What Stresses Everyone Out? Buffering Videos, Apparently

Does it stress yous out when you're trying to play a video on your mobile device and it'due south taking a long fourth dimension to load? Of class it does, and you're non lonely.

A new study sponsored by Ericsson found that streaming delays tin be as stressful for smartphone users as horror movies. The visitor enlisted the assist of Copenhagen-based neuroscience consultancy Neurons Inc. to study user reactions to unlike smartphone network performance issues, measuring people's encephalon activity, center movements, and pulse while completing tasks similar browsing the spider web and watching video clips.

The report confirmed what most of u.s. probably already know — slow-loading web pages and videos are stressful, especially when we're trying to complete tasks nether time constraints. On boilerplate, users' heart rates increased an boilerplate of 38 percent due to a single mobile content delay.

mobile delay stress

"Vi-second delays to video streaming caused stress levels to increment by a third," Ericsson said in a statement. "To put that in context, the stress incurred is equivalent to the feet of taking a math examination or watching a horror movie alone, and greater than the stress experienced past continuing at the edge of a virtual cliff."

And in one case a video begins, boosted delays tin can cause stress levels to "increment dramatically," the company added.

"Conversely, a filibuster-complimentary experience triggers a positive emotional response and increases make appointment for mobile operators," Ericsson said.

Meanwhile, the report also notes that global mobile traffic grew 65 per centum between the 4th quarter of 2022 and Q4 2022. Ericsson says social media is "second only to video" for driving mobile traffic growth. The company forecasts that total social networking traffic over the side by side six years will exist 12 times that of the previous vi years.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

Near Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'due south skillful on fitness and smart home products. Instruction yoga for nearly x years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fettle trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.