I'm a neuroscientist. Here's the surprising truth about TikTok 'brain rot'

It is a force that could be used for good but often isn't. Entertainment, like calories, has its place yet is harmful when consumed in excess. It crowds out productive tasks, encourages physical and mental idleness, and is a mostly passive mental activity not requiring or promoting critical thinking.

My teenagers are, by all accounts of my research, "addicted" to reels, tiktok and youtube shorts. Given the lack of understanding, guidance and real research that proves or disproves harm was the impetus to try limiting these apps. It was not well received by my adolescents to put it mildly.

Being that I hold open-mindedness as a virtue for myself, I asked them to construct arguments that would help me understand their point of view and would reconsider if those arguments were compelling. They were.

Both of them put together slide shows with their school supplied chromebooks. They started off telling my wife and I about their grades, which are excellent. They showed that they don't miss assignments and don't have "too many" infractions for misbehaving in class. They showed us their training schedules for soccer and clubs.

My daughter, the ridiculously organized perfectionist, showed use how much time she spends cleaning her room and doing her laundry every month. She is also the biggest consumer of tiktok in the house by a wide margin. She then showed us an example of her feed.

Both had arguments that basically said; "we are responsible teens that get 93% of what you ask done without you asking more than once. We should be allowed to use these apps when we have down time and just want to veg out." I am inclined to agree.

I came away from this thinking about a lot of things. Namely, I am not sure any of the "social media" is bad research can be generalized across a population. The two teenagers in my house have enviable feeds. They watch content that is directly applicable to the activities they do in real life.

Obviously there are stupid videos and funny videos, but the bulk was tutorials and discussions regarding real stuff like nail design, hair styles, clothing, soccer skill drills, math tutorials, weird science stuff, fishing, Golf, and TONS of music dances. I have considered that perhaps we are now the "old people" that just don't get it and because of that have labeled it "bad for you".

I am biased, but damn proud of my teens. We have relinquished a fair amount of control on the "time" aspect. However, we still have boundaries as to when and where they use their phones as a matter of manners and they hold us accountable to them as well. I guess what I am saying is that I don't think "brain rot" is real for everyone.

This headline is clickbait, though.

This neuroscientist seema to be throwing the label on all of TikTok or all short form video. This seems barely more sophisticated with grouping together Lawrence of Arabia and Transformers 4 as movies.

For instance: if you used a motorized scooter for all pedestrian activity for 5 years, do you think you'd have increased or decreased ability to get around without it?

Obviously goggle is making us dumber, and goggle maps are reducing people's ability to navigate physical reality autonomously.

Is this bad? For goggle shareholders, this isn't a side effect, it's the point. Of course someone who profits from the phenomenon wants people to be more dependent, not less.

I'll have to dig that up now lol