Hundred percent this!<p>Short story: went camping with my buddy, his kid and my daughter. Kids at the time were the same age. We go to leave, in seperate cars, I pull up next to him, his kid is in the back staring at his iPad already, we'd not even left and had a 2hr drive ahead of us.<p>My daughter asks if she can have her iPad or my phone. No. I said. She starts telling me how she will be bored and trying to convince me to give her a device. Nope stare out the window, be bored, come up with stuff in your head.<p>15 minutes in, shes knocked out asleep.<p>I tell my kids all the time, be bored, its good for you. They will please and beg. 5 minutes later they will be singing, wrestling, drawing, reading or just blankly staring into the abyss on their ceiling, mind wandering and doing what it needs to do.<p>Some time later we found out my buddies kid had anxiety so bad he was pulling out his own hair and biting his nails. He was for lack of a better words addicted to his devices. They worked on it and he seems better now.<p>Be bored.<p>Its good for you.