A new study reveals that scrolling through videos on social media can actually increase boredom rather than reduce it.
According to The Guardian, research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General suggested that switching from one video to another, skipping forward and backward, actually makes people more bored.
Dr. Katy Tam, a researcher at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the lead author of the research said, “We feel bored when there’s a gap between how engaged we are and how engaged we want to be.”
She further added, “When people keep switching through videos, they become less engaged with them and look for something more interesting. This can lead to increased feelings of boredom.”
Tam explained, “We speculated that people of different ages may have different habits when it comes to watching videos and switching. How people consume videos and how this affects boredom may vary based on age and digital media habits, but further research is needed to explore this.”
For this study, research took seven different experiments on over 1.200 people.
Tim interpreted, “Our research shows that while people fast-forward or skip videos to avoid boredom, this behaviour can actually make them feel more bored.
She continued, "Just as we pay for an immersive experience in a movie theatre, enjoyment often comes from immersing ourselves in videos rather than swiping through them.”
Tim suggested that the different demographics of the people could create a difference in the results of the study.
