If your response to boredom is to whip out your phone and scroll endlessly through TikTok, you might be doing it wrong. According to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, this kind of "digital switching" intensifies boredom rather than relieving it.
The study begins with a quotation by philosopher Bertrand Russell on the nature of boredom:
We are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more afraid of boredom. We have come to know, or rather to believe, that boredom is not part of the natural lot of man, but can be avoided by a sufficiently vigorous pursuit of excitement.
Researchers expected that digital switching, or quickly scrolling through content and sometimes fast-forwarding, would reduce boredom. Instead, they found that the opposite was true.
In one experiment with two segments, all the participants watched a 10-minute YouTube video without having the option to fast forward. In another segment, they could freely switch through seven five-minute videos within 10 minutes. Participants reported feeling less bored when they watched the single video and found the viewing experience to be more satisfying, engaging and meaningful than when they switched through different videos.
There were similar findings for another experiment where participants watched a 10-minute video in one segment but could fast forward or rewind through a 50-minute video for 10 minutes in another segment.
So, stick to longer-form videos if you are using your phone to alleviate boredom because, as Katy Tam, one of the paper's authors, points out,
Chronic boredom is linked with depressive symptoms, anxiety, sadistic aggression and risk-taking.
Yikes.
Previously: People hate just sitting and thinking so much they'd rather shock themselves
