The More Videos You Skip, the Stronger Your Brain Feels Boredom
TikTok Addiction Cause, Skipping Videos Also Weakens Concentration
The cause of addiction to short videos like YouTube Shorts (although 'Shorts' is the standard term, YouTube uses 'Shorts') and TikTok has been revealed. The key lies not in the video content itself, but in the act of swiping videos with the fingers.
On the 19th (local time), the British daily newspaper The Guardian introduced research on online content addiction by Dr. Katie Tam of Scarborough University in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Tam viewed the cause of addiction to short videos like Shorts as related to human boredom and concentration.
She told the media, "The greater the gap between the degree to which we are actually engaged in a particular activity and the degree to which we want to be engaged, the greater the boredom."
A study has found that the more people casually skip through videos, the stronger their brain experiences boredom. [Image source=Pixabay]
This principle can also be applied to TikTok and Shorts. TikTok and Shorts are structured so that short videos continuously switch on the phone screen. Users can swipe through videos with their fingers to find other content.
When people quickly skip through multiple videos with their fingers, they become 'less engaged' in watching the videos, which increases boredom. Ironically, the brain experiencing boredom becomes more focused on finding more interesting videos. This is why people end up wasting time searching through Shorts and TikTok.
In fact, Dr. Tam's research team conducted experiments with hundreds of college student volunteers to prove this theory. The study was published in the journal Experimental Psychology.
In an experiment conducted with 166 undergraduate students, participants reported feeling more boredom when given the 'ability to skip videos' compared to when they could not skip. In particular, participants who could skip through several 5-minute videos felt stronger boredom than those who watched a single 10-minute video.
However, there was a difference depending on age group. When the experiment was conducted with a broader age range rather than just college students (early 20s), the difference in boredom between the group watching a single 10-minute video and the group skipping through several 5-minute videos was not significant.
Regarding this difference, Dr. Tam speculated, "It may be because people’s video-watching habits differ by age group." In other words, there is a significant difference in concentration between age groups already familiar with short-form videos like TikTok or Shorts and those who are not. However, she added that further research is needed to analyze this in detail.
Dr. Tam emphasized, "Rather than getting used to fast-forwarding or skipping buttons (on videos), it is more important to take time and focus," and said, "We need to find ways to maintain concentration while watching videos."
She explained, "According to our research, people skip videos to avoid boredom, but this behavior actually increases real boredom," and "Just as audiences immerse themselves in a movie theater, the enjoyment of online videos also comes from immersion."
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