Every day, we consciously and unconsciously decide how to spend one of our most important resources: our attention.
Every morning we wake up, and where does the first look go? 
Let’s be honest, it is on the phone. Even if it is just to stop the alarm, the phone is always there from the start. Instagram, Facebook or TikTok are always just one thumb click away. From the beginning of our day, we are bombarded with news, whether important or not.
Leading us straight to cognitive overload and anxiety.
Still, we find doomscrolling weirdly gratifying and that is no coincidence. 
But specifically designed to pull us closer to the screen.

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and more share the feature of the never-ending, personal curated queue of shorts called “infinite scroll”. 
To ensure perfectly curated videos for the user, social networks use an algorithm. It collects user data, like what videos you interacted with or disliked, to try to identify patterns, after which it tries to predict the favourite content of the user. You liked a post with that one trending sound? Get yourself ready to see it at least four times a day till there is a new viral sound. 
The algorithm is really one of the most important tools for social networks to keep your attention stuck to the screen, making your brain seek another reward with every scroll. 
And it works quite well. Facebook itself had over 3 billion active users in February 2025. ¹

Another study tried to mimic the “Instagram experience” with a functional MRI paradigm viewing “liked” photos, which demonstrated increased neural activity in regions traditionally associated with reward. Leading to seeing ‘likes’ as a form of showing social endorsement among users, making users crave the approval of others and attention. ²
Pushing each other even more, though the only one that really needs our attention is the platform itself for profit. 
TikTok’s global advertising revenue is expected to reach approximately $34.8 billion in 2026, an income purely based on the monetization of our attention. ³
Leading to a shift from the traditional markets for goods and services to a market for attention, transforming time and engagement into a tradable asset. 
All that while users often remain unaware of the monetization of their attention and manipulation through the algorithm. ⁴

In a study involving 526 Spanish university students, usage patterns, indicators of addictive behavior, and the actual dimensions of problematic usage were examined through a questionnaire. It was found that the participants spent an average of 4.95 h per day on the phone, of which 3.13 h were exclusively on social networks. 
In general, participants underestimated their mobile phone use by approximately 40 minutes per day. So, when was the last time you checked your screen time?
PSNUSS is the “Problematic Smartphone and Social Network Use scale”. 
Validated in 2024, it measures the harm of social media and smartphone use with an 18-item scale, like in this study.
The participants who reportedly experienced an increase in social network use scored higher on the PSNUSS global score as well as on the dimension of psychological dependence and loss of productivity.

This showed that productivity loss is correlated with the time spent on social networks, as well as on the phone in general. It also indicated that the more social networks and time spent, the lower the productivity. ⁵
Nevertheless, it feels like we will never be able to free ourselves from the grip social networks have on our society. 
Part of the appeal lies in the ability to offer immediate and dynamic communication, making you feel part of communities or happenings without being there in real life. 
Perhaps, it is our growing fear of missing out that makes us think we need to know what is happening all over the world at that moment. 
This so-called FoMo (Fear of missing out) drew a lot of academic attention and studies showing that 72% of young adults from 18-33 in the U.S and the U.K. are affected by it. ⁶
It is like a car crash, where you just can not look away.
Scrolling further and further, it seems like we find safety in that overload of information, even tho it has quite the opposite effect. 

Our brain has different parts which are divisible into four main areas: the parietal, frontal, occipital and temporal areas. They are all connected, having their own specific job to control the nervous system.
Like the short-term memory located in the frontal area, it is a part of the central nervous system and an integral part when it comes to processing information. Its main functions are to connect or match new information to existing ones and keep our focus on our environment.
Short-term memory is like a temporary storage place, storing information between 10 seconds up to a minute, where you can easily access it.
But it can only handle a maximum of 4 – 7 items at a time. 
Most TikToks being under 15 seconds means we see at least four items per minute, way too much for the human brain to handle. ⁷
It is obvious that the brain was never made to process that constant, never-ending stream of information, slowly destroying our attention.

And that is why we should be careful of our most precious possession, our attention.

Nelli Winzer

¹ Biggest social media platforms by users 2025| Statista
² What Makes TikTok so Addictive?: An Analysis of the Mechanisms Underlying the World’s Latest Social Media Craze|Brown University School of Public Health
³ 55+ TikTok Statistics for 2026: Users, Revenue & Growth Data | Charleagency
⁴ The TikTok Trap: How Social Media Turns Our Attention into Profit|Runnymede
⁵ Social media and functional deterioration: indicators of problematic use in university students|Faculty of Education and Psychology, Madrid Spain
⁶ FoMO and the brain: Loneliness and problematic social networking site use mediate the associationbetween the topology of the resting-state EEG brain network and fear of missing out – ScienceDirect|Yulong Yin,Xiao Cai,Mingkun Ouyang,Sen Li,Xu Li,Pengcheng Wang
⁷ Short-Term Memory|Clevelandclinic