> I ended up going to the local library during this time after months of crushing boredom and reading a lot of books like the CompTIA Linux, CEH, random programming books
It's only happened because you were that type of person, I know a lot more high school students who went robbing cars and drinking because of their boredom, not going to libraries to read programming books.
I agree with that as well. It was the combination of me not being the type do do all of that plus being bored enough to go to the library.
I know a lot of my peers in college just couldn't hack it because they were engrossed in gaming. I might not have ended up jacking cars but I doubt I would have made it through my first 2 years of engineering if I hadn't become more interested in it than online gaming.
There is a lot of factors and every case is unique but I can't believe that never feeling that kind of boredom is healthy, if not only to find out who you really are. Maybe it would be wise to have a month of "decompression" in the wilderness or otherwise disconnected the first year before college if you are already on track to at least go to one.
If young people are robbing cars and underage drinking when they are bored, I would think the problem there is more about peer-pressure, upbringing and lack of purpose/belonging rather than boredom.
If someone is only stopped from making poor decisions due to escapism, there is an underlying issue that needs to be fixed with something deeper than not letting them get bored.
It's only happened because you were that type of person, I know a lot more high school students who went robbing cars and drinking because of their boredom, not going to libraries to read programming books.