The Un-Idle Idol

I can’t remember the last time I saw someone my generation outdoors – really, truly, outdoors; where there are trees and real air – without headphones on. During runs, I pass bikers, joggers, hikers, all ostensibly there to enjoy nature, and all thoroughly tuning it out with little white earbuds. Do they not hear the trickle of the stream just a few feet away from the path, or the chirps of birds, the rustle of vegetation from startled chipmunks. I wonder if they even see the leaves, the trees, the mottled patterns of sun playing across the ground.

Of course, people my age don’t have time to be immersed, lost and wandering, listening to nothing but the world around them and the little voice in their soul. Between writing papers, scrambling to finish projects, cramming for tests, and the like, there’s little room for idle time. In a culture that idolizes “busy” and endless commitment, an empty space in the schedule is sacrilegious.

There are unfilled moments of course, even with such an emphasis on being booked full. A few moments, a commute to work, or perhaps an evening when homework and activities took less time than expected. What do we do with these unexpected holes in our time? Fill, fill, fill. Never a gap shall remain, even if it means staring into a screen, jaw slack and mouth agape, watching the lives of other people scroll by.

Why the obsession, then? I often wonder this after I catch myself mindlessly checking email in ten-intervals during lulls in the day. Were it just me, it could be written off as merely the ritual compulsions of a maniac doing his best to still his unquiet mind. But instead, it’s an obsession that many, most, if not all, are afflicted with. Is it just an act, paying penance to the idol of un-idleness, a performance to the world that they are important, they are busy, and will you just wait a moment because they are presently occupied.

Maybe that’s the answer, but maybe that is too easy. Maybe it’s not all some grand performance we all play to each other; maybe we really do desire to keep each and every second filled with activity. Because every moment left unfilled with the things around us is a moment we have to fill ourselves – with our minds, with our imaginations, with our hopes and our dreams. Maybe that’s too tall of an order, maybe the thought of thinking is just too much, maybe the dullness of the reality around is is more comforting than the uncertainty of the world we can create in our head.

Are we losing something when we tune out 24/7?

I’d say take a second to think about it. But I know better than that.