Sometimes you’re not bored, you’re dodging a feeling. The phone is just a very convenient exit.

Boredom and avoidance feel nearly identical from the inside, and only one of them is about having nothing to do. When something uncomfortable is sitting just below the surface, reaching for an exit is the fastest way not to feel it, and any exit will do. There is nothing weak in this. It is what people have always done with feelings that arrive without warning.

Next time you reach without deciding to, pause for ten seconds and ask what you were about to stop feeling. Name it if you can, even roughly. Sometimes naming it is enough, and sometimes you will reach anyway, which is also fine.