It’s a term that’s become synonymous with the rise of the smartphone. “Brain rot” is a blunt way to describe how endless scrolling—and a greater reliance on technology in general—may impact your gray matter. “It’s not a medical term, but it would be difficult to find a mental health professional that didn’t believe in the general concept or have concerns about it,” says Dr. Chris Pagnani, founder of Paoli’s Rittenhouse Psychiatric Associates.
Your brain has a reward system, and the reward it’s after is the feel-good chemical dopamine. “When you get a really nice phone call, receive a warm hug or take a walk in a natural setting you love, dopamine gets released,” says Main Line Health Psychiatric Associates’ Dr. Philip Izzo. “It triggers your dopaminergic pathway, saying, ‘This was pleasurable. This was a reward.’”
Social media clips and images also provide that release, especially when seen in rapid sequence. But not all dopamine hits are equal. “There’s a big difference between the mental health benefits of increasing dopamine by taking a hike, spending time with a loved one or going for a jog, compared to watching Instagram Reels for hours,” Pagnani says.
Izzo concurs. “When you’re artificially enhancing the dopaminergic pathway through social media, your body is saying, ‘I want more of that’—and there’s a degree of tolerance that happens in the body,” he says. “As the circuits get flooded with more and more dopamine, the body ends up producing less and less dopamine. Then things that would normally give you dopamine surges—that warm hug, a nature walk, accomplishing a task that was on your to-do list for a long time—no longer produce that same type of reward feeling you’d ordinarily get.”
Real rewards need to be earned, often over time. Dr. Adam Weinstein offers the scenario of a child winning a soccer game. “They have to go to practice, get all the equipment, stay fit, eat healthy food and stay hydrated,” says Weinstein, a neurologist at Wynnewood’s Neurology Associates of the Main Line. “Winning is a really good feeling—and it’s a lot of dopamine released.”
But why go through all the work required for a delayed dopamine release when you can get it in a mere 10 seconds (if that) online? Our brains develop patterns. Spend enough time on social media, and you quickly find that feel-good response coming almost instantly. And that ultimately sends you back for more … and more.
The side effects are plentiful and well documented. Research shows that too many hours on social media can lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and decreased attention spans. Pagnani refers to a 2023 report from the U.S. Surgeon General citing evidence that excessive and frequent social media use may be associated with changes in several parts of the brain, including areas related to emotions and learning. “Doom-scrolling and Netflix binging are basically the opposite of mindfulness, which is an incredibly useful tool for tackling depression, anxiety and other psychiatric difficulties without medication,” says Pagnani. “Brain rot not only takes away from mindfulness in the moment, but it progressively makes it more difficult to be mindful over time.”
It’s all a bit scary—and we haven’t even addressed AI-based platforms like ChatGPT. “There’s certainly a concern that more and more time spent in the virtual world will take away from things like social interaction and some of the fabric of real life,” says Weinstein. “I don’t think we’re going to know the results of that for a long time.”
“When you’re artificially enhancing the dopaminergic pathway through social media, your body is saying, ‘I want more of that’ —and there’s a degree of tolerance that happens in the body”
—Dr. Philip Izzo
So are we in crisis mode? Izzo sure thinks so. “I’ve insinuated to colleagues and patients that you should almost have to apply for a license to have a smartphone, like you do for driving,” he says. “When you’re operating a motor vehicle, you can get behind the wheel of that motor vehicle and do damage to yourself and others. I think the same would apply to social media. This is doing real damage.”
But there is hope. “Taking some time away from that addiction is going to be helpful, because you won’t be flooding your brain with those levels of dopamine—and then your brain will accommodate a new tolerance,” Izzo says.
He recommends setting a time window for how long you engage on social media. Or take a break from your phone altogether, especially during dinner or family time.
But keep in mind that when you do take a step back, there’s going to be less dopamine. “During that initial period, there may be feelings of lower energy, lower motivation, depression and anxiety that emerge as the brain is recalibrating,” says Izzo.
To combat the hangover period, try sharing your goals with someone close to you so they can offer support and help you stay accountable as you ease into healthier behaviors. Izzo notes that any withdrawal symptoms should be transient. Just be willing to accept some risk—and some discomfort—in pursuit of that legitimate dopamine fix.
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