One Minecraft video on YouTube turns into 10. A quick scroll on Instagram before bed becomes an hour of watching Reels. Notifications and content keep coming, and there’s always something new to see.
For young people, growing up in a digital world offers opportunities for connection, but the constant stimulation and exposure to low-quality content can lead to habits that affect our minds. “Brain rot” might sound like something out of a zombie movie, but the behavior can have far-reaching impacts on young people’s mental health.
What You’ll Learn
- What does too much screen time do to our brains?
- What digital behaviors can lead to brain rot?
- What are the cognitive and mental health impacts of brain rot?
- What are some ways to reduce or prevent brain rot?
Quick Read
“Brain rot” describes the mental fatigue and cognitive fog associated with excessive screen use, particularly among teens and young adults. Behaviors such as compulsive gaming, mindless scrolling, doomscrolling, and social media overuse can overstimulate the brain’s reward system and negatively affect attention, memory, executive functioning, self-esteem, and mental health.
Young people can reduce these effects by limiting screen time, disabling notifications, avoiding screens before bed, choosing positive online content, pursuing offline hobbies, strengthening in-person relationships, engaging in mentally challenging activities, and taking regular digital breaks. When technology use becomes difficult to control or contributes to anxiety, depression, or impaired daily functioning, professional treatment can address both the behavior and underlying issues.
What Is Brain Rot?
Brain rot, sometimes written as one word, “brainrot,” is a state of mental fogginess and cognitive decline that results from excessive screen engagement. Is brainrot real? It’s not a medically recognized condition, but it is a real phenomenon.
Brain rot can also describe the content someone consumes. Often designed to capture and hold attention, this low-quality content relies on constant stimulation, such as sudden noises, fast-moving clips, or even an AI-generated cappuccino dancing like a ballerina.
Trying to absorb and cope with massive amounts of content creates mental fatigue. And that can lead to a drop in motivation, focus, productivity, and energy over time, especially in young people.
What Causes Brain Rot?
Brain rot is caused by excessive technology use. That might mean binge-watching videos on YouTube, scrolling social media, or switching back and forth among various browser tabs. On top of that, young people might be simultaneously surfing on their laptop, texting, and queuing up for the next gaming round. The end result: The brain becomes overstimulated. Being inundated with too much information creates a risk of brain rot.
Why is scrolling so addictive? It spikes the neurochemical dopamine, which produces feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. The more you do it, the more you want to do it. The brain associates scrolling with a feeling of gratification, even when the mind is aware of the negative consequences. In this way, scrolling can become a behavioral addiction.
Examples of Brain Rot Behavior
Brain rot behavior comes in various forms, including:
Video gaming: While it’s possible to game without getting addicted, some teen and young adult gamers play compulsively and develop gaming disorder. They become so entranced by video games‘ alternate worlds, fanciful characters, and complicated plots that they can have difficulty functioning in other areas of life.
Zombie scrolling: This brain rot behavior refers to mindless habitual scrolling with no destination in mind or benefit derived. When you’re zombie scrolling, you engage in excessive scrolling as you vacantly stare at your smart phone and flip from one feed to another.
Doomscrolling: Doomscrolling involves searching for distressing information and negative news. Doomscrollers feel an overwhelming desire to be up to date on the latest information, even when it’s disturbing.
Social media addiction: “Social media addiction” is characterized by a persistent urge to check social media and a feeling of restlessness when you try to break the habit. Users can’t stop checking platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Constant notifications, bright colors, and stimulating sounds can literally mesmerize them, and the nonstop stream on social media platforms can contribute to mental exhaustion.
Over the long term, brain rot behavior can damage a young person’s well-being. Activities like doomscrolling affect the brain’s reward system. That’s because humans tend to prioritize and remember negative information more than positive. So landing on another distressing piece of news prompts the search for more disheartening information.
Doomscrolling can desensitize people to negative stimuli, making it harder for them to experience positive feelings or derive pleasure in other ways. One study showed that doomscrolling may lead to higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of mental well-being. Another found that people who have high levels of negative news consumption also have poorer mental and even physical health.
The Impact of Brain Rot Behavior on Cognition and Cognitive Decline
Research has shown that the Internet can produce acute and sustained alterations in cognition related to attention, memory, and cognitive function, which may be reflected in changes in the brain’s gray matter. Repeated scrolling can have a negative effect on mental faculties by disrupting the brain’s ability to encode and retain information. As well, constant overstimulation can lead to a reduced attention span, making it harder to focus on complex tasks.
For example, according to a study of 1,051 young adults between 18 and 27 years old, social media overuse has a significant negative association with executive functioning skills such as planning, organization, problem-solving, decision-making, and working memory.
What Brain Rot Behavior Does to Teen and Young Adult Self-Concept
Self-concept is also affected by brain rot. How many “friends,” “followers,” or “likes” you have is visible for all to see, making it easy to fall prey to the comparison trap.
