Dr Katy Tam at the University of Toronto Scarborough led a study which found out that when we continuously browse through different videos, we feel more bored. We all watch videos on YouTube and TikTok. But since there are different types of content, we keep switching between them and cannot get engaged to only one video. So, we keep scrolling in hopes of finding something more interesting but it just keeps increasing our boredom.
The researchers of the study surveyed 1200 participants. The first group of 140 participants reported switching between videos because they found the content they were watching more boring, while the second group of 231 participants reported that they switch a video or skip it in hopes that it would make their scrolling less boring.
The study found that this wasn’t the case as a survey of 166 undergraduate participants showed that they felt more bored when they had an option to skip a video instead of an option of not skipping. 159 undergraduate participants reported feeling more bored when they had an option of watching different five-minute videos they could switch between than when they were given a single ten minute video to watch.
On the other hand, when the same survey was done among participants of broader age range, the researchers didn’t find any reported boredom during either of the options, i.e., switching between five-minute videos or watching a single 10-minute video. 174 undergraduates experienced less boredom when they were allowed to pick videos of their choice from YouTube.
The researchers said that feelings of boredom while watching videos can also depend on different ages. People from different age groups have different watching and switching video habits. But there needs to be more extensive studies about this to find out why people feel bored when they are scrolling online.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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