Mindless scrolling on social media can damage your memory, says doctor
Doomscrolling might not only affect your mood, but it could also mess with your memory
Have you ever found yourself stuck in a loop of endless negative news, even though you know it's making you feel worse?
Doomscrolling might not only affect your mood, but it could also mess with your memory.
Dr Bing, a neurologist who frequently shares insights on brain health with his Insta family, revealed in his February 23 post how doomscrolling affects memory.
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Science behind doomscrolling and memory
Dr Bing shares in his video, "Have you ever felt like your memory just isn't as sharp after spending hours scrolling through social media? That's not your imagination; there's actual science behind this, so let me explain."
He says, "Research has found that people who frequently multitask with digital media experience reduced sustained attention and working memory. Social media constantly bombards your brain with fast, ever-changing information, training it to crave instant gratification instead of fostering deep focus. When you rapidly switch between posts, videos, and notifications, you're not fully engaging with any one thing, so your brain doesn't properly encode it into memory. Think of your brain like a chalkboard, when you focus deeply on something, you write the information clearly."
How excessive scrolling affects your brain
He continues, "Excessive scrolling is like constantly erasing and rewriting on the board before anything sticks. That's why you may struggle to remember what you just read or feel mentally foggy afterwards."
Dr Bing adds, "Research also shows that heavy social media use is linked to structural changes in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for attention and decision-making. This suggests that too much scrolling may physically alter your brain's ability to focus and retain information over time."
To help combat this, he explains, "Give your brain time to absorb information instead of mindlessly scrolling. Try reading something longer, summarising what you learned, or simply taking breaks to allow your brain to reset."
