You better stick with that click.
Watching a short snippet of an online video before moving on to another video and another and another — a move called “digital switching” — actually increases boredom instead of alleviating it, according to study findings published Monday.
“Before conducting this research, I used to ‘digitally switch’ a lot (i.e., switching between and within media content). If a drama paced too slowly, I’d fast-forward. If a YouTube video became less interesting, I’d skip it,” study author Katy Y. Y. Tam, a postdoctoral fellow at the Work and Play Lab at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, explained to PsyPost last month.
“However, I realized I wasn’t truly engaging with or enjoying the content. I often missed plot details and spent a lot of time jumping from one video to another,” Tam continued. “This made me wonder how such switching behavior affects our feelings of boredom and enjoyment.”
Tam’s team set up seven experiments involving 1,200 study participants, including University of Toronto students and online recruits.
In one of the trials, the volunteers watched a 10-minute YouTube video without being able to fast forward. Afterward, they could freely pop between seven five-minute videos within 10 minutes.
In another test, participants watched a 10-minute video in one sitting. Later, they could fast forward or rewind through a 50-minute video for 10 minutes.
Following both experiments, participants reported being less bored when they watched just one video. They found the viewing experience more satisfying, engaging and meaningful than when they bounced through different content.
There are more than 3.3 billion digital video viewers worldwide, research shows. Some marketers recommend that videos be one to two minutes long to keep audiences engaged throughout.
Tam suggests users stay focused on the content at hand.
“Just like paying for a more immersive experience in a movie theater, more enjoyment comes from immersing oneself in online videos rather than swiping through them,” she said.
There are a few limitations to her study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
The team didn’t examine the effect of short attention spans, and the participants were mostly Canadian college students. Further research is needed to see if these conclusions apply to others.
Dr. George Alvarado, vice chair of clinical operations for Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, likened the problem to nonstop channel surfing, except this content is tailored to your interests.
Alvarado says if you’re feeling bored, you should consider putting away your phone or limiting screen time not related to work or essential communication.
“This is not to say that apps such as TikTok and YouTube should be abandoned, but if experiencing boredom, then rapid fire, highly addictive forms of social media content are probably better consumed in limited quantities,” he told The Post.