Is 'Brain Rot' Real? How Too Much Time Online Can Affect Your Mind. (msn.com) 20
Can being "very online" really affect our brains, asks the Washington Post:
Research suggests that scrolling through short videos on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube Shorts is affecting our attention, memory and mental health. A recent meta-analysis of the scientific literature found that increased use of short-form video was linked with poorer cognition and increased anxiety...
In a 2025 study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, researchers looked at longitudinal data from more than 7,000 children across the country and found that more screen use was associated with reduced cortical thickness in certain areas of the brain. The cortex, which is the outer layer that sits on top of our more primitive brain structures, allows for higher-level thinking, memory and decision-making. "We really need it for things like inhibitory control or not being so impulsive," said Mitch Prinstein, a senior science adviser to the American Psychological Association and professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study. The cortex is also important for controlling addictive behaviors. "Those seem to be the areas being affected by the reduced cortical thickness," he said, explaining that impulsivity can prompt us to seek dopamine hits from social media. In the study, more screen time was also associated with more attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms...
But not all screen time is created equal. A recent study removed social media from kids' devices but let them use their phones for as long as they wanted. The result? Kids spent just as long on their phones but didn't have the same harmful effects. "It's what you're doing on the screen that matters," Prinstein said.
In a 2025 study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, researchers looked at longitudinal data from more than 7,000 children across the country and found that more screen use was associated with reduced cortical thickness in certain areas of the brain. The cortex, which is the outer layer that sits on top of our more primitive brain structures, allows for higher-level thinking, memory and decision-making. "We really need it for things like inhibitory control or not being so impulsive," said Mitch Prinstein, a senior science adviser to the American Psychological Association and professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study. The cortex is also important for controlling addictive behaviors. "Those seem to be the areas being affected by the reduced cortical thickness," he said, explaining that impulsivity can prompt us to seek dopamine hits from social media. In the study, more screen time was also associated with more attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms...
But not all screen time is created equal. A recent study removed social media from kids' devices but let them use their phones for as long as they wanted. The result? Kids spent just as long on their phones but didn't have the same harmful effects. "It's what you're doing on the screen that matters," Prinstein said.
Yes, next question. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, the TikTok/Instagram/Shorts are meant for light engagement for a dopamine hit, being shallow on-par with what's found in Fahrenheit 451. Just completely shallow, no critical thinking, no discussion - and perhaps influenced towards sending young people weird videos simply because they're signed out.
Also, it's the quality, not the quantity. The brain-rot algorithm is just as bad as a real-life social pool with endless bullying and bullshit drama - which also has the added effect of complex PTSD.
Re:Yes, next question. [Motivation?] (Score:2)
Okay FP as far as you went, but "Insightful"? Seems kind of shallow.
I'd rather go for funny based on "cesspool of the vanities" to describe today's Internet. But there is no such thing as creativity, only synthesis of existing ideas? https://existentialcomics.com/... [existentialcomics.com] So therefore I have to give credit to the seminal cesspool formerly known as Twitter, now owned by the legendary inseminator-in-chief?
So the motivational joke is that they are all suffering from the earworm "You're so vain. You think this [Inte
Re: (Score:2)
I'm more concerned about Facebook. Rather than banning social media for under 16s, we should ban it for over 60s. Facebook is full of AI slop that people think is real, racism, and fake news.
Only for media unfavored genres (Score:2)
Looking at the past moral panics and media labeled harmful content genres, there seems to be a pattern of moral policing of genres consumed by boys and men...
- rock and roll music ....
- 1950s horror and science fiction movies
- heavy metal music
- rap music
- dungeons and dragons
- graphic horror movies
WTF did they DO all that time? (Score:4, Informative)
Kids didn’t suddenly read Kant. They migrated.
Typical substitutions:
YouTube in the browser
Mobile web versions of TikTok/Instagram
Discord via browser
online games
group chats
streaming sites
short-video aggregators
In other words: the behavior remained even when the app disappeared.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, that's one hypothesis. However since they saw a significant difference in the population where the social media apps were removed, then if your hypothesis is true, the data would suggest that delivering the service as a native app rather than a web app must have some harmful effect in itself. An alternative hypothesis is that their application usage patterns changed when the apps were removed.
It's not altogether far fetched that web-delivered apps have a different psychological effect than native sm
Yes (Score:2, Offtopic)
Can being "very online" really affect our brains,
Particularly when the owners of said brains wander aimlessly into moving traffic whilst fiddling with their thumb toys. These brains are tough to sweep off the pavement.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm pretty sure that drugs impact brain rot far more than eye vision intake frequency light visual substances (which are not quite drug-like)
I'd challenge that statement by looking at the end result of every other generation who had to resort to actual drugs instead of the digital drugs being slung today, with the most glaring difference is the realization that social media addiction is perfectly acceptable in society.
Which means grown-ass children were never forced to grow the fuck up and out of their shit behavior.
Then we told them to vote. Still think it ain't the shit slung in screens? Go interview Dumb and Dumber from the previous admini
Slashrot is real (Score:2)
Too much time on Slashdot will rot your mind. Slashrot is real.
Re: (Score:2)
Unbeliever
Social media removed from phones (Score:1)
Does this include text messaging. Not to mention people walking down the street with their face buried in their phone tend to get run over. All screen time is harmful as your not engaging with the environment.
Re: (Score:1)
If you think "screens" are dangerous wait until you see what "paper" has done to people.
Well, we need to define "rot" (Score:5, Insightful)
TikTok has relationship "experts" that talk readers into testing their spouse with things like pretend breakups in public, or jealousy tests with friends with their phones out creating more content. It often backfires. Or improvement programs that are more akin to demands for domination.
So susceptible people can fall into self destructive habits when the pretend breakups become real, or the other tests end the relationship.
I don't know if that would be considered "brain rot", but it is certainly harmful.
Re:Well, we need to define "rot" (Score:4, Funny)
"Upscale restraints?" Is that bondage for wealthy people?
Re: (Score:2)
"Upscale restraints?" Is that bondage for wealthy people?
Yikes! Upscale restaurants.I think that spell correct is getting weird. It's been deciding to guess what word I am typing, puts periods in weird places and other bullshit I don't want.
But yeah, there are a lot of susceptible people out their, and social media has them thinking their perfectly normal life is a failure, and end up leaving a loving stable partner because of some influencer telling them deserve only the very best.
A human version of making perfect the enemy of good enough.
Yes, look at what it did to the USA. (Score:2)
TDS all over and by that I mean delusional people driven to madness by Trump... obviously, it's his supporters who are delusional unless you are own of them; like most crazy people, they think the world is crazy.
Used /. for 30 years (Score:3, Funny)
I can't remember my wife's name but I know I have a 4 digit UID.
(J/k. Her name is wifey poo.)
In other words... (Score:2)