Endlessly scrolling just increases boredom

A study out of the University of Toronto at Scarborough found that jumping from video to video while scrolling without actually finishing any of them, makes people more bored than they already were.

The Big Picture: Social media has a negative effect on people for a variety of reasons. Understanding the whys behind those effects is key to improving user habits.

Between the Lines: The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, included 1,200 people across seven different experiments.

• Participants were given a series of videos (cat videos, memes, and other videos popular on social media) that they could skip, fast-forward, rewind, etc., and then another series of videos that they simply had to watch straight through.
• People, especially those around college age, overwhelmingly reported that they were more engaged and satisfied after simply watching the videos in their entirety… which came as a surprise to them.
• When skipping around, participants reported feeling less attentive and found less meaning in what they were watching — aka, they were more bored because they’re simply searching instead of engaging.

Closing Thoughts: Actually focusing on the thing you’re watching turns out to be the key to fighting boredom on social media. That goes against the idea of the endless scroll. And from a creator standpoint, as brands start to favor engagement over viewership, micro influencers with passionate fanbases who actually watch their content may be more important than the big names with millions of followers.