Boredom and Always-On Media Cultures

Dr Tina Kendall’s research examines boredom as a lens for understanding everyday social media use as it intersects with wider questions of attention, affect, and the imperative to remain engaged and entertained.

A bored-looking young woman looking at a smartphone in a kitchen

This work explores how boredom shapes practices such as binge-watching and mindless scrolling, as well as prompting more full-bodied forms of digital participation through, for example, TikTok challenges.

Dr Kendall's recent work also considers boredom in the context of postdigital youth cultures, where online life is increasingly organised through vibes and digital intimacies that connect users in fleeting but powerful ways.

Cover of Entertained of Else: Boredom and Networked Media by Tina Kendall, featuring the book's title and lots of little arrows pointing all over the place

Her forthcoming book, Entertained or Else: Boredom and Networked Media (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) investigates how everyday feelings of boredom are entangled with contemporary media practices. Case studies range from YouTube tutorials and short-form viral videos on Vine and TikTok to extremely long-form streaming television that, counter-intuitively, invites audiences to embrace boring media as a way of coping with the intensities of always-on existence.

Approaching boredom as both a private mood and a public feeling that drives participation across media networks, the book positions boredom as a critical site for thinking about the politics of attention, participation and resistance in an always-on culture.

Read the Introduction of Entertained or Else: Boredom and Networked Media by Dr Tina Kendall

The Boredom Project

As part of this research, Dr Kendall collaborated with the Chelmsford Young Creatives and the British Science Association on The Boredom Project, which explored young peoples’ experiences of boredom during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns in the UK.

The project captured a snapshot of the lived realities of lockdown – including feelings of isolation, monotony, and disconnection – whilst also creating a platform for younger voices to be heard. In addition to highlighting how boredom became a pressing public issue during the pandemic, the project offered participants opportunities to reflect on and articulate their experiences, reducing social isolation and building confidence to take part in national conversations.

Through its co-creative and participatory approach, The Boredom Project not only shed light on the cultural significance of boredom but also demonstrated the value of engaging young people in media-based research that speaks directly to their lived realities.