Smartphone Addiction Is Ruining Our Brains

While there’s been plenty of anecdotal evidence of smartphones impacting our mental health, recent medical studies are showing how smartphone addiction is literally rewiring our brains.

Why It Hurts: Expert studies demonstrating how smartphones impact our attention spans, ability to regulate our emotions, and potential for productivity have wide-ranging implications — including a growing no-phones-in-school movement, society’s relationship with social media, and the legality of endless notifications.

Between the Ears: It appears that, yes, our phones are giving us “brainrot.”

• A recent study out of South Korea found that there’s a major increase in brain activity among those addicted to their smartphones — people who spend hours a day on their devices and can’t go a few minutes without checking them.
• Citing the study, Brent Nelson, chief medical information officer for Newport Healthcare, said the activity shows that “the brain is working extra hard compared to a non-addicted brain when asked to do, actually, a pretty simple task.”
• That level of activity makes people “less attentive and more easily distracted.” In other words, when our brains are always on overdrive, they go into meltdown mode (i.e., brainrot).
• Those changes in the brain lead to behavioral issues and can cause mental-health challenges such as depression and anxiety.

Final Thoughts: While places like Newport Healthcare operate treatment centers for teens with smartphone addiction (where switching digital devices for analog hobbies has proven successful), some companies are giving educators the ability to transform brainrot content, a favorite of Gen Alpha, into education materials for the classroom. It’s a classic “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality. If adopted, it could revolutionize how young people interact with the world… both digitally and IRL.