By India McCarty
A new study found that spending time scrolling online is as neurologically damaging as drinking alcohol.
“Excessive use of short-video platforms not only impairs decision-making processes but also predisposes individuals to addictive behaviors,” the study, published by ScienceDirect, explained.
Professor Qiang Wang, who led the study, explained that consuming short form content like TikToks and Instagram Reels lights up the reward pathways in your brain — the same circuits that light up when alcoholics drink or people gamble.
Each clip gives the user a dopamine hit, which makes them feel good. Dopamine usually helps train your brain to repeat healthy behavior, like exercising or spending time with loved ones. However, when your brain is trained to receive dopamine nonstop from your feed, it overstimulates the pathways, essentially frying them.
Related: Scrolling Short-Form Content Does This to Your Brain
“Since these are rapid-fire in nature, the brain seems overwhelmed in processing them,” Dr. Praveen Gupta, chairman of the Marengo Asia International Institute of Neuro & Spine, told The Indian Express. “Over a period of time, this can reduce sensory, natural rewards and increase impulsive behavior.”
This damage can even extend to the prefrontal cortex, affecting someone’s focus and impulse control. The hippocampus can also deteriorate, making it harder to learn and process information — much like the brain of someone who has abused alcohol.
Even worse, this process of overworking your dopamine receptors doesn’t give you more pleasure — it just means your brain builds up a tolerance to dopamine, so the more you consume, the duller things seem.
Wang broke down how the study collected their information, explaining that “while substance addictions (e.g., gambling, alcohol) consistently show reduced sensitivity to losses, how short-form video addiction alters the brain’s evaluation of ‘risk vs. loss’ was virtually unexplored.”
The research group used “an integration of computational modeling (DDM) and neuroimaging (fMRI) to uncover: 1). Whether addicts undervalue long-term costs of usage (e.g., time loss, health risks); 2). How neural evidence accumulation speed and motor-sensory networks drive such decision biases.”
Their findings? “Short-form video addiction is a global public health threat,” Wang stated, encouraging people to rethink their use of these apps. “This high-intensity ‘instant reward’ consumption not only impairs attention, sleep, and mental health but also increases depression risk.”
Wang’s research group and study findings are just another reminder that spending too much time scrolling online isn’t just wasting your time; it’s negatively impacting your brain in permanent ways.
Read Next: Scrolling Steals How Many Decades? Here’s How to Break Social Media Addiction
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +2Share:
– Content: +1