As an only child who grew up before the rise of the Internet, boredom was my constant companion. Summers were an endless stretch of riding my bike around town, reading, and staring up into the sky, imagining stories that I later wrote into my tattered journals. This tendency toward unscheduled downtime carried over into adulthood, and it frequently fed my creative writing process.

Then, in my late 30s, I got my first smartphone—and pretty soon, my dreamy, idle periods began filling up. As a freelance writer, it made sense that I’d check my email frequently. But I also enjoyed surfing the Internet to break up the dull moments ...read more