Smartphone addiction is leading to "brain rot," doctors say
Asheville, North Carolina — Katy Paige Rosenberg, a freshman at the University of North Carolina Asheville, recently realized what too much scrolling on her phone was doing to her.
She estimates she was probably spending about nine hours a day on her phone.
"I was just kind of constantly on it," Rosenberg said. "…I wasn't able to focus, because I would have to take out my phone every couple of minutes."
Stories like hers are familiar, but now it is possible to see the science behind it, according to Dr. Brent Nelson, a psychiatrist and the chief medical information officer for Southern California-based Newport Healthcare, which operates mental health treatment centers for teens nationwide.
"Smartphones have wide-reaching changes all over the brain," Nelson explains.
He showed CBS News MRI images from a 2021 study in Korea that showed major increases in brain activity — the negative effects of smartphone addiction.
"This is showing where the brain is working extra hard compared to a non-addicted brain when asked to do actually, a pretty simple task," Nelson said.
In the study, the MRI images of addicted smartphone users' brains were so colorful, meaning so active, it made them less attentive and more easily distracted — what is now informally called "brain rot."
"Let's take school for example," Nelson said of how brain rot can manifest. "You're sitting in class and you're trying to focus. They're going to be looking around, not attending to what the teacher is trying to teach them."
Nelson says emerging research points to even greater risks.
"We're just starting to see these changes, and we know they're connected to behavioral changes, depression, anxiety," Nelson said. "The dangers are hiding in there."
Rosenberg agrees with that assessment.
"Social media had really influenced me in a lot of ways," Rosenberg said. "TikTok would kind of push these videos of people popping an edible before school. And I was like, 'If I do this, maybe I'll be cool.' And I started self-medicating."
To deal with that, last year, she checked into a treatment facility. She believes that if she had not gone to treatment, "I don't think I'd be here. It was really bad."
Rosenberg had to give up her phone in treatment. There, the Gen Zer found other outlets, from drawing to playing guitar, that helped rewire her brain. The key, perhaps, were analog antidotes, reminiscent of another generation.
Says Nelson: "Playing in the dirt, drinking from the hose, sort of the Gen X kind of mentality, is shown to actually allow folks to recover, to feel better, to make it easier to kind of go about their day."
