You’d better leave it clicked.
“Digital switching,” the process of watching a short snippet of online video, then moving on to another and then another, can actually increase boredom rather than alleviate it. According to the research results It was published on Monday.
“Prior to this study, I was often ‘digitally switching’ (i.e. switching between or within media content). I would fast forward if a drama was too slow. If a YouTube video stopped being interesting, I would skip it,” says study author Katie YY Tam, a postdoctoral researcher at the Work and Play Lab at the University of Toronto Scarborough. explained to PsyPost last month.
“But I found myself not really engaging with or enjoying the content — I was missing details about the stories and spending a lot of time switching from one video to another,” Tam continued. “This made me wonder how this switching behavior affected our sense of boredom or enjoyment.”
Tam’s team conducted seven experiments with 1,200 research participants, including students at the University of Toronto and people recruited online.
In one experiment, volunteers watched a 10-minute YouTube video without being able to fast-forward, and were then free to switch between seven five-minute videos within a 10-minute period.
In another test, participants watched a 10-minute video in one go and were then allowed to fast-forward or rewind 10 minutes of a 50-minute video.
After both experiments, participants reported being less bored when they watched only one video, and found the viewing experience more satisfying, engaging, and meaningful than when they watched a variety of content.
There are more 3.3 billion According to research, there are more than one million digital video viewers worldwide. Some marketers Keep your videos between 1-2 minutes long to keep your audience engaged until the end.
Tam suggests that users stay focused on the content at hand.
“Just like we pay to have a more immersive experience at the cinema, we enjoy online video more when it’s more immersive than swiping through it,” she said.
Her study has several limitations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
The research team didn’t look at the effects of short attention spans, and their participants were mostly Canadian university students, so more research is needed to see whether these conclusions apply to other subjects.
Dr. George AlvaradoThe vice chair of clinical operations at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens likened the problem to nonstop channel surfing, except the content is tailored to the user’s interests.
Alvarado says if you’re feeling bored, consider putting away your phone or limiting screen time that isn’t related to work or important communications.
“I’m not saying people should abandon apps like TikTok or YouTube, but if they’re feeling bored, it may be better to consume a limited amount of rapidly-posting, highly addictive social media content,” he told the Post.
