Scrolling to Nowhere

I’m bored.

I don’t mean I’m bored this instant, but in general my life is duller than I’d like it to be. Perhaps it’s the stage of life I’m in—middle-aged, preoccupied teens at home, career on cruise-control. Or perhaps it’s my temperament: my mind races to complete tasks and hates being idle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the way I entertain myself.

I, like everyone else, watch lots of TV, movies, and short videos on my various screens. I consume far more video content today than twenty, thirty, forty years ago. And I was a child of the 80s, when the boob tube was my babysitter and friend. Just this summer alone, I binge-watched TV shows like Vikings, House of Dragons, Shogun, Welcome to Wrexham, Shoresy, and Cobra Kai, to name a few. And if you’re judging my taste, you can shove it—at least I’m not pretending to be sophisticated.

Given all the quality content out there, you’d think I would be less bored than ever. But you’d be wrong: boredom is on the rise. And boredom isn’t merely unpleasant; it has real consequences. Chronic boredom is linked to anxiety, depression, and even lower life satisfaction. In schools, it can lead to lower motivation, poorer grades, and reduced interest in learning. And it doesn’t stop there—boredom can push people towards risky behaviours and even sadistic aggression. So, understanding why boredom is increasing matters.

While there are no doubt numerous possibilities for the small yet meaningful decline in engagement, my brilliant student Katy Tam and I wondered if the way we consume media today might play some small role.

Just a few decades ago, entertainment was something you waited for. I remember anticipating and waiting for Thursday nights in the 80s when I could watch NBC’s lineup of The Cosby Show (!), Family Ties, Cheers, and Night Court. I also remember anticipating new movie releases months in advance. Today, why wait? I can binge-watch an entire series in a weekend, skip past the slow parts, watch at faster speed, or switch to something else entirely when I lose interest. I can watch a movie while playing a video game. With so much available instantly, you’d think I’d be more entertained, less bored. But the opposite is true. Boredom has been steadily increasing, with studies showing a rise in boredom among adolescents from 2008 to 2020.

So how might our changing media viewing habits contribute to a rise in boredom? Can what we call digital switching—switching and skipping content, fast-forwarding, etc.—increase boredom? On the surface, the answer is an obvious no: after all, if something isn’t engaging, it would make perfect sense that moving on to something else would increase enjoyment and lower boredom. Our recently published research, however, suggests that the exact opposite is true. We conducted seven experiments involving over 1,200 participants to uncover the surprising truth: digital switching doesn’t alleviate boredom—it intensifies it.

In our first experiment, we set out to test a simple hypothesis: when people are bored, they’re more likely to switch between videos in search of something better. We showed participants a mix of interesting and deliberately boring videos and observed their behaviour. As expected, those who were bored were more likely to switch between videos. But the story doesn’t end there.

In the next phase of our research, we asked a critical question: does switching between videos relieve boredom, as people expect? To find out, we gave some participants the freedom to switch between videos as much as they wanted; the other participants watched only one video in its entirety. What we found was surprising: instead of escaping boredom, participants who frequently switched reported feeling even more bored. Even when they were allowed to choose videos that interested them, the act of switching itself seemed to increase their dissatisfaction.

One of our experiments highlighted this issue by giving participants free rein to select any video they wanted on YouTube. Even with the freedom to choose content from the near-infinite supply on YouTube, those who engaged in frequent switching reported higher levels of boredom compared to those who stuck with a single video.

To be fair, not all our studies worked as planned. When we conducted a study giving people the ability to stick to one news article versus switching and skimming articles, boredom was unaffected. Similarly, older adults seemed less affected by the possibility of switching. As with all research, independent labs need to replicate this work before drawing too many conclusions. Nonetheless, I find these results interesting.

This counterintuitive finding suggests that the problem isn’t the content itself, but how we interact with it. When we constantly switch between videos, we never fully engage with anything. Our attention becomes fragmented, preventing us from immersing ourselves in the experience. Imagine trying to enjoy a meal but constantly leaving the table to check on the sports scores; you’d never fully appreciate the food in front of you.

The ease of switching also raises our expectations for what is normal engagement and lowers the bar for what we find boring. We get used to a constant stream of new, stimulating content, making anything less than the instantly gratifying feel dull by comparison. How can a lecturer such as me hold young people’s attention for two hours when those same students are used to fast-paced, constantly changing TikTok videos? If boredom is caused by a discrepancy between the attentional engagement we expect and the attentional engagement we experience in the moment, rising expectations alone can lead us to feel more bored. It’s a bit like getting used to fast food: after a while, anything that takes longer feels like it’s taking forever, and we become impatient as a result.

So, what’s the solution? The key to enjoying digital media more might be to stick with things for longer, to switch less. Instead of constantly searching for the next best thing, try immersing yourself in what you’re watching. Let yourself get absorbed in the content without indulging the urge to skip or switch. I suppose, sometimes, you just need to take her easy for all us sinners. There is a broader pattern here. I hear there is a similar dynamic with online dating: when there is tantalizing pool of people out there who might be more interesting than the person one is with, should we be surprised that the youngs have trouble committing to one person? Again, the solution might be to take your time with a person getting to know them a bit before switching.

In an age where entertainment is more accessible and plentiful than at any other time in human history, it seems ironic that we’re more bored now than in the past, but the very thing we think will relieve boredom might in fact exacerbate it. So, the next time you feel like watching a movie, go to an actual cinema and turn your phone off. I bet you’ll enjoy the film a lot more than if you watched at home while playing Candy Crush and DMing with your mates.

So there it is: our media habits may be making us more bored, not less. Does any of this ring true for you? Or maybe I’m just old man yelling at cloud. Do you think I’m overstating the problem of digital switching, ranting at kids these days? I’m genuinely curious, so if you’ve got a thought—or a bone to pick—drop it below. Please comment! Let’s see if we can dig into what’s really going on here.