And have device-free meals with your family.

I don’t think i will take a psychology advices from person who not only thinks having a device-free meal is something extraordinary, but also include short contact with their family in the “boredom” section.

When we are bored, our brain moves to its default mode network […]. When this happens, your mind wanders and thinks about, for example, big questions of meaning in your life.

I see someone has never had to entertain a toddler before.

When this happens, your mind wanders and thinks about, for example, big questions of meaning in your life. This makes us uncomfortable

How do I turn this off when I’m not bored?

Boredom drives us to good behaviour, and that drive’s been hijacked. It’s not so much that boredom is good as it is that boredom has been redirected by malicious technlolgy.

Not sure, if he alludes to it with that:

That’s a doom loop of meaning. If every time you’re slightly bored pull out your phone, it’s going to get harder and harder for you to find meaning, and that’s the recipe for depression and anxiety and a sense of hollowness

…but I’ve found, it can also be a vicious cycle when you’re at the deeper end of depression. Like, I would have intrusive thoughts. And the bandaid fix to not have intrusive thoughts, is to distract yourself 24/7. Not ever being bored became a survival strategy.

Over time, the circumstances changed and I’m kind of out of the depression. But I feel like I didn’t even notice for the longest time, because I never allowed myself to take a step back to think about it.
And I still struggle with doing things to combat depressive tendencies, like building habits or doing meaningful things or even just listening to the needs of my body, because I still have the habit of never being bored as well as the low tolerance to it. Which, again, simply means I don’t take the step back to think about what would be good for my wellbeing just about now or what would be a meaningful thing to do.