We gotta stop joking about brain rot because it's real

If you’re under 35 and spend any time online, you’ve probably heard the term 'brain rot.' It’s everywhere—from TikTok comments to Reddit threads—usually describing mindless content that 'rots your brain.'"

While there’s no official definition or scale of brain rot, we know 'brain rot' when we see it—and unfortunately, there’s a lot of truth to the idea."

Our mindless scrolling, dopamine savoring, quick-hit content consumption is actually deteriorating our brain.

It’s giving us digital dementia. 

The concept of "digital dementia" proposes that our heavy reliance on the internet and digital devices might harm cognitive health, leading to shorter attention spans, memory decline, and potentially even quickening the onset of dementia.

A major 2023 study examined the link between screen-based activities and dementia risk in a group of over 462,000 participants, looking specifically at both computer use and TV watching.

The findings revealed that spending more than four hours a day on screens was associated with a higher risk of vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of dementia. Additionally, the study linked higher daily screen time to physical changes in specific brain regions.

And listen, I normally hate when people reference studies to prove a point because you can find a study to back up whatever opinion you have, but this is pretty damning.

And unfortunately, it makes complete sense. Smartphones primarily engage the brain's left hemisphere, leaving the right hemisphere—responsible for deep focus and concentration—unstimulated, which can weaken it over time.

This also extends to how we handle memory. We’ve become pros at remembering where to find answers rather than storing those details ourselves.

Think about it: how often do we Google things we used to memorize?

It’s convenient, but it may also mean we’re losing a bit of our own mental storage, trading depth for speed.

The internet’s layout, full of links and bite-sized content, pushes us to skim, not study, to hop from one thing to the next without really sinking into any of it. That’s handy for quick answers but not great for truly absorbing or understanding complex ideas.

Social media, especially the enshittification of everything, is the ultimate fast food for the mind—quick, convenient, and loaded with dopamine hits, but it’s not exactly nourishing.

Even an hour per day of this might seem harmless, but when we look at the bigger picture, it’s a different story.

Just like with our physical diet, consuming junk on a regular basis can impact how we think and feel. When we’re constantly fed a stream of quick, flashy content, we start craving it. Our brains get hooked on that rush of instant gratification, and we find it harder to enjoy anything slower or deeper.

It’s like training our minds to expect constant stimulation, which over time can erode our ability to focus, be patient, or enjoy complexity.

This type of content rarely requires any deep thought—it’s created to grab attention, not to inspire reflection. We become passive consumers, scrolling through a feed of people doing or saying anything they need to in order to capture our attention.

But what’s actually happening is that we’re reprogramming our brains to seek out more of this content. We get used to a diet of bite-sized entertainment, which leaves little room for slower, more meaningful experiences that require us to actually engage, to think, or even to just be.

I can go in 100 different directions on this topic (and I probably will in a later post), but for the sake of brevity, I’ll leave you with this:

Please, please, please be mindful of your content diet. Switch out short clips for longer documentaries and YouTube videos. Pick up a book once in a while. Build something with your hands. Go travel. Do something creative that stimulates your brain.

You’re doing more damage than you think.

Resources

Kanso Digital Wellness Coaching: If you’re looking for 1:1 personalized digital wellness detox plans & daily accountability coaching, sign up here and use the code FIRST50 for 50% off your plan. (expires at the end of month)

Kanso Community: A Slack community and weekly calls for those dedicated to cutting digital distractions and reclaiming their time for what truly matters.

If you’re not ready for coaching, but still looking for accountability, support, and digital wellness education, this is for you. Join the community here.

Digital Detox Tools: A free directory of 75+ digital wellness products, software, and services. Access it here.

That’s all for this week. Stop scrolling and go do something great!

Randy