How harmful are reels? Time spent “scrolling” videos can seriously damage our brain! How can we counter the AI ​​”attack”.

It also contains the feeling of occasionally “surfacing” after spending too many hours scrolling through low-quality content on social media, or perhaps even calling this content itself – feeds that inspire neither value, nor information, nor education.

“Brain rot it can be a noun, a verb, or even an adjective, depending on how 'rotten' your brain is,” writes the Washington Post. There's a grain of truth to this somewhat hilarious phrase, says Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone.

Price also said that since the publication of his book, he has heard from thousands of people who are struggling to focus. People who used to read a lot now complain that they can no longer finish a book because smartphones have increased our tendency to be distracted.

“I think that explains a lot of the stress and burnout that a lot of people are feeling these days,” Price said. Research suggests that when we get “lost” in those short videos on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube Shorts, the process affects our attention, memory, and mental health.

A recent review of the scientific literature found that increased use of short videos was associated with poorer cognitive abilities and increased levels of anxiety.

Our brains are naturally programmed to be entertained – for positive purposes, being an extremely fine-tuned alarm system. When we are reading and hear a loud noise, we stop reading to see what happened.

On the phone, however, we experience constant interruptions, whether they are notifications or frequent switching from one subject to another, and this phenomenon fragments our attention, preventing us from staying focused for a longer period.

“We've come to feel like we're losing patience with a 20-minute tutorial on YouTube,” said Nataliya Kos'myna, a research scientist at MIT. “Because it's longer and requires more attention.”

Are there long-term consequences of screen uses on our brains? The answer is neither black nor white

“There are certain parts of the brain and certain connections between them that seem different in people who spend more time online, on social media, who are more attached to their phones,” said Jason Chein, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University.

But the scientist says that this causal relationship is very likely to work in the opposite direction. People who are more easily distracted may be inclined to use their phones more.

In a 2025 study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, researchers analyzed data from more than 7,000 US children and found that more frequent use of screens was associated with a thinning of the cortex in certain areas of the brain.

The cortex, the outer layer of gray matter, governs our primary brain structures, and facilitates higher-level thinking, memory, and decision-making.

“It helps us have discernment and inhibitory control and not be impulsive,” said Mitch Prinstein, scientific adviser to the American Psychological Association and professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina.

The cortex is also important for controlling addictive behaviors. “These seem to be the areas affected by the thinning of the cortex,” he said, explaining that impulsivity can lead us to seek extra doses of dopamine on social media.

Screen time has also been associated with more symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Another important factor is that screen time usually means using it at night. The main reason kids don't get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night is because they're using screens too much. Over time, lack of sleep, especially during adolescence, reduces the white matter in the brain.

“This is one of the main reasons why we can think much more sophisticatedly, like adults,” Prinstein said. “An interesting study showed that all measures of cognitive functioning, whether it was impulsivity, reading comprehension, or vocabulary, were all lower among those who used screens excessively.”

Another study removed social media from children's devices but allowed them to use their phones as long as they wanted. The result? The children spent just as much time on their phones, but the effects were less harmful.

Kos'myna began noticing that her students were using AI chatbots to help them with their homework, and she was curious about how this was affecting student learning.

The students in the study were given homework to complete an essay. Some were allowed to use only their brains to answer the requirements, others were allowed to use a search engine with AI summaries disabled. A third group used an AI as much as they wanted.

All students' brain activity was recorded, and they were later asked questions about what they had written. The sample was small – 54 students – but the results were amazing.

The students who used the chatbot didn't retain the information—most couldn't quote from their own essays, even immediately after finishing them—and their brains weren't as active during the experiment.

The good news is that there are simple ways to mitigate the impact of screens and social media use on our brains. Here are some tips from the experts:

• No screens in the bedroom.

• Sleep is especially important for children and teenagers, whose brains are still developing, but it is essential for everyone's physical and mental health.

• Charge devices overnight in a room other than where you sleep.

• Buy yourself an old-fashioned alarm clock!

• Make informed decisions when using artificial intelligence.

Watching TikTok videos for 10 minutes can be relatively harmless, but if you frequently find yourself getting lost in the maze of apps, it's time to reevaluate your relationship with a certain app or device.

Experts recommend deleting or blocking problematic apps. Many technologies promise ease in our social interactions, work and studies. But this ease is harmful to our brain.

“We have to resist the temptations a little bit and we have to put our minds to the contribution,” Prinstein said. “Too much ease erases the ability to fight that led to the development of advanced human abilities,” the scientist concluded.