The Importance of Wasting Time

In a culture that preaches capitalizing on every single moment, wasting time can provide peace and relief

Photo by Lieselot. Dalle on Unsplash, edited by the author

When I was a teenager, I spent my entire free time playing video games. Mostly League of Legends, but also Call of Duty, Age of Empires, or Minecraft. This wasn’t a casual hobby. It was an obsession. I would come home from school, toss my backpack into the corner, boot up my computer, and play — often late into the night. School was secondary.

As I got older and played fewer games, I felt more and more daft. Others had spent their teenage years going out, experiencing things, getting to know themselves, and building relationships. And then, there was me. I had spent my young years commanding cartoon figures in virtual worlds.

Adding it all up, I must’ve spent over ten thousand hours playing video games. Ten thousand hours — that amounts to 20 hours per week for ten years or, say, 40 hours per week for five years. Ten thousand hours is also the time it takes to master a skill (at least according to one controversial study). If I hadn’t played video games, I could’ve mastered the violin, written a book, or competed in professional bike races.

But I didn’t. And the toothpaste of time can’t be put back into its tube. So, ostensibly, those ten…