According to a research paper published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, “attempts to avoid boredom through digital switching may sometimes inadvertently exacerbate it.
There is an irony to the “age of content”. Despite an infinite scroll, more videos, movies and TV shows than anyone can watch in a lifetime, there just doesn’t seem to be anything good on. One reason often cited for this state of boredom is that given the sheer volume of creators and their works online, finding something worthwhile is statistically that much harder. After all, not every vlogger is Martin Scorsese and for the one insightful political commentary on YouTube, there are several that just peddle bias and fake news. As it turns out, the fault is not in our feeds but in us.
According to a research paper published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, “attempts to avoid boredom through digital switching may sometimes inadvertently exacerbate it. When watching videos, enjoyment likely comes from immersing oneself in the videos rather than swiping through them.” In essence, the plethora of choices and the ability to reject within seconds music, videos, podcasts, etc, is what is causing people to feel bored — not the quality or lack thereof of the content itself. The researchers found that when users were made to watch a video in its entirety, they were more engaged.
To those who have come of age post the internet, the thrust of the paper is oddly familiar. For decades, parents have chided children for being bored. How can they be, when there’s so much to read, explore and learn? Older millennials have even been asked to climb trees when they complained that there’s nothing good on TV. Yet, there’s a sort of victim blaming in all this. The reason most people now constantly scroll, their attention spans truncated, is that a vast machine, animated by algorithms, incentivises this lack of commitment. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s no free will. It’s just that there’s too much profit for Big Tech in keeping people bored — and scrolling.
