Everyone is aware of spending too much time in front of screens, whether it’s your television to watch your favorite series, films and shows, or your tablet or smartphone, scrolling endlessly on the wires news from social networks, which always offer you more content.
Who hasn’t already said: “I should stop wasting time on the networks”, but as with any addiction, it’s difficult to do without this dose of endorphin that all these videos provide so easily and quickly accessible . We also talk about “doomscrolling”, the fact that our brain is constantly looking for novelty, in particular dangerous, spectacular, alarming information. Furthermore, everyone agrees that some videos have absolutely no intellectual interest.
Physical damage to the brain from excessive consumption of low-quality content
And this is where a new study provides, once again, arguments to doctors and specialists who recommend banning screens for young people and wish to ban them in particular from social networks. And this is not about content problems or harassment, it is about physical deterioration of the brain due to excessive consumption of low quality content. A new expression has also been found to designate this new phenomenon: “brain rot”.
Research from prestigious institutions such as Harvard Medical School, Oxford University and King’s College London reveals that social media consumption can reduce gray matter, shorten attention span, weaken memory and distort basic cognitive functions.
-One of the study’s co-authors, Professor Moshel, explains that features such as “infinite scrolling”, designed to keep users glued to their screens, can trap people – particularly young people – in a content consumption cycle for hours. And notifications don’t help you switch off, encouraging you to move from one social network to another to continue ingesting more and more content. Your brain is so overstimulated and constantly adapting to decipher what you are looking at that it can no longer switch off and concentrate on anything else.
Thus, thanks to this study which reviews 27 neuroimaging studies, we learn that excessive use of the Internet is linked to a decrease in gray matter in the prefrontal regions of the brain, responsible for problem solving, emotion regulation, memory and impulse control. Harmful neuroanatomical consequences that scientists also find in other addictions such as alcohol or methamphetamines.
Instead of spending your time scrolling through this uninteresting content, why not try open-world video games, a new study has shown that this type of video game can have a positive effect on mental health, or even reduce social networks or watching better quality content could be your good resolution for 2025!
