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Journalism of Courage
Do you often feel bored? Are you uninspired to pursue things that interest you? Incessant scrolling through Instagram Reels and YouTube could be the culprit. As we know, finding something interesting to watch while endlessly browsing through Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts is a matter of chance.
A new study titled ‘Fast-Forward to Boredom: How Switching Behaviour on Digital Media Makes People More Bored’ published by researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough, says that jumping forwards and backwards to find interesting videos would make users more bored. According to Dr Katy Tam, the lead author, boredom is closely linked to attention.
The research explores the paradoxical relationship between boredom and digital media consumption. It specifically examines how the act of frequently switching between or within videos on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, which are intended to combat boredom, could end up exacerbating it.
“When people keep switching through videos, they become less engaged with the videos and they are looking for something more interesting. This can lead to increased feelings of boredom,” Dr Tam told the Guardian.
The outcome of the research seems to resonate with similar studies. The team said that previous research showed how boredom relief is a driver for people to use social media or smartphones. The use of such technology seems to be making these feelings worse.
The researchers conducted seven experiments with over 1,200 participants and they consistently found that frequent switching of videos leads to an increase in boredom, reduced satisfaction levels, lower engagement, and diminished perceived meaning in the activities.
Data from one of the experiments involving 166 undergraduates suggested that participants felt more bored when allowed to skip about within a video than when they were unable to do so.
Another group of 159 undergraduates revealed that they reported higher levels of boredom when they were handed over a collection of five-minute videos which they could switch between, compared to one video spanning 10 minutes.
The team said that participants initially believed that switching between videos would make their viewing experience more interesting, but the experiments revealed the opposite effect. According to the research, the act of continuously switching between content, if even they are interesting, prevents users from fully engaging with them. This leads to a cycle of dissatisfaction and boredom.
The study here seems to suggest that one can derive enjoyment from digital media by immersing themselves in content rather than by frequently switching between content within an app. This insight has larger implications for how people consume digital media and how the platforms may design their interfaces to promote a healthy user experience.
