With short-form video now dominant on social media, researchers are racing to understand how the highly engaging, algorithm-driven format may be reshaping the brain.
From TikTok to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, short-form video content has become a cornerstone of just about every online platform, including LinkedIn and even Substack. But increasingly, studies are finding associations between heavy consumption of short-form video and challenges with focus and self-control.
The research, though still early, seems to echo widespread concerns over “brain rot,” an internet slang term that the Oxford University Press defines as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state.” (The term became so mainstream that the academic publishing house crowned it as its 2024 word of the year.)
A September review of 71 studies with a total of nearly 100,000 participants found that heavy consumption of short-form video was associated with poorer cognition, especially in regard to attention spans and impulse control, based on a combination of behavioral tests and self-reported data.
The review, published in Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association, also found links between heavy consumption of the videos and increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness.
A paper published in October, which summarized 14 studies of short-form video use, similarly described associations between heavy use and shorter attention spans, as well as poorer academic performance.
Despite growing alarm, some researchers say the long-term picture is still unclear.
James Jackson, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said there’s a long history of people crusading against new technologies and cultural phenomena, whether it’s video games or Elvis concerts. So he’s cautious about overreacting to the rise of short-form video, but he said nonetheless that he believes many of the concerns are justified.
“The narrative that the only people who are worried about this are grumpy old grandpas who are yelling at you to get off their lawn or the idea that if you’re concerned about this you’re not in step with the times, I think that’s really simplistic,” Jackson said.
Current research on the topic, he said, suggests that short-form video broadly seems to have harmful effects on the brain when it’s consumed in large doses. But it will take more research to parse the nuances, such as who’s most vulnerable, how permanent the effects are and which particular mechanisms cause harm.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnoses are rising in the U.S. About 1 in 9 children had received an ADHD diagnosis by 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Keith Robert Head, a doctoral student in social work at Capella University in Minneapolis who authored the October paper, said there’s overlap between symptoms of ADHD and the risks he identified.
“So one of the questions that would be interesting for researchers to study is: Are these ADHD diagnoses actually ADHD, or is it an impact from the continued use of short-form video?” Head said.
Three experts told NBC News that research into the long-term impacts of excessive short-form video use is still emerging, especially in the U.S. However, studies from researchers around the world, including the U.K., Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have also found associations between consumption of the videos and issues like attention problems, memory disruption and cognitive fatigue.
Those studies don’t establish cause and effect, though, and most so far describe only a moment in time, rather than follow subjects for a longer period.
Dr. Nidhi Gupta, a pediatric endocrinologist who researches the effects of screen time, said that while much of the existing body of research on short-term video consumption has centered on younger people, she’s eager to see more focus on older adults. They often have time on their hands and are less technologically savvy, so they might also be vulnerable to the risks of short-form content, she said.
It may take many years of further study, Gupta added, to determine whether cognitive changes associated with short-form media consumption are reversible. But she’s concerned that it has created a new type of addiction — she describes it as “video games and TV on steroids.”
“It might be too early to claim universal doom,” Gupta said. “The research for alcohol, cigarettes and drugs took 75 years or more to develop. But I would be surprised if, in the next five to 10 years, we do not have similar signs validating the moral panic that we have around short-form videos.”
Jackson, however, said short-form video can also be useful, as it has created opportunities for learning and community-building online.
What’s important, he said, is balance: “There are people that engage with short-form videos in ways that are value-added, for sure. But if their engagement is pulling them away from other, more healthy opportunities, if it is isolating them from other people, if it is creating situations where they’re less and less likely to just sit around and be bored, I think that’s a problem.”