Unpopular opinion: Maybe being bored isn't a bad thing. It allows for an escape from constant stimulus and eventually, your mind will learn to wander, introspect, and come up with new ideas.
Interesting, I started running with my Walkman -> eventually Discman (switched back and forth with some headphones that did FM radio when I got tired of CD skips) -> Early mp3 player (could only fit about 5 songs at a time lol) -> classic iPod. I got injured and stopped running around the time I got my first smart phone, so I never experienced running with a phone.
You could be right. I'm not actually a heavy smartphone user, there are a few things I check but I mostly just read email, HN, and a handful of low-traffic subreddits. I'm not sure _more_ introspection is what I need, I literally have to read bland fiction just to shut off my brain in order to sleep at night.
> I literally have to read bland fiction just to shut off my brain in order to sleep at night.
I'm the same, but running literally allows me to do this while I'm running, instead of while I'm trying to go sleep. Most of my most significant problems were solved during mind-wandering runs.
This is how we ran before smartphones, anyway.