The Dark Psychology of Digital Abundance on TikTok and Instagram
The modern consumer is spoiled. We live in a world of immediate gratification and digital abundance. Any song you could ever want to listen to, any product you want delivered, any video you want to watch—anything and everything is at our fingertips. And increasingly, with the advent of generative AI, our desires aren’t limited by what already exists—we can now conjure up our own personalized stimulation.
We might assume that as digital media has proliferated, becoming more accessible and user-driven than ever before, we’d be enthralled. And yet, research indicates that the modern media experience, especially when mediated by our phones, doesn’t produce elation. In fact, at an emotional level, it doesn’t reliably produce much of anything.
Beyond the general issues of TikTok, Instagram, and other social media—strongly linked, especially in younger users, with social comparison and rancor—there’s one overriding psychological state that typifies the modern media experience: boredom. That’s right. Research suggests that digital abundance is making us more bored than ever.
Analyzing trends across several countries between 2009 and 2020, researchers have uncovered a troubling pattern: people—especially young people—are becoming increasingly bored. There has been a steady, historical, population-level rise in boredom over the past decade.
Why is this? How can a steady stream of incredible, highly stimulating personalized content make us, above all, bored? The answer comes down to the digital abundance, counterfactual thinking, and how this new wave of social media impacts the psychology of time.
Let’s dive in.
The Rise of Digital Abundance and Social Media
It may be no accident that this rise in boredom coincides with massive changes to digital media. The first iPhone arrived in 2007, the same year Twitter became a household name and Facebook expanded beyond college campuses.
The late 2000s marked the beginning of a seismic shift in how we engage with media and technology. Smartphone adoption skyrocketed, with global sales climbing from 122 million units in 2007 to over 1.35 billion in 2020. Alongside this technological revolution came the rapid ascent of social media platforms: Facebook emerged in 2004, YouTube in 2005, X (formerly Twitter) in 2006, WhatsApp in 2009, Instagram in 2010, and TikTok in 2016. By 2024, over 5 billion people worldwide are active social media users, spending an average of 151 minutes daily on these platforms—up from just 40 minutes in 2015.
This transformation wasn’t limited to social media. Video consumption shifted dramatically from traditional television to on-demand streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video. In the U.S., streaming surpassed cable TV for the first time in 2022. Meanwhile, global screen time surged. Across devices—whether laptops, smartphones, or gaming consoles—average daily screen time grew from 9 hours in 2012 to 11 hours by 2019, with mobile phone usage alone accounting for an additional two hours.
These shifts have fundamentally reshaped how we interact with media, creating a world where instant access is the norm and hyper-personalized content is only a swipe away. On its face, this incredible abundance would seem to mean less boredom, not more. The modern smartphone would appear to be a boredom antidote, providing an endless stream of stimulation at any moment.
And yet, perhaps it's exactly this abundance that produces boredom. We’re not bored despite these options; we’re bored because of them.
The Psychology of Counterfactual Thinking in Digital and Social Media
The abundance of the digital world brings with it an all-important cognitive mode: counterfactual thinking. This mode of thinking plagues us with thoughts of what could be instead of focusing on what is. As we’ve seen, even when we’re not actively using them, smartphones encourage this mindset. Seeing them facedown on the table during a dinner conversation can spark the nagging thought: what might I be missing?
Sure, you may be enjoying the dinner table conversation. But what kind of excitement might be waiting for you on the other side of your smartphone screen? An important text could be sitting there, waiting for your response. Maybe you’ve got a notification from Instagram, YouTube or TikTok—a like, a comment, or something new to scroll through. There could even be breaking world news you haven’t heard yet.
The smartphone offers an endless array of possibilities. It’s a portal to infinite potential experiences—far more than the moment you’re in right now can compete with. The sheer scope of what could be makes the reality of what is feel somehow less compelling.
How can you appreciate the thing that’s in front of you when there is an infinite number of things you could be experiencing? This is the paradox of abundance. The more possibilities we have, the harder it becomes to focus on the present—and the easier it is for even the most engaging moments to feel inadequate.
Coping with The Psychology of Time Amidst Digital Abundance
One of the major themes of this new world of digital abundance is the sheer speed of the delivery content. In an hour of absolute time, we can fit in over 100 TikTok videos, YouTube shorts, or Instagram Reels. As we’ve seen, the pace of modern media can warp our own psychology of time, and can interfere with memory formation. Strapped in to the high octane pace of digital media, an hour doesn’t feel like an hour, and it isn’t remembered as one either.
With such an incredible range of possible experiences at our fingertips, its easy to lose interest in any one piece of content. And paradoxically, our attempts to stave off boredom may actually exacerbate it. When we begin to feel bored—perhaps driven by a tinge of counterfactual thinking—our natural coping mechanism is to swipe to the next piece of content. We’re effectively speeding up the rate of presentation even faster - engaging a temporal response window which is even narrower.
Research finds, however, that this backfires, leaving us even more bored. In a series of experiments with over 1,200 participants, researchers at The University of Toronto observed how switching between videos impacted viewers’ experiences. When participants watched a single 10-minute YouTube video without interruption, they reported feeling less bored and found the experience more satisfying and meaningful. In contrast, those who could switch between shorter videos or fast-forward through content felt more bored, less engaged, and less connected to what they watched.
What researchers describe as “digital switching”—rapidly jumping between snippets of online content—diminishes engagement and enjoyment, even though people believe it will do the opposite. While smartphones and platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram offer endless stimulation, the constant switching may actually leave us feeling more bored, restless, and unfulfilled.
Final Thoughts on Discontent amidst Digital Abundance
There’s much to say about the overabundance of digital stimulation and how, in this sea of instantly gratifying content, we’ve become far less appreciative of any given digital experience. The same has become true for music, impacting not just how we enjoy it, but the kinds of music that is created in the first place. The level of choice and abundance we now take for granted is unprecedented.
It’s worth zooming out and looking at the long view. Contrast today’s media landscape with that of the 1990s—an era before streaming and on-demand content. In his cultural history of the era, The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman describes it perfectly:
“[The 1990s] was a present-tense existence. For much of the decade, Seinfeld was the most popular, most transformative live-action show on television... Yet if you missed an episode of Seinfeld, you simply missed it. You had to wait until it was re-aired the following summer...”
What Klosterman is describing here is an entertainment landscape which is genuinely ephemeral - when it's gone, it's gone.
It’s human nature to be nostalgic about a time when entertainment felt fleeting yet meaningful, when experiences had to be savored because they couldn’t be endlessly replayed or replaced. Today’s infinite stream of content and the ceaseless pull of “what could be” may be leaving us stuck in a perpetual state of restlessness.
Nostalgia, though, isn’t the point. What matters is understanding that getting what we want—or think we want—may not always lead to fulfillment. Committing to an experience, and weathering the inevitable fluctuations of boredom and dissatisfaction, may make us more present, and more engaged.
And perhaps, even a little less bored.
Photo by Stephany Lorena via UnSplash
About the author
Matt Johnson, PhD is a researcher, writer, and consumer neuroscientist focusing on the application of psychology to branding. He is the author of the best-selling consumer psychology book Blindsight, and Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). Contact Matt for speaking engagements, opportunities to collaborate, or just to say hello
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