Some social networks are often the target of criticism precisely because they bring some kind of cognitive impairment to users. It is like TikTok it's not being different, because neuroscientists believe that it impairs the brain's ability to stay focused.
TikTok damages the brain
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The TikTok network has come under fire for security concerns. Recently, an event that generated controversy was the “blackout challenge”, which caused the death of a 12-year-old girl.
Even when the app is used properly, the network made popular by the short videos may be affecting our brain functions. Doctor Fabiano de Abreu Agrela, who has a PhD in neurosciences and is biologist, recently conducted an analysis on the way TikTok makes content and found that it can impair users' ability to focus and concentrate.
The study was approved by the scientific journal Brazilian Journal of Development. As explained, networks generate “reward addiction” in the brain, and this causes a hormonal imbalance, which decreases the ability to focus and can develop diseases such as anxiety and depression.
Agrela explained that: “the excessive use of social networks guided by speed, where short-term content is endlessly provided based on tastes and needs, identified via an algorithm, shape brain chemistry, causing an addiction to the dopamine generated by these 'pleasure pills', which may be responsible for the mental fatigue”.
Fatigue does not allow the brain to have the sense to complete tasks such as reading an entire book, cooking, cleaning a room, among other jobs. What happens is that the brain gets “accustomed” to replacing a stimulus with another stronger one, which causes greater interest.
In case you didn't know, dopamine is the agent responsible for this condition. It is the neurotransmitter that releases a reward system in the brain for pleasurable activities, but with the use of social networks, they become “trivial”.
This is how the brain becomes addicted to the substance and demands ever-increasing doses of it, and when they are provided in a reduced form, the organism understands that the activity must be stopped.
TikTok is not the only social network with this problematic and vicious mechanism. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are also content that bets on short videos that cause the same harm.