Why social media ‘brain rot’ may be more real than you think

A Melbourne team tracked young people’s brain activity after three minutes of TV, gaming and social media. The results were alarming and showed not all screen time is equal.

Brain activity in regions crucial to cognition and emotion drop after just minutes of using social media, alongside our ability to focus, new research suggests.

Swinburne researchers monitored young adults using a mobile phone, and identified “distinct patterns” in mood and brain activity between social media, gaming and television.

The study, while a small pilot, has raised questions about treating phone or screen time as a collective, and the long-term impacts of frequent social media use on our brains.

The team tracked 27 young adults’ brain activity in part of their prefrontal cortex – involved in cognitive control, emotion and social decision-making – and also quizzed them on their mood.

It found the region’s brain activity actually increased after three minutes of watching a television show, and even more after playing a mobile game for the same period.

But after three minutes of scrolling social media, participants’ brain activity – which was measured via small electrodes that track oxygen levels – dropped and they reported feeling less focused.

Too much scrolling can have a negative impact on your brain.

Swinburne researcher Dr Alexandra Gaillard said the findings, published in the Scientific Reports journal, should be considered ahead of the upcoming social media ban.

“If this is the effect on a fully developed brain, we urgently need to consider the impacts on teenagers and children who are increasingly using these technologies,” she said.

Dr Gaillard said, when an area of the brain expects more work, the body sends a “whole lot” of blood to ensure it has the necessary oxygen.

“The deoxygenated blood is taken away … after your brain has used up that oxygen to be active,” she said.

She said they found lots of oxygen was sent to the brain after social media exposure, but the low levels of deoxygenated blood show it was not used.

“So it looked like there was going to be a lot of activity, but then it really didn’t do anything,” she said.

She said people who had lower levels of brain activity after social media exposure also reported lower focus levels, suggesting the two were linked.

“The people who had the most oxygen delivery had the least focus,” she said.

But Dr Gaillard said after three minutes of gaming, lots of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood was sent and taken away, respectively, meaning the oxygen “was being used”.

“Gaming seemed to get the brain working harder in a good way,” she said.

“When people are gaming they’re making decisions, … they’re thinking, they’re problem solving.”

She said our brain learns to strengthen repeated behaviours, so it was possible frequent social media use risks longer-term impacts, but this would need further research.

“Over time, the more you engage in something … your brain’s learning and changing and evolving to strengthen those behaviours,” she said.

“So with social media taking that oxygen and then not actually using that, your brain’s getting used to not using it.

“So it might start not sending it to that region as much over time.”

The study suggests different forms of screen time can impact our brain differently.

She said the constant stream of new, changing information for our brain to process when scrolling social media may explain why oxygen was sent in the first place.

“Then there’s not much [the brain] actually needs to do,” she said.

“There’s no decision to be made, there’s no reasoning or problem solving, because you’re just watching things.

“It’s kind of wasting resources and just exhausting.”

Dr Gaillard said the findings weren’t a call for blanket reductions, but more research into the complex relationship between screen time and our brain was needed.

“Mood disorders are increasing in prevalence worldwide and we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that phones are a contributor,” she said.

“Excessive screen time can negatively impact cognitive abilities, attention and executive functioning, but we also know how invaluable they can be in forming connections and a sense of belonging as well as improving educational outcomes.

“We ask that young people are conscious of how their activity impacts them and that they make choices that are right for them.”

The researchers exposed participants to two different versions for each form of screen time to ensure their reaction was not content specific.

They watched snippets of a Friends episode and a David Attenborough documentary, played Tetris and Angry Bird, and logged onto their two most used social media apps.

Originally published as Why social media ‘brain rot’ may be more real than you think