road trips, standing in line anywhere (toll booth, amusement park, gas station, grocery store etc), riding the subway, waiting room at a doctor’s office, riding in a cab, waiting between customers at your retail job, power outages, camping trips, I am sure I could think of many more.
For the above you could
-listen to music
-talk to someone
-read a book, magazine, or newspaper
-text people (I assume we mean no social media, not no phones)
Now my nitpicks
- How long do you wait for gas? It's also an activity (assuming you aren't using full service)
-Camping is an activity
Sure you can come up with a scenarios where people are forced to be bored. Like waiting in a doctors office that you went to by yourself and they don't offer any reading material. Seems rare.
Let me offer another one: solitary confinement, what happens to people left alone with their own thoughts? They often go crazy.
