Is Short-Form Video Causing Brain Rot? The Truth About Your Attention Span

You open TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts just to check one quick video, but suddenly hours have passed when you look at the clock. Does this sound familiar? These types of media are called short-form videos, which constantly deliver us entertainment at a speed our brains struggle to keep up with. Stuck in an infinite scroll, we may be letting the influx of rapid content rot our brains and harm our attention spans.

Our brains are designed to seek changes and new information. With each scroll to a new video, our brain gets a little hit of dopamine—the same pleasure chemical associated with food, social interactions, and even addictive substances such as drugs. This creates a cycle that hooks us, and we can’t help but provide less and less attention that takes more than a second. A study by Microsoft revealed that the average attention span of humans dropped to eight seconds, which is, shockingly, lower than a goldfish!

Scrolling through hundreds of fire videos also means that we are rapidly switching focus without giving our brains any second to process and store information. Psychologists term this “scroll fatigue”, how excessive media consumption leads to mental exhaustion and diminishes the ability for intense focus on more substantial work. In worse cases, the excessive consumption of short content literally “rots” people’s brains, in that people cannot retain things in memory and think critically.

Aside from attention span issues, short-form videos also have a severe impact on our mental health. Social media algorithms try their best to keep us online, often pushing content that triggers our emotions, whether it’s fear, anger, or even envy, among others. This can lead us to anxiety and stress, especially if we compare our lives with the edited, manufactured content online.

In addition, our brains become accustomed to constant stimulation, making it difficult to accomplish ordinary tasks such as reading or even watching a movie. This phenomenon is also known as “dopamine burnout,” in which our reward circuitry is so overstimulated that things that once were pleasurable no longer feel as rewarding.

So, is there a way to reverse the damage?

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to quit social media altogether—rather, be more thoughtful in your usage. Getting help from apps such as SelfControl or StayFocusd can be an effective tool to reduce screen time. Also, being intentional about what you watch—choosing educational contents instead of viral videos, for instance—can make scrolling meaningful. Replacing screen time to your hobbies can help retain your brain to focus. But the key is moderation. Next time you catch yourself spending too much time watching short-form videos, ask yourself: is this actually adding value to my life, or am I just giving my brain another quick dopamine hit? And try to challenge yourself: Will you be able to make it throughout the day without scrolling?