Is Doomscrolling Giving Your Teen ‘Brain Rot’?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Experts find that excessive scrolling on social media can diminish brain activity and cause other health concerns.
News Nation reported, “The act of excessively soaking in negative news or social media posts, known as ‘doomscrolling’ has led to growing amounts of ‘brain rot’ over the past year, experts found.”
Oxford University Press made “brain rot” its word of the year this year. Between last year and this year, the term was used in conversation 230% more than previously.
“’Brain rot’ is defined as ‘the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state’ as a result of over-consumption of online content, Oxford University Press wrote this month,” New Nation said.
“In addition to popular online platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, researchers also included artificial tools such as ChatGPT as a source of ‘brain rot.’ The term…dates back to 1854 when author Henry David Thoreau used the word in his book ‘Walden’ when he criticized society’s tendency to devalue complex ideas,” News Nation said.
The term has become more popular due to the fact that teens and other users are consuming large amounts of content, particularly on social media.
“Media psychologist Dr. Don Grant told NewsNation that social media engineers are tapping into the psychological flaw in the limbic system that causes humans to seek intermittent rewards,” News Nation said. “He described doomscrolling as a form of a digital slot machine that humans feed off of.”
READ MORE: WHAT IS ‘BRAIN ROT’? OXFORD’S WORD OF THE YEAR HIGHLIGHTS SOCIAL MEDIA EPIDEMIC
“Grant, the national adviser of healthy device management at Newport Healthcare in Los Angeles, said one of his major concerns is how ‘brain rot’ is affecting imagination and education.”
“We don’t have to imagine anything anymore,” Grant said. “We pick up our devices every time. I’m worried about memory. I’m worried about education.”
Florida banned social media for any under the age of 14. And Australia recently banned social media for all under the age of 16 across the nation.
“There’s a direct correlation between the rising anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm and suicide among teenagers and the introduction of social media into their world,” said Greg Attwells, the director of 36 Months Movement.
Dr. Kyra Bobinet said of the symptoms: “They feel brain foggy, they [have] less concentration. They can’t do deep work. And then there’s also this epidemic of loneliness that has been kind of sitting on the heels of this, because we can’t really focus on anything, including relationship-building.”
It “can lead to a drop in motivation, focus, productivity, and energy over time, especially in young people,” said Newport Institute, a mental health organization.
Though some places have made strides in banning social media, concerns over brain rot continue to grow.
READ MORE: SCREEN TIME LIMITS AREN’T JUST FOR KIDS — PARENTS NEED THEM TOO
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