Tiktok Brain: How social media ruined your attention span

You open Netflix. Scroll. Click. Play….10 minutes in and you find yourself already on your phone.

You used to sit through Harry Potter marathons, Barbie movie collections, and obviously, the whole Friends collection without having to immediately check your social media. Now you’re unable to watch a full movie without checking your phone a hundred times. You have what I like to call “TikTok Brain”.

It’s not an individual experience. The way your brain works is literally changing over your consumption of social media, especially short-form content like TikTok and Reels. But why does that that happen? How?

Why your brain would rather watching something that’s 15 seconds over something that’s 2 hours:

1. Instant Dopamine Hits: Apps like tiktok are designed to provide you quick dopamine bursts. Each scroll is small reward, that keeps your brain hooked with that non stopping activity. Your brain loves that fast paced loop. Now watching a movie hits a little different: You have to wait. Wait through the scenes, character development, plot build-up… And all of that waiting is the opposite of what you want, it seems to kill your dopamine tickle.

2. Neuroplasticity: Our brains change based on our activity, so if you binge short clips, your brain adapts to expect quick and strong dopamine stimulation. Leading to that boring feeling when you’re watching a slow paced movie.

3. Your Attention Span is A Limited Resource: Your brain cannot pay attention at everything, it has a limited amount of attention available, and the short videos are constantly switching your focus, making the ability to sustain attention to one single thing, like reading a book, mentally challenging and exhausting.

But calm down… You don’t have to delete TikTok forever. Heres some hacks to rebuild your focus and enjoy longer content again:

•You can watch movies in 20-30 minute chunks instead of forcing yourself to watch the whole thing at once.

•Practice single-tasking: no distractions when you’re doing something that you really need to focus. You can even hide your phone from yourself when studying, for example.

•Be patient. Brain rewiring is not something that can be done from day to night. You can train your brain little by little.

To remember:

If you feel like you can’t focus in a movie or a book like you used, it’s not because you’re broken or lazy. That’s your brain adapting to the new media format. And if you want to adapt it back, take a step back.

So yes, a social media break is necessary, give it a try: watch less short clips in between tasks that require attention and train yourself. Your brain will thank you.