Endless scrolling, endless boredom: How short-form videos are making us less satisfied

Do you often feel bored? Are you uninspired to pursue things that interest you? Incessant scrolling through Instagram Reels and YouTube could be the culprit. As we know, finding something interesting to watch while endlessly browsing through Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts is a matter of chance.

A new study titled ‘Fast-Forward to Boredom: How Switching Behaviour on Digital Media Makes People More Bored’ published by researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough, says that jumping forwards and backwards to find interesting videos would make users more bored. According to Dr Katy Tam, the lead author, boredom is closely linked to attention.