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I knew something was severely wrong when I couldn’t remember who wrote The Great Gatsby. I’d studied F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel intricately at school and revisited the text during university, where I was awarded a first class degree in English literature by a Russell Group institution. Yet here I was, during a general knowledge quiz, seven years later, drawing a complete blank on who penned one of the best known works of the 20th century.
To put it mildly, it felt as though my brain was slowly falling out of my arse. Whether brushing my teeth or in a meeting, I found it hard to tear my eyes away from the short-form slop my social media algorithm was feeding me. The phone, somehow, knew this.
Each night as I got sleepier, the content would become more and more mind-numbing: AI fruit people starring in a telenovela ; viral ASMR videos asking me to choose from bedrooms made from strawberry cheesecake or wobbly rainbow jelly. It was like being on acid, with none of the personal or spiritual revelations. It’s no secret that the modern world is making us more stupid.
On average, everyone uses Google to search three to four times per day, while 76 per cent of adults use AI tools at least occasionally in a typical 24 hours. Additionally, the global average screen time is roughly six hours and 40 minutes daily, which equates to around 42 per cent of waking life . The higher exposure to short form social media content, the poorer the cognitive skills.
Attention, inhibitory control, language, memory, and working memory can all be impacted — and I knew mine were disintegrating at a speed that had alarmed me, even between the scrolls. Brain rot: AI fruit drama on TikTok (TikTok) To double check, (because, why would I trust my own brain at this point?) I took Cognitron’s Great British Intelligence Test , created by researchers at Imperial College London. Interestingly, the challenges and questionnaires revealed that my attention and verbal comprehension were in the top 20 per cent of people my age (30).
However, both my short and medium term memory sat firmly in the bottom 30 per cent. In one ear, out the other. The experiment A simple solution here would, of course, to be stop using my phone.
But I, like the majority of the world, am entirely addicted to that damn small screen. It was evident I was cognitively unfit. So, it seemed logical that it was time for a media diet: Not less screen time - just better.
For the sake of my brain, I would swap my screen tastes for healthier alternatives (less TikTok, more Wordle. News podcasts, instead of chat shows) and retake the Great British Intelligence Test after 30 days to monitor any improvement in my well below average memory score. Spiraling: Lydia's Great British Intelligence Test results (Cognitron) The method To start things off, I took a look at my screen time, which was averaging out at around six hours a day.
Major health organisations recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10 per cent of your total daily calorie intake. So, if I were to apply that same diet rule to media, that would mean I’d only be able to spend a total of 36 minutes on socials each day. To achieve this, I set a time limit on my phone for both Instagram (16 minutes) and TikTok (20 minutes), before making sure to mix in some current affairs podcasts into my Spotify subscriptions alongside my usual background noise chat shows about pop culture and relationships.
The outcome When the diet first began I was frustrated. I was storming through my social media time and was forced to turn to the news and crosswords by mid-afternoon, which was no bad thing. I already read a book per week but I started approaching two, as an hour before bed freed up.
By week two, social media was (miraculously) sort of losing its charm to me. Much like when you give up sugar for a few weeks and then taste a desert one evening, when I went back onto TikTok and Instagram suddenly the content just felt too loud, too bright, too sweet. Contrastingly, the podcasts ( Today in Focus , especially) had reignited my appetite for learning on my own time - not just about the latest internet drama or product launch, but international spy networks or the morality of live executions.
Aka, things actually happening out there in the real world. Although I wasn’t trying in any way to spend less time on my phone - and still had access to Whatsapp, Pinterest and other time-wasting apps - I, increasingly, became less and less interested and distracted by the device. Almost accidentally, my screen time halved to three hours.
Almost accidentally, my screen time halved to three hours” Lydia Spencer-Elliott Experts have suggested that, with food, if you cut out unhealthy snacks, then you can cut down your Ultra Processed Food (UPF) intake by half. Here, it seems, the same applies: Cut down your social media and you’ll halve the time spent looking at your screen, without really trying. The best outcome of all, though, was when it came to conversation.
I felt sharper and more engaged, with better eye contact. I could pick out small details of a story someone told and refer back to them in the conversation later, rather than fumble around trying to remember the core facts. So, yes.
I felt better. But when it came to the GB Intelligence Test — would it really make a difference in just 30 days? Conclusion On the up: Lydia's improved intelligence test results (Cognitron) The simple answer is yes, resoundingly so.
The spider diagram of my strengths and weakness is now a noticeably different shape. The biggest change, though, is in my medium term memory. A month ago, I was in the bottom 30 per cent of my age group.
Now, it sits at just above average. Elsewhere, my verbal reasoning scores went from just below average to the top 20 per cent, while spatial working memory went from the bottom 30 per cent to the top 40 per cent. So, it’s safe to say there’s been improvement when it comes to retaining information.
Short term memory is still lacking: the bottom 30 per cent of my age group. But who knows, with such a drastic improvement in other areas in only a month, maybe by this time next year, I’ll be as cognitively fit as I was before social media’s infinite scroll started stealing my mind.
Source: The Independent
