A new study shows consuming short-form video (e.g. TikTok) leads to...
Brad Stulberg@BStulberg
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Dec 23, 2025
~2 min read
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A new study shows consuming short-form video (e.g. TikTok) leads to a significant decline in cognitive function, attention, and self-control.
The results are important and disheartening. It’s time we start talking about the impact of ultra-processed information on our brains.
The results are important and disheartening. It’s time we start talking about the impact of ultra-processed information on our brains.
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The study included nearly 100,000 people and evaluated their short-form video consumption and its impact.
The results: individuals who regularly consumed short-form videos on infinite scroll apps had dramatically worse cognitive and emotional health.
From the study:
The results: individuals who regularly consumed short-form videos on infinite scroll apps had dramatically worse cognitive and emotional health.
From the study:
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We are at a point in history where everyone is going to have to decide if they are content to numb themselves and ruin their brains with an endless stream of fentanyl-like digital slop or if they are going to fight for their humanity, touch grass, create, contribute, and love.
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As I was reading this study, I kept thinking: much like your physical health deteriorates if your diet includes too many ultra-processed foods, your cognitive health deteriorates if your information diet includes too much highly-processed content.
And much like ultra-processed foods have a distinctive and synthetic taste, so, too, does highly-processed content.
And much like ultra-processed foods have a distinctive and synthetic taste, so, too, does highly-processed content.
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Another metaphor for thinking about short-form video consumption is fitness.
If you never exert your body, you’ll atrophy and become frail. The same is true with your brain.
If you don’t pay attention to anything longer than 45 seconds, your cognitive fitness will atrophy, too.
If every time you’re bored you need an adult pacifier (e.g. a quick-hit video), you’ll never develop self-control.
If you never exert your body, you’ll atrophy and become frail. The same is true with your brain.
If you don’t pay attention to anything longer than 45 seconds, your cognitive fitness will atrophy, too.
If every time you’re bored you need an adult pacifier (e.g. a quick-hit video), you’ll never develop self-control.
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Short-form video isn’t going away, but we’ve got to be thoughtful about how we consume it and set constraints and rules for ourselves. Occasionally I eat highly processed foods. I’m still healthy and fit, but I’d never make them the centerpiece of my diet.
The same is true for ultra-processed content.
The same is true for ultra-processed content.
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The impact of digital slop—which, by the way, is increasingly generated by machines not humans—is sending our brains off a steep cliff. Thinking deeply, connecting with others, and self-control are all central features of our humanity. We cannot take them for granted.
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Don’t surrender your brain to soulless, addictive, mind-numbing crap. There’s a big world full of better alternatives: Write. Make art. Be bored. Play a sport. Read books. Have IRL conversations. Watch full movies. Build relationships with humans, not bots.
