The editor-in-chief has called for an end to repeated appeals, arguing that young readers are becoming increasingly disengaged; he suggests they would be better served by seeking more stimulating forms of leisure.

Among last summer’s trends (aside from the heat, trees in the city, etc.) was the topic of boredom. In print and digital newspapers, in social media reels and at public events, educators, psychologists and various experts have bored us to death with the importance of boredom, particularly for and amongst young people. The gist was: do you remember how bored we used to get back then, without smartphones, without chat apps, without clicking? Today’s young people no longer know what boredom is; they should get bored more often; boredom is good for you; boredom is educational; and so on and so forth. Months of nostalgia for boredom, months of rhetoric about boredom, only to discover, at the start of autumn, that the young men in mini-cars in Rome who were attacking passers-by on scooters, just like the hooligans wreaking havoc in cities by taking advantage of a demonstration whose form and content they know nothing about, did what they did out of boredom. Yes, that’s right: good old boredom.

It is evident that people are still bored, and to a significant degree. However, weren’t our young people supposed to be even more bored? If anything, the available data suggests otherwise. Critics may label me an idiot—a charge I concede—and argue that the entire discussion on boredom hinges precisely on the claim that younger generations no longer know how to cope with it; the same argument has been repeated ad nauseam. Well, maybe so; but I recall that when I was a child, back in the analogue days, there were youngsters of an age that today would be considered ‘mini-car’ age who used to throw stones from flyovers out of the very same boredom that today leads to a shop window in the town centre being smashed and looted; and who knows how many other foolish acts of barbarism were committed by bored teenagers throughout the twentieth century, from drinking to heroin to other horrors typical of the pack.

Weren’t the ‘Drugs’, the young protagonists of “A Clockwork Orange”, also bored – resorting to ultra-violence to fill their days? And perhaps – forgive me for being indulgent, just this once – even those educators, psychologists and experts who tell us about the importance of boredom so as not to succumb to our own boredom are bored themselves. As a grown man who has been living on this planet for forty-two years, I do not believe there is anything educational about boredom; if anything, the value lies in teaching people how not to become bored. Boredom is inevitable (life consists mostly of downtime), but it is healthy to try to escape it. Life should be full of distractions so as not to think about death – which is incredibly boring. Today’s issue is not that we no longer experience boredom; on the contrary, we are bored too often, if not constantly. The boredom once confined to the provinces is now widespread even in major cities: venues closing down or where nothing ever happens, sluggish—if not non-existent—social life, and individuals who are more tedious than a scarecrow in a wheat field. Enough with the calls for boredom – let us commit to having fun instead. It is time to organise engaging events, focus on positive topics, and foster lively social interactions. The entertainment industry should commit to producing better, more surprising and less formulaic films and shows: it is likely that if a new episode of a compelling series had aired on Saturday afternoon, no one would have felt inclined to go and rip down road signs in the centre of Milan – besides, it is hard to imagine a more tedious activity; perhaps the only thing worse is the gym. To break out of this spiral of violence, there is only one answer: have fun!