Picture this: you’ve just settled into your workday and pulled up that big report you need to finish, when a friend sends you a couple of celebrity videos on WeChat. 1[■] And then the next thing you know, an hour has gone by while that big report sits, ignored, on your desk. So how does that happen?
To understand this, we conducted a series of studies with 6,445 people. Through this research, we identified three factors: the amount of media the person has already viewed, the similarity of the media they’ve viewed, and the manner in which they viewed the media.
We found the order and types of content we consume can affect our decision to keep consuming similar content. But what drives this effect? 2[■] When something feels more accessible, it becomes easier to process, leading us to enjoy it more.
These results also explain why it’s so easy to get distracted by apps on social media at work. 3[■] They offer bite-sized content that makes it easy to quickly consume several videos in a row. They often automatically suggest similar content, and many of them even automatically start playing similar videos, reducing the potential for interruptions.
4[■] To fight the pull, make an effort to just watch one video. If you really want to watch multiple in a row, choose videos that seem unrelated. You can also use a social media timer that urges you to take a break after a certain amount of time, or even just consciously remind yourself to consume different kinds of content.
So, if you’re struggling to climb out of a rabbit hole, try to find ways to reduce the similarity, repetitiveness, and relatedness of the content you’re consuming. 5[■] Once you manage to break free, you’ll be back at that big report in no time.