A recent study by Dr. Katie Tam at the University of Toronto Scarborough has shown that constantly browsing through various videos increases our feelings of boredom.
The study results came after a survey of 1,200 participants, where participants revealed their tendency to switch videos because they were bored with the content they were watching.
The first group of participants, 140 people, indicated that they switched between clips because they found the content boring. The second group of 231 participants reported that they switched between clips in the hope of reducing boredom, but this switching did not lead to reducing boredom.
In another experiment involving 166 students, those who were given the option to skip clips were found to be more bored than those who were not given that option. And 159 students reported feeling more bored when they had the option to switch between five-minute videos, compared to watching a single 10-minute video.
But when the study was expanded to include participants of different age groups, the researchers found no clear difference in boredom between those who switched between short clips and those who watched a longer video. However, 174 students reported feeling less bored when they selected YouTube videos themselves.
The researchers concluded that boredom while watching videos may vary by age, as each age group has different habits for watching and switching videos. However, they stressed the need for more studies to understand why people feel bored while browsing the Internet.
