It’s quite clear that the severity and frequency of screen addiction cases has worsened significantly since the pandemic. Amongst the chattering of brain-rot, I’ve come to observe a growing consensus through trending jokes that we might be doomed: our surgeons and lawyers will be using ChatGPT, and you might find yourself accidentally doom scrolling upon opening your phone rather than calling 999 in an emergency.
It’s possible that this self-awareness could be just enough to drive us away from the nearly-eclipsing image of a Wall-E-esque world. But in the wake of dystopian speculations and concerns around our new youth, I feel that the lack of attention given to our current older generations, namely Generation X and baby boomers, is leaving them seriously neglected in all senses of the word.
I’ll often observe my mother and father who used to try to restrict my screen usage now hypocritically spend their entire evenings looking at their phones and tablets (sorry if you find this guys, I love you dearly). Once upon a time neither even had a smartphone, but scrolling after work is now deeply embedded in their routine.
I’m sure many can relate to this observation. Like how I wonder what will happen to my brain if I don’t reel in (excuse the pun) and monitor my digital habits, I find myself similarly worried about the effects of our post-COVID screen relationships on people my parent’s age. Whilst digging, I found my concerns to unfortunately be quite rational:
A 2023 research paper published in Frontiers in Public Health analysed the behaviour of older Chinese adults to reveal a correlation between existing feelings of isolation and alienation and immoderate phone usage.
In the UK, a 2022 meta-analysis outlined that in our post-pandemic environment, adults were actually the second highest age group to see an increase in screen time (just behind primary age children, but saw a rise higher than adolescents and those aged 0-5). In adults, this rise in screen time was equally associated with a spike in other negative behaviours and adverse side effects such as alcohol consumption, consumption of over-processed food and overconsumption, sleep issues, depression, and isolation.
Furthermore, psychology fellows from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, hypothesise a twofold increase of Alzheimer-related diseases by 2060, based on the collective rise in chronic sensory overstimulation (excessive screen time) during brain development that increases the risk of accelerated neurodegeneration in adulthood. In the same sense that grey matter is harmed during cognitive development, it can also be further harmed during its natural state of regression in older ages.
It’s a cliche, but the science does speak for itself, and all I really wish for is for people to look out for the well-being of their relatives. Likewise, it’s hard to end my writing by calling for anything either. Doing so feels premature, and it’s hard to structure a call for action given that many young people, but importantly nowhere near enough, are only just becoming aware of — for lack of a better word — brain-rot. It seems even harder to envision older generations following suit.
Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that critique in the form of jokes evolves into discussions that take place in wider public discourse, and scientific literature such as the above can transcend academia. Equally, it is key that this new literature and public discussion begins to interact with existing research that stresses the importance of stimulating the brain and maximising activity in order to reduce the likelihood of cognitive regression such as dementia, and above all increase life expectancy.
In a low-bar utopia, perhaps the state would intervene and regulate the selfishness of social media platforms that design their platforms to be addictive: the new endless and almost inescapable chasms of short-form content owned by the super-rich are able to lure and trap the unsuspecting. Their capital is at the expense of humankind, and it is this fact that is the most troubling of them all.