Brain rot: you are suffering from it too!

. The writer is an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Nebraska and has worked for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He can be reached at jasghar@gmail.com Nearly three months ago, I was driving in Islamabad, an area of my routine drive for the last two decades. While driving, for just two seconds, I lost my orientation and could not figure out where and why I was going. Quickly I got my orientation back and I went where I needed to go. This was just a two?second incident but it made me extremely worried. Was it a reflection of some underlying disease or something else? I was hooked on short videos and reels and watched them for hours. Luckily, I had read some research papers on watching short videos and their effects on memory, so right there I decided to stop watching short videos. Sudden loss of orientation could be due to many reasons, but as a physician I knew that I didn't have those risk factors. It's three months now and there has not been a repeat of that incident. But how was it linked to excessive watching of short videos and reels? Once I started researching for this article, I also stumbled on the term "Brain Rot". My ignorance is justified because Gen Z is using this term when they have spent hours on compulsive scrolling and this overstimulates their brains and they can't focus and feel mentally drained. When we are watching short videos which are constantly changing topics, our brain starts getting dopamine (chemical that excites us) bursts as rewards, and it expects to have this chemical frequently as a reward. That affects our working memory and attention span. Reading and watching long videos train our brain to develop patience and keep long attention to the subject. In my case, probably with mental fatigue and after overstimulation of my brain, I was driving on a familiar route and in this situation our brain moves into autopilot mode and a two?second loss of orientation was possible. Strong proof is that once I stopped watching short videos it never happened. So, let's be clear. Brain Rot is not a medical terminology but a cultural one. By watching short reels and videos your brain cells are not actually dying and rotting but changing how they operate and that is affecting people's work, relationships and health. In a large review of 71 individual studies covering around a hundred thousand people and published in 2025 by Nguyen, watching excessive short videos and reels was associated with poorer cognition, poor attention, poorer mental health and stress. In another review by Marlene Ebster, published in June 2026, which reviewed ten years of published data and included more than 40 studies, they also found excessive use (four hours daily) responsible for inattention, impulsivity, reductions in working?memory span, anxiety, depression and stress. Two of these studies also showed neurobiological changes in the brain. There are plenty of new studies coming with the same conclusion. According to Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, Gen Z has lower cognitive scores in more than one hundred years even though it is the longest formally schooled generation as compared to previous generations. He links it to excessive screen use and recommends non?digital activities and argues that it helps people perform better as our brains need physical interaction like paper books or handwriting for better memory results. It's difficult to stop watching short videos. Like leaving a drug habit, it needs strong commitment of the person and family support. It's not that you have to stop like me completely, you could start by limiting the time for these scrolls. Use your own phone stopwatch to keep you within limits. I switched to longer videos of at least ten minutes or more. I started watching TV programmes and movies again (on TV and not on phone). I restarted reading books and regular exercise. While the human brain is declining by computer?assisted algorithms used by social media companies, at the same time computer AI is moving into the super?intelligence arena. Already AI is doing some tasks better than humans and our next generation's brains are declining. It's time to talk with your children, discuss the dangers to their mental health and come up with an agreed schedule of scrolling, balanced by other healthy activities like outdoor sports, walks, book reading or any other non?digital hobbies. Technology is good until it threatens your survival.