Attention and digital habits

At a glance

Brainrot is a colloquial term, not a diagnosis. ¹ Here, we address long periods of watching rapidly changing content that is hard to leave, even when it is already taking time from something else. A 2025 meta-analysis of 71 studies involving 98 299 participants found an association between greater short-video use and poorer attention and impulse control. The association alone does not establish the cause of difficulties. ²

What V Offlinu recommends

I do not recommend giving children unrestricted access to a personalised feed. I would protect time for sleep, study and shared activities in advance, not only when difficulties arise. We choose the content and the end of viewing for young children; we gradually involve older children in decisions. Entertainment need not have educational value. A cartoon, a game and a stream of clips available at every waiting moment need different rules.

At home, start with phones put away during study and shared meals, and a clear night-time routine. Explain the rules and follow them as adults too, with necessary exceptions sensibly settled. Turning off notifications helps remove one interruption; access to the feed and when viewing ends need to be addressed separately.

At school, I support a ban on personal phone use throughout the school day, including breaks, with health-related and essential support exceptions and available contact for parents. At the same time, I would teach technology and AI on school devices in a prepared environment without distracting notifications. Teaching about AI does not mean unrestricted independent use of a chatbot.

What to watch after the change

Notice whether the child still has room for sleep, relationships, play and their own plans. Offer opportunities for shared activities, but you need not organise every minute. You do not need to read private messages to evaluate the rules.

These steps are the author's recommendations, not a diagnostic test or a guarantee that a restriction alone will remove every difficulty. Discuss significant or persistent problems with sleep, attention or everyday functioning with a paediatrician or psychologist. Their cause may not lie in the phone. ³

Sources and supporting material

1. Oxford University Press (2024): Brain rot, word of the year. Meaning of the expression.
2. Nguyen et al. (2025). A meta-analysis of short videos. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000498.
3. CDC: Diagnosing ADHD. On professional assessment of difficulties and their possible other causes. CDC.

Details on age and individual studies are in ‘Brainrot: when everything else is boring’ and ‘Brainrot by age’. ‘The pandemic ended. The feed did not.’ explains the platforms' transformation and the author's position. The practical part of the overview is an editorial recommendation drawing on these articles.