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Scrolling to escape boredom will only bring more boredom, research finds

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

What do you do when you're bored? Whip out your phone and just start scrolling through videos, or you get bored of one video, so you move on to the next...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: This might be the best breakfast I've ever had.

RASCOE: ...And the next.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Do you have a costumer who comes up with all of your...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: How to avoid being pickpocketed...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: New Jersey...

RASCOE: And now, maybe you feel even more bored. Well, there's new research to back you up, led by Katy Tam at the University of Toronto.

KATY TAM: We feel bored when there's a gap between how engaged we are and how engaged we want to be. When people are switching or fast forwarding, their attention is actually jumping around and they're not fully focused in the content they're consuming and this can increase boredom.

RASCOE: Maybe you should do squats, take up knitting, read some research papers, or how about listen to the radio? Just don't change that station. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.