In addition, the bombardment of posts flaunting people’s professional successes, extravagent vacations, blissful relationships, and picture-perfect bodies (often digitally manipulated with filters) can lead to negative self-talk.
The brain becomes so cluttered by constant overstimulation that it struggles to separate truth from fiction. Self-worth can suffer, leading to heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.
How to Prevent Brain Rot
Preventing brain rot requires being intentional about media consumption. Your own or your child’s mental health and emotional well-being are likely to improve when you control the screen engagement. Some of the best strategies include:
Set Limits on Screen Time
Start by tracking how much time you or your teen spends browsing, scrolling social media, watching videos, and gaming. You may be shocked to discover just how much time goes into digital pursuits.
Next, set boundaries around the number of hours you or your teen spends in front of screens each day. Set screen time limits as clear rules for children and teens. Distracting apps should be deleted and notifications turned off. Furthermore, anyone should avoid consuming content right before bed because late-night screen exposure disrupts melatonin production and reduces sleep quality.
Try Bloomscrolling
Bloomscrolling is a trend that encourages users to seek uplifting and meaningful content on social media, as opposed to doomscrolling, which involves consuming negative or alarming information. This practice empowers individuals to take control of their online experiences, promoting mental well-being rather than anxiety and distress.
To start bloomscrolling, teens and young adults should curate their feeds by following inspiring accounts and unfollowing sources of brain rot content or posts that trigger negative emotions. It’s also essential to balance online activities with real-life experiences, ensuring that social media serves as a mental reset rather than a constant source of stress. Doing this can help avoid brain rot by reducing constant exposure to low-value posts.
Pursue Non-Digital Interests
There’s a huge world beyond the screen. Teens and young adults can reacquaint themselves with it by digging into hobbies and activities they enjoy.
Go camping. Listen to music. Play an instrument or learn one. Write in a journal; reading regularly may also help lower the risk of cognitive decline. Volunteer for an organization you believe in. Aim for about 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week which can benefit mental and physical health. Practice yoga or meditation to practice mindfulness.
Despite their busy school and/or work schedules, young people should have time set aside every day to do things that help them feel happy and calm.
Connect Offline with Positive People
Your first instinct may be to pick up your phone to connect with others. Instead, make an effort to socialize with people in the real world and spend uninterrupted time offline with supportive friends, family, and loved ones. For both teens and young adults, developing and nourishing authentic connections in person lowers stress and provides a deeper sense of belonging, partly because face-to-face interaction involves cues like body language that online exchanges often miss.
One survey of 18- to 25-year-olds found that young adults had the lowest levels of depressive symptoms when they enjoyed more offline emotional support.
Strengthen Your Mind
If you’re concerned your own or your child’s mind could be turning to mush, challenge it. The mind is like a muscle, and mentally demanding activities also support critical thinking. That might mean doing mathematical or word puzzles, writing in a journal, or reading about a period in history you know nothing about to build focus for more complex tasks.
Do a Digital Detox
Limiting screen time is good, but unplugging completely gives non-stop thinking a rest. It also allows you to become more aware of your thoughts, perceptions, and habits. One study found that taking just seven days off social media significantly increased perceived mental well-being, as compared to seven days of social media use.
A digital detox can take different forms. Start by taking short breaks from technology, by unplugging for 15 minutes at a time. Gradually extend that time, or take more frequent breaks. Go out with friends or as a family, and agree beforehand not to look at your phones the whole time. Work up to taking a day trip—with everyone keeping their phones off the whole time.
Treatment for Tech Overuse and Mental Health
At PrairieCare, we recognize that it’s unrealistic to expect teens and young adults to completely disengage from technology in everyday life. However, we also understand the risks of screen dependency and digital “addiction.”
Our mental health professionals focus on the underlying factors that lead to problematic digital behaviors such as social anxiety, low self-esteem, trauma and PTSD, and loneliness and depression. We offer a full range of services and programs throughout Minnesota for people of all ages.
If you’re not sure where to start, call us at 952-826-8475 to get your questions answered and plan next steps. You can also request a complimentary screening using the button below.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does brain rot mean?
- Experts define brain rot as a state of cognitive degeneration and mental strain that affects a person’s mental or intellectual state, often caused by digital overload.
What are two examples of brain rot?
- An example of brain rot is finding it difficult to take pleasure in simple activities because of overexposure to negative, fear-inducing stimuli. Another is difficulty concentrating and completing tasks due to a reduced attention span.
What does doomscrolling do to the brain?
- Doomscrolling can desensitize the brain to negative stimuli and create feelings of depression and hopelessness.
What is brain rot behavior?
- Some brain rot behaviors are video gaming, zombie scrolling, doomscrolling, and social media overuse.
What helps with brain rot?
- To combat brain rot, limit screen time, pursue non-digital interests and activities, and connect with people in the real world.
Sources
- Health Communication. 2023: 38: 12.
- Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 May 25;16:1911–1920.
- Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 24;17(12):4566.