“Brain rot” is a real phenomenon and it is deliberately designed.
You just wanted to check your phone for two minutes. Forty-five minutes later, you find yourself watching a video of a stranger’s cat, not even remembering how you got there. This is no coincidence. The world’s top engineering teams are engaged in a daily battle for your attention, and you are almost guaranteed to lose.
More and more experts are of the opinion that algorithm-driven social media platforms are not only diverting our attention but also reshaping the way our brains work, potentially in a negative direction.
To understand how algorithms affect our brains, it is necessary to understand what they are designed to do.
On social media, algorithms act like invisible editors, constantly sorting and filtering content, and based on a set of rules aimed at predicting which content will keep users engaged the longest, they determine what users will see. Every like, pause, swipe, or click from a user becomes a signal associated with their personal profile to predict what content will attract them to stay engaged, even bringing them back to the platform repeatedly. These predictions often turn out to be surprisingly accurate.
Global keynote speaker and digital health advocate Alexander Bell told The Epoch Times, “In several reported cases, social media algorithms accurately predicted pregnancies before users even told their partners, friends, or doctors, and pushed ads, content, parenting podcasts, and videos on them.”
Bell explained that these predictions are built on tiny digital clues. Even a brief pause on a post or a glance could reveal preferences, interests, or emotional reactions.
Most of this is achieved through design features that users never see, commonly known as backend systems or architectures. These systems control the ranking of recommended posts, news information, recommended accounts, targeted ads, trending topics, notifications, and interaction statistics (such as likes, profile views, and exposures).
Bell stated, “The longer users stay, the more ads are pushed, the more user data is generated, leading to fine-tuning and improving the algorithm, and the system will push more content that further engages users, thus restarting this cycle.”
Kenneth Schlenker, who previously worked at Google Maps, YouTube, and AdWords in product and data roles before founding a screen time management company, said, “Our data indicates that the vast majority of excessive screen time occurs in situations where users never consciously decided to continue using. They just never stopped.”
“The gap between what people want to do and what they actually do—that’s the victory of the algorithm.”
The goal of algorithms is engagement.
Schlenker explained, “Not satisfaction, not learning, not happiness, just engagement.”
Over time, this not only affects our behavior but also the functioning and adaptation of our brains. The instant gratification provided by digital platforms encourages people to seek increasingly stimulating content to reach the same level of addiction, leading to an endless cycle of consumption that could result in desensitization and shorter attention spans.
These changes could have broader consequences, especially among teenagers and young people. Excessive screen time has been associated with impaired brain development and potential early cognitive decline. Long-term exposure to fast, fragmented digital content may also disrupt emotional regulation.
At the same time, it could displace activities that support brain health, such as deep thinking and reflection.
Schlenker said, “The threshold for boredom has decreased. Reading a book starts to feel difficult. Sitting quietly becomes uncomfortable.”
He emphasized that this is not a matter of personal weakness or lack of character, but rather neuroplasticity working against you. The brain is actually rewiring itself around new dopamine patterns.
These concerns have become so widespread that a new term has emerged to describe it. “Brain rot,” which was chosen as the 2024 Word of the Year by the Oxford English Dictionary, broadly refers to the perceptual, cognitive, and emotional decline caused by prolonged exposure to repetitive, low-quality, algorithm-driven content.
Schlenker remarked, “On a societal level, we are conducting an unprecedented experiment on human attention.”
Until meaningful platform reforms come, people can only try to minimize the impact of systems they can’t fully control.
Schlenker noted that sheer willpower is not enough.
He said, “Framing it as a willpower issue is exactly what major platforms want because it shifts blame onto users.”
He described it as an arms race. On one side, it’s the limited attention and self-control of the human brain, especially when tired, stressed, or lonely (which often coincides with peak phone usage). On the other side, it’s highly-funded systems designed by some of the most advanced engineering teams in the world, aiming to predict behavior.
The most effective changes come from environmental design—removing triggers, increasing resistance, and making it harder at precise moments when unwanted behavior is likely to occur. This can include blocking or limiting apps during focused times, removing infinite scrolling, switching phones to grayscale mode, or adding brief delays before opening distracting apps.
He personally applies these designs in his life, managing screen time and maintaining fixed focus periods, including blocking social media and news apps from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. He also engages in regular “digital detox” periods, allowing only the use of information, maps, and music.
Schlenker stated, “I realized I’m not immune. Even as the founder of a screen time company, I’d find myself mindlessly scrolling if I didn’t set guardrails.”
Other potentially effective strategies include tracking screen time. Many people are often shocked by their usage levels, which in itself can act as a wake-up call. Substituting offline activities for screen time is another way to restore balance—such as music, writing, or spending time outdoors.
Bell expressed his belief that the tide may already be turning.
He said, “I believe the world is waking up to the negative impacts technology can bring. People in the future will look back and laugh at the daily hours wasted on endless phone scrolling and social media.”
Schlenker envisioned a different use of algorithms: one where they benefit people rather than exploit them.
Setting goals for desired outcomes, such as being informed without feeling anxious; staying connected with others without spending hours; enjoying entertainment without feeling manipulated, could be one approach. He mentioned that building a healthier relationship between humans and digital technology should be based on conscious choices instead of being ruled by default mechanisms. This means that people use apps by their own choice, not lured by notifications; being able to stop when they originally intended to, not waiting until willpower is depleted; and feeling refreshed after using a phone, rather than mentally drained or guilty.
Bell expressed his hope that the world in the future will be more balanced than it is now.
He said, “We will learn from this era of overconsumption and overcreation and understand that no matter how technology progresses, preserving our innate humanity is the most precious thing.”