Beware the Modern Monster that Can Eat Your Brain – the Video Screen

For many people, video screens have become a central part of daily living.

We spend an awful lot of time staring into the screens on our phones, televisions and computers. Some estimate that the average person spends more than three hours a day looking at a smartphone. And another study reckons the average amount of time daily that we watch TV is close to four hours.

So, even before I started looking into research on what all that screen time does to our brains, I figured it couldn’t be good. The latest studies only confirmed my hunch.

For more than two decades, researchers have investigated the effects of screen time on human brains, and almost every finding is a cause for worry.

For example, in one study cited in the journal Psychology Today, researchers wrote, “internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control.”1

Too Much Screen Time Shrinks Your Brain

More specifically, brain scans have documented excessive screen time causes brain atrophy — brain shrinkage or loss of volume — in gray matter areas where “processing” occurs. Scientists found atrophy in the frontal lobe, which governs executive functions such as planning, prioritizing, organizing and impulse control.2 What’s more, executive functioning ability has been strongly connected to working memory ability.

And on a practical level, executive functioning is linked to activities of daily living, which include getting dressed, the ability to feed oneself, bathe oneself and more.

In addition, scans revealed brain atrophy in the striatum, an area of the brain involved in impulse suppression. But perhaps most concerning, brain scans revealed atrophy in the brain insula, the area of the brain involved in our capacity to develop empathy and compassion for others and to integrate physical signals with signs of emotion. This is especially concerning in children whose brains are still developing.

36 Percent of Adults Admit to Too Much Screen Time

While adult brains aren’t developing at the same rate as children’s brains, screen time can be harmful.

With 36 percent of adults surveyed in a Pew Research Center study admitting to spending too much time on their devices, added to the fact that scientists have documented new evidence for the adaptability of the adult brain–a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity– there’s more reason to believe than ever before that our screen habits could be having a profound effect on our cognition and behavior.

In short, excessive screen-time appears to negatively impact brain structure and cognitive function.