Boredom is unpleasant, with people going to great lengths to avoid it. One way to escape boredom and increase stimulation is to consume digital media, for example watching short videos on YouTube or TikTok. One common way that people watch these videos is to switch between videos and fast-forward through them, a form of viewing we call digital switching. Here, we hypothesize that people consume media this way to avoid boredom, but this behavior paradoxically intensifies boredom. Across seven experiments (total N = 1,223; six preregistered), we found a bidirectional, causal relationship between boredom and digital switching. When participants were bored, they switched (Study 1), and they believed that switching would help them avoid boredom (Study 2). Switching between videos (Study 3) and within video (Study 4), however, led not to less boredom but more boredom; it also reduced satisfaction, reduced attention, and lowered meaning. Even when participants had the freedom to watch videos of personal choice and interest on YouTube, digital switching still intensified boredom (Study 5). However, when examining digital switching with online articles and with nonuniversity samples, the findings were less conclusive (Study 6), potentially due to factors such as opportunity cost (Study 7). Overall, our findings suggest that attempts to avoid boredom through digital switching may sometimes inadvertently exacerbate it. When watching videos, enjoyment likely comes from immersing oneself in the videos rather than swiping through them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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快进到无聊：数字媒体上的切换行为如何使人们更加无聊。


无聊是令人不快的，人们会竭尽全力避免它。摆脱无聊和增加刺激的一种方法是使用数字媒体，例如在 YouTube 或 TikTok 上观看短视频。人们观看这些视频的一种常见方式是在视频之间切换并快进它们，这种观看形式我们称之为数字切换。在这里，我们假设人们以这种方式消费媒体是为了避免无聊，但这种行为自相矛盾地加剧了无聊。在 7 个实验（总 N = 1,223;6 个预注册）中，我们发现无聊和数字切换之间存在双向因果关系。当参与者感到无聊时，他们会换人（研究 1），他们相信换人会帮助他们避免无聊（研究 2）。然而，在视频之间切换（研究 3）和视频内部切换（研究 4）并没有减少无聊，而是增加了无聊;它还降低了满意度，减少了注意力，降低了意义。即使参与者可以自由地在 YouTube 上观看个人选择和感兴趣的视频，数字切换仍然加剧了无聊（研究 5）。然而，当通过在线文章和非大学样本检查数字转换时，结果不太定论（研究 6），这可能是由于机会成本等因素（研究 7）。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，试图通过数字切换来避免无聊有时可能会无意中加剧它。观看视频时，乐趣可能来自于让自己沉浸在视频中，而不是滑动浏览它们。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。