Excessive usage of TikTok and Instagram Reels is damaging cognitive performance, the American Psychological Association has said in a recent study.
Data from 98,299 participants across 71 studies found that the more short-form content a person watches, the poorer cognitive performances they had in terms of attention and inhibitory control - meaning the more complex they found it to focus.
Researchers found that “repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning.” In short, researchers said it can contribute to brain rot.
It concluded that short-form video use was “associated with poorer cognition (attention, inhibitory control, language, memory, and working memory) and most mental health indices except body image and self-esteem.”
Brain rot is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”
It was the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2024, referring both to “low-quality, low-value” content and the “subsequent negative impact that consuming this type of content is perceived to have on an individual or society.”
The study also linked the use of short-form video content to negative mental health impacts, including increased stress and anxiety.
“The continuous cycle of swiping and receiving new, emotionally stimulating content has been proposed to trigger dopamine release, creating a reinforcement loop that contributes to patterns of habitual use and greater emotional reliance on digital interactions,” researchers said.
“This habitual engagement may be associated with heightened stress and anxiety, as some users report difficulties disengaging and regulating their emotions in offline settings.”
The study also suggests that excessive short-form video consumption can lead to social isolation and lower overall life satisfaction.
It says use of the apps is “linked to increased social isolation by replacing real-world interactions with passive digital engagement, exacerbating feelings of loneliness, adding that “such reliance on online interactions has also been correlated with lower life satisfaction”.
It isn’t the first time researchers have raised concerns about cognitive decline in the digital age.
A high-profile study on how AI is impacting cognitive function, conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that students using ChatGPT to write an essay not only showed far less brain activity but were also unable to recall a single sentence from their writing.
Those who used no technology in writing the essay were able to recall the most, and those who used Google’s search engine were in the middle.
Another study in the medical journal JAMA, conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, found that children who used social media daily scored far lower on reading, memory, and vocabulary tests than those who reported no social media use, The New York Times reported.
Twitch out but Pinterest stays. The rules behind Australia’s teen social media ban
Popular streaming platform newly added to Australia’s under-16 social media ban
TikTok will let you choose how much ‘AI slop’ you see in your feed
Almost 4,000 cyber-flashing crimes recorded since becoming an offence
Has X’s new location feature just exposed MAGA influencers as foreign trolls?
