The effects of smartphone facilitated social media use, treadmill walking, and schoolwork on boredom in college students: Results of a within subjects, controlled experiment

Smartphone and social media use are common leisure activities among college students. These activities are correlated with boredom in survey research, yet causality is undetermined. Using an experimental design, we assessed the effect of smartphone use and other common, free-choice activities on boredom. For this study, 40 college students completed four, 30-min conditions on separate days each in the same room: quiet sitting (Control); treadmill walking (Treadmill); utilizing a smartphone to engage with social-media (Smartphone); and completing self-selected schoolwork (Schoolwork). Participants completed three validated surveys assessing different aspects of state boredom at pre, mid, and post for each condition. A four condition by three time-point repeated-measure ANOVA compared the mean results for each measure of boredom. Both the Smartphone and Control conditions caused statistically significant (p = 0.05) increases in all three measures of boredom. The Treadmill condition led to increases in two of the measures of boredom. Conversely, Schoolwork caused a statistically significant decrease in boredom across all three measures. Thus, given a 30-min free-choice period, students should be advised that doing schoolwork or, to a lesser extent, taking a walk might better prevent boredom than social media driven smartphone use.

Automated summary

The study showed that using smartphones and social media can increase boredom among students, while doing schoolwork or taking a walk can help to prevent boredom more effectively.