Our attention may not be disappearing. We may simply be giving it away.
There is a particular moment when you realize you have stopped paying attention: your eyes are still on the page, but your mind has already moved somewhere else.
You reread a sentence. You open another tab. You check your phone without any particular reason. A few minutes later, you are watching a series of short videos, each one replaced almost instantly by another. Nothing about the individual moments seems remarkable. Yet together, they reveal something about the way we now interact with information: we are surrounded by constant opportunities to switch.
It is in this context that the expression “brain rot” has become popular. Oxford University Press named it its 2024 Word of the Year, referring to the perceived decline in mental or intellectual functioning associated with excessive consumption of low-quality, highly stimulating digital content.
But rather than asking whether our brains are “rotting,” a more useful question is what repeated exposure to this kind of stimulation might mean for the way we use our attention.
A 2025 study published in Psychological Bulletin provides an important piece of the picture. Lan Nguyen and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining 71 studies involving 98,299 participants. Their findings showed greater short-form video use was associated with poorer cognitive performance.
One proposed explanation concerns habituation and desensitization. Repeated exposure to fast-paced, highly stimulating content may gradually make slower and less immediately rewarding activities feel comparatively less engaging. Each swipe can bring something new, the next reward is always one movement away.
This repeated cycle of novelty may contribute to habituation, in which slower forms of stimulation become less compelling, while the rapid availability of new content can reinforce the tendency to seek immediate stimulation. The result may be a pattern in which we become increasingly accustomed to brief, high-intensity interactions and less comfortable remaining with activities that demand patience.
However, this is a proposed explanation, not proof that scrolling permanently damages attention.
Research found an association between short-form video use and poorer cognitive outcomes. But an association does not tell us which factor came first.
People who already have difficulties with attention or inhibitory control may be more likely to seek fast, highly stimulating content. Other factors may also influence both how much someone uses short-form video and how well they perform on cognitive tasks.
This is why the findings should not be translated into headlines claiming that social media “destroys” attention. Much of the existing research is correlational, and correlational research cannot, on its own, establish cause and effect.
There is also a problem with the idea that everyone has a fixed “attention span” that is simply getting shorter. Attention is highly dependent on the task. What we can sustain while watching an engaging film may be very different from what we can sustain while reading a difficult scientific article. The demands of the activity and the environment around us matter.
Perhaps our attention has not disappeared. Perhaps there is simply more competing for it.
The good news is that this environment is not entirely outside our control.
Turning off unnecessary notifications, putting the phone in another room while working or creating periods without continuous scrolling can make sustained attention easier. These changes are not about eliminating technology but about making distraction slightly less automatic.
Our brains have not necessarily “rotted”, but our attention is constantly being invited somewhere else. The real challenge may not be learning how to concentrate again. It may be learning that we do not have to accept every invitation for our attention.
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