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back to article Boffins learn to send boredom-beating suggestions to smartphone-fondlers

Your smartphone will become even more of a pest, if researchers from Telefonica and the University of Stuttgart have their way: they want to detect when you're bored, and get the phone to push content at you. The group of researchers – their paper is here ahead of its upcoming presentation at UbiComp in Japan next week – write …

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  1. frank ly

    Maybe it's an age thing

    From the linked paper:

    "People who were asked to spend 24 hours without any media as part of a study reported negative emotions, ranging from boredom to anxiety and even withdrawal symptoms."

    If I spend 24 hours (or more) away from 'media' and communications devices, I feel relaxed and refreshed and calm. Do I need treatment to 'normalise' me.

    14 0 Reply
    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov
      Reply Icon

      Re: Maybe it's an age thing

      The "withdrawal symptoms" are there because there is a real addiction to start with. What the research misses in my opinion is that the addiction is not for just any "content" - it's for communication with others.

      I doubt that pushing ads and stupid videos to a person craving for a message from a friend, lover, spouse, whoever, will do anything like making them more receptive to ads etc. Could have exactly the opposite effect...

      Depends on the personality of the target, perhaps. Maybe they should screen for personality types in such research...

      6 0 Reply
    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Gimp

      Re: Maybe it's an age thing

      But I LIKE to observe the continual progression of the world towards a mixture of 1984 and Brave New World inhabited by moronic but well-coiffed zombies IN REAL TIME.

      PUSH MOAR CONTENT AT ME.

      2 0 Reply
    3. Teiwaz
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: Maybe it's an age thing

      'It's not an age thing'

      Deprive a human of any stimulus (which is what I interpret as '24 hours without any media') and of course they'll get bored anxious and depressed. In lieu of diverse human company anyway.

      Oh and a copy of 'painting, bordering and stipling - A D.I.Y Guide', a crochet magazine and a crossword book with the answers filled in are hardly sufficient - Red Dwarf - Quarantine.

      0 0 Reply
    4. Michael Wojcik Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Maybe it's an age thing

      If I spend 24 hours (or more) away from 'media' and communications devices, I feel relaxed and refreshed and calm.

      I'm fine without electronics for 24 hours, but I'd miss books.

      1 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like Samsung to me... Or Sprint. More often than not, when I walk into my local bar, the goddamn Samsung music app starts playing, with WiFi and data disabled... I'm almost at the point of installing Cyanogen on my G4.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Martin 47
      Reply Icon

      I think I would be finding a new favourite bar.

      3 0 Reply
  3. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    As with everything else on the 'net

    Porn providers will lead the way with that...

    "Feeling bored? Here' a pic for ya..."

    2 0 Reply
  4. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Boffin

    It's a funny thing

    but I very rarely use a phone - maybe a couple of calls a day.

    And I very rarely feel bored.

    There are so many *other* things to do that don't involve a phone...

    6 0 Reply
  5. Yugguy

    We NEED idle moments

    The brain benefits from downtime. We do not need 24x7 stimulation.

    3 0 Reply
  6. Michael Dunn

    U of Stuttgart

    Doesn't this smack of "Vee haf vays of making you enchoy yourself"?

    6 0 Reply
  7. lukewarmdog
    Big Brother

    if you are x, look at this y..

    If they could detect when you were lost and late for a meeting (number of times mapping client checked, number of times calendar checked, number of times the time app has been checked) they could reccomend you blow off that date / interview and offer you cheap cinema tickets. Or hot singles near you. Or a CV site. Or all three.. why the hell not.

    This research isn't exactly new however, I've seen it a lot in online games.

    Player 1 asks another player "u mad, bro?" repeatedly

    At the point that player 2 ragequits, that's when he scores a 5 on the u mad, bro? scale.

    If only there was a serious application for this. Like.. number of times a user checks depression sites, looks up gun shops, gets directed to suicide help line and law enforcement honeypot sites.

    0 0 Reply
  8. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    I like feeling bored.

    Define "media": Would picking up a book be breaking the rules of the massive 24 hour media blackout?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Teiwaz
      Reply Icon
      Pirate

      I like feeling bored.

      "Would picking up a book be breaking the rules of the massive 24 hour media blackout?"

      Depends what result they were seeking... Book readers tend toward being engrossed in their in own world somewhere between the authors description and their own mental topography, not the most receptive state to an advertisers message...

      0 0 Reply
  9. Florida1920

    I was bored

    So I read this article and posted a comment from my phone.

    2 0 Reply
  10. Gobhicks

    Physician Heal Thyself

    I don't think its the users that need better ways to spend their time...

    0 0 Reply
  11. Unicornpiss
    Meh

    I know how I would alleviate my boredom...

    If one of these "boredom alleviating" ads popped up I would dedicate a lot of time towards ensuring that none would ever come up again on my phone.

    0 0 Reply

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