Although it may seem a bit paradoxical, it seems that we feel more bored if we scroll through rather than watch a video in one go, or if we switch between videos without watching a single one, according to a study in the journal Experimental Psychology: General. Study published in a trade journal based on Guardian.
Researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough conducted seven experiments with more than 1,200 participants to see how switching between videos affects people’s boredom. Their results confirmed the conclusions of several previous studies that found that while people turn to their phones and social media to stave off boredom, they actually make it worse.
“We get bored when there’s a gap between how engaged we are and how engaged we are. When people are switching between videos, they become less engaged, so they look for something more exciting. This can lead to increased feelings of boredom.”
Dr. Katie Tam, lead author of the study, said:
In the first experiment, 140 people were studied who frequently skipped between videos if they found them boring, and in another, an online survey, 231 participants said they thought the ability to skip made videos less boring.
In contrast, in the third test, 166 college students felt more bored when they were able to immerse themselves in a video than when they were not, and 159 college students reported feeling more bored when they were allowed to switch between a set of videos for five minutes than when they had to sit through a 10-minute video.
This was confirmed by further experiments, although the degree of boredom and dissatisfaction varied. However, when they expanded the research to include 175 participants who were selected from multiple age groups and had a higher average age, they found no difference between watching the five-minute video group and the 10-minute video group. In this group, boredom was also affected by the order in which they watched the group or the single video, which was not typical for previous groups. According to Tam, the reason for the difference may be due to different demographics.
The researchers concluded that people of different ages consume video content in different ways, and therefore the rate of immersion and boredom also varies. For this reason, they say, this issue should be better explored through further research.
“Our research found that while people fast-forward or skip videos to avoid boredom, this behavior can actually make them more bored. Just as we pay for an immersive experience at the cinema, the enjoyment often comes from immersing ourselves in videos rather than scrolling through them.
Tam said.
