7 reasons you should stop yourself the next time you reach for your smartphone when you're bored

m01229/flickrMaybe try resisting the urge to grab your phone the next time you're bored.

Who doesn't hate being bored?

In fact, it turns out that we hate boredom so much that a surprising amount of people said they would rather be shocked with electricity than sit there quietly and think.

But thanks to the invention of smartphones, all we need to do to keep ourselves occupied these days is turn our eyes and fingers to our screens.

Tons of people do it. A Gallup study from last year reports the majority of US smartphone owners check their phones at least a few times an hour. (Cell phone addiction even has a clinical name now: "nomophobia").

Unfortunately for most of us, research suggests that we could be missing out on a lot by turning to our smartphones whenever we feel the pangs of boredom.

Here's why it might be a good idea to unplug and get back to being bored for a while: