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2 Signs Short-Videos Are Changing Your Brain
Short videos influence how our brains process information.
Posted September 10, 2025 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
These days, almost everything is available in the form of quick, bite-sized content—from recipes and skincare tips to news updates.
You may find yourself swiping through reels, tapping through stories, or scrolling endless feeds, often without even realizing where your time really went. This is true for many of us, due to the way content is designed now: Fast and impossible to look away from.
You have likely noticed how content has only gotten shorter, snappier, and more habit-forming. Suddenly, almost every industry is trying to capitalize on this growing compulsion for quick content. Now, it’s all about grabbing your attention within the first three seconds or losing it entirely.
You can even find content on “hook” templates or trend cycles that rise and fall in a matter of days.
Brain rot was named the Word of the Year by Oxford University Press in 2024. Gen Z popularized the term to describe the mental fog and cognitive decline linked to endless scrolling.
Experts warn that this habit, which we often dismiss as “just watching videos,” is actually changing how our brains work. They are dulling our focus, weakening our memory, and even disrupting decision-making. This is backed by new research published in NeuroImage. Researchers conducted a study that examined the psychological and neurological effects of short-video compulsion. They used a combination of behavioral analysis, brain imaging, and computational models of decision-making.
Based on this research, here are two ways short-video compulsion changes your brain.
1. It Reduces Your Sensitivity to Real Consequences
Short video consumption affects you by hurting your “loss aversion.” This is the tendency to feel the pain of losing something more strongly than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value.
In decision-making, this comparison acts like a protective filter that helps you avoid risks. It makes you think twice before making choices that could lead to negative outcomes. However, if the sensitivity to loss is reduced, you’re more likely to make impulsive or risky decisions without fully considering the consequences.
In the NeuroImage study, researchers found that individuals with higher short-video symptoms were more likely to experience lower loss aversion.
The more obsessed someone was with short videos, the less sensitive they were to potential losses. This affected their decision-making, which became more reward-driven, even when risks were high.
Brain scans from the study revealed that people with higher short-video compulsion had lower activity in a part of the brain called the “precuneus” when thinking about potential gains.
The precuneus helps you reflect and consider outcomes by thinking things through. The brain may not fully process what’s at stake when the precuneus is less active. This is true especially when something is exciting to gain. This, in turn, makes it easier to overlook the risks.
Essentially, if loss stops feeling like a big deal, your decision-making becomes skewed. The next time you’re deep into a scroll, ask yourself: Are you really willing to train your brain to chase rewards at the cost of good judgment?
2. It Slows Down How You Process Information
Another commonly experienced consequence of doomscrolling or short video compulsion is a growing sense of mental fog, difficulty focusing, or struggling to make even small decisions without overthinking.
Researchers in the NeuroImage study found that short videos can quite literally slow down how your brain processes information. They used a cognitive model called the drift diffusion model to measure participants’ “drift rate,” which refers to the speed at which your brain gathers and processes evidence before making a decision.
A higher drift rate causes you to make faster and more confident choices. A lower drift rate, on the other hand, causes you to have slower thinking and use more mental effort to arrive at even simple conclusions.
The researchers found that individuals with more symptoms had a significantly lower drift rate, meaning their brains accumulated evidence more slowly and made decision-making harder and less efficient.
This was once again reflected in the activity observed in the precuneus, as it’s also involved in mental focus, reflection, and evaluation of options. The brain processes information more slowly when this area is less active. Even simple choices can feel more mentally draining.
If you’ve been feeling mentally foggy, overwhelmed by everyday decisions, or find it hard to focus for more than a few minutes, it might not just be a lack of willpower. It could be your brain adapting to the speed of the content you consume. This might be your sign to give your mind the space it needs to exist without constant stimulation.
Reclaiming the Beauty of Doing Nothing
In chasing constant engagement, you may not realize that sometimes being bored is not all bad. Meaningless time is actually beneficial and sometimes even necessary. When you’re bored, your mind finally has the chance to wander and to explore ideas that don’t surface in the usual flood of distractions. This can help boost creativity, improve problem-solving, and support deeper thinking. In quiet and unfilled spaces, you get to hear yourself the loudest.
While you don’t have to stop watching content altogether, you can learn how to engage with it. intentionally. Consciously thinking about what you watch and why you’re watching it helps you use content as a tool that doesn’t entirely consume you.
Before you open an app for a “hit,” it could be helpful to ask yourself, “What’s my reason for wanting to use the app right now?” Reflect on whether you’re seeking entertainment, inspiration, connection, or just avoiding stillness.
At the same time, we can appreciate moments of meaningless time. We can make a habit of letting ourselves be intentionally bored, and find ways to be away from the screen; say, take a walk without the phone, stare out the window, or just sit in silence. While these moments may seem empty, they let our minds reset, reflect, and reclaim their natural rhythm.
A version of this post also appears on Forbes.com.
