🔴🔴 How and why Short-form content is slowly frying your brain and how to prevent it 🔴🔴

In the digital age of 2025 we have been accustomed to different short content, such as YouTube shorts and reels on social media. In this thread I'll share a personal experience of mine as well as other types of information, get ready because this will be long ( but interesting). Around 6 months ago I used to be like the average person of this digital generation of videos and content, scrolling reels for up to 3+ hours daily. Sure this wasn't healthy but it was a dopamine hit, getting satisfaction out of reels and Short-form content was nice and entertaining for the time being. But long term? it was indeed worthless. Not only did my attention span deteriorate through struggles to watch longer videos as opposed to my usual reels made me realise this was very bad for me, I soon would struggle to watch movies and even study and do homework. Even a YouTube video as low as twenty minutes was a chore, and this wasn't good. It was not good for my study, my attention span, my life, my health or anything in general. This has to and needed to stop. And needed to stop now.. Luckily after six months I've finally stopped watching reels, and I can see the improvement already. Not only do I understand my studies better and enjoy long videos but also feel my mental health is better, and gradually I aim to never watch reels again in my life. Reels are popular for reasons such as being quick, easy to watch, and generally just fun and time killing for people. Many people these days do watch reels, specifically teenagers and younger children. Older people usually go to social media for entertainment, and this is better than reels I feel. Not only is It more thinking for the brain but also better time spent, sure social media isn't exactly a good option either, however it's better than scrolling reels for hours every single day. I'd advise anyone reading this to stop scrolling reels, sure it's a dopamine hit and enjoyable for some, however it's not good for you. Not only does it affect your brain absorbing knowledge and struggle to understand things but also bad for you. Many YouTube videos warn of the issues behind reels and contentment with such short videos, i would suggest watching them and seeing what's wrong with watching excessive amounts of short content before you get pulled into this toxic trap of dopamine and fun. Trust me it's not ideal, that is not said by me only but by experts of health and other people online. Please don't waste your time spending it on reels, it seems fun when your young but it's not a good long term decision. It affected me as a person, it affected my attention and my knowledge. It was fun at the start, and as the hype of them go just because it's accessible doesn't mean it's good. I'd strongly suggest you don't spend hours daily everyday on reels like I did months ago, it won't help you. This thread is not aimed to make people who do this feel bad, it's aimed as a personal experience of mine to be read and understood by many. After watching reels months ago and thinking how my day went I realised I didn't do anything special, I didn't achieve anything or do something beneficial.. all I did was scroll reels, unlimited meaningless videos online of range of topics, none of them helped me and none helped me in life. If your watching reels then I would suggest at least reducing your time on them, or just generally limit your usage on such content. I am sure it'll make you feel better as it did for me. And slowly try and stop reels for good, it will help you mentally trust me. Thank you for reading everyone

As someone who doesn’t have YouTube, ticktock, intsa, facebook, or any socials, I agree. I’m with a lot of people who do watch that kind of stuff, and it’s easy to tell their brain have been fried from it. Spend some time hiking or biking instead.

B-b-but I wike tiktok

Is it just me, or is it ironic that this was written by an active member of the chess.com off-topic forums, where there's brainrot everywhere you look?

😂

You’re not wrong.

Ive never scrolled been on a reel or a short in my life.
i have the attention span of cocomelon.

Depends on your for you page. My for you page is mainly a BUNCH of phycological studies/pattern and some things to help my business sense. I think it would be great if people use short form content to educate themselves or even just give them the curiosity’s to look up some useful information.

Of course most people are just watching brain rot in all of the forms it comes in. Oh well that humanity now.

These posts are too long for the app

otf isn't near as brainrot as like tik tok tho

You haven't looked hard enough...

wdym

im looking at you, basix

I just watch shorts cuz they’re funny
I only spend maybe 20 mins a day watching them, so I don’t think they fry you if you actually pay attention to irl stuff

#4 Just because there's threads like that doesn't make me use them, that's like having videos on YouTube and getting blamed for them being there even though you don't watch them..

is ervy1 gonna ignore #6

#12 This is more for excessive users such as watching reels for hours everyday, just a bit daily won't fry your brain.

#6 That's good to know, well done for achieving that. Attention span can be affected by reels however some people are just like that naturally as well.

that means i have a rly bad attention spa- OOO A BUTTERFLY-

Yeah. The people I’m talking about watch YouTube for hours.

#18 Exactly.

Bump