How to recognize the mental impact of your digital habits.
In an age of endless scrolling, many of us wonder if our digital habits have crossed a line. Your brain often shows subtle signs of overuse long before it becomes a major problem. Here are five key cognitive signs that your screen time might be impacting your mental performance.
The Sign: You find it hard to focus on a single task without the urge to check your phone. This is because social media weakens your selective attention muscle. This is exactly what our cognitive test measures.
The Sign: You struggle to remember small details from a recent conversation. Information overload makes it hard to encode short-term memories. Our test's N-Back Task directly assesses your working memory.
The Sign: You check notifications without consciously deciding to. The unpredictable rewards weaken impulse control. Our Go/No-Go Task measures this precise skill of response inhibition.
The Sign: You experience more frequent mood swings or anxiety after scrolling. When your focus is depleted, it becomes harder to manage your emotional responses.
The Sign: You prefer skimming headlines over reading full articles. A habit of shallow engagement can weaken the neural pathways required for deep, creative thought.