleasures forevermore.

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