In September 2025, a review of 71 studies examined short-video use among 98,299 people. The findings linked heavier use with weaker attention, poorer cognitive performance and worse mental health, alongside higher stress. Spain's teenagers face a sharp version of the problem: they spend about 77 minutes a day on social media.
Each idle moment can become another chance to swipe. social media, TikTok and YouTube send users a steady stream of short clips tailored to their interests. Music, movement and images, cut together quickly, arrive within seconds. The next video is always one gesture away.
That design affects more than viewing time. It trains the brain to handle separate bursts of information without much sustained effort, making longer tasks feel unusually hard.
The September 2025 review appeared in Psychological Bulletin. Greater short-video use was associated with poorer attention and cognitive performance, as well as worse mental health and higher stress. The review found an association; it did not prove that short videos alone cause those outcomes. In the systematic review, the strongest associations involved impulse control and attention, two skills directly tied to staying on task despite distractions.
A second review, published in January 2026, focused on adolescents and young adults. Self-control was among the cognitive functions most closely linked to short-video addiction. The review also reported links with memory and decision-making, as well as negative cognitive bias, loss aversion and cognitive engagement.
Materials on screen time in Spain estimate that adolescents aged 14-18 spend about 4.8-5 hours a day online and in front of screens. Social media use among some in this age group is about 74-77 minutes a day, making the issue especially suitable for teenagers.
The heaviest users can also be the most vulnerable. People with weaker attentional control or a greater tendency toward boredom, along with those with ADHD or low mood, are described as more likely to consume social-media content and more affected by it. Newer reviews report links with weaker attention and working memory, as well as inhibition, among adults and adolescents.
Gloria Mark, a psychologist and professor of Informatics at the University of California in Irvine, known as UCI, measured a steep change in screen attention. In 2004, people could stay with screen content for about two and a half minutes. In more recent measurements, the average was about 47 seconds. Those figures come from particular research samples; they are not an official universal limit of human attention.
The mobile phone now follows people through much of the day. Data from the international campaign Febrero sin móvil puts average global checking at approximately 221 times a day. Reported consequences include memory loss and reduced concentration, as well as a lower tolerance for boredom and difficulty sustaining attention.
Spain's latest PISA report offers a concrete warning: reading comprehension among Spanish students fell by 23 points. The source links that decline to the difficulty many adolescents have maintaining concentration through a long text that demands time and effort. Young people spend an average of 77 minutes a day on social platforms, almost 15 minutes above the international average and 15% more than in 2025.
Concern about new media has been around for decades. Comics and video games, along with rap, television and the early internet, were all accused of harming young people or encouraging dangerous behavior. Panic alone does not prove causation.
The current evidence still points to a consistent association between intensive short-video use, attention problems and stress, along with weaker cognitive control. Independent publications in 2026 have continued to report the same pattern. The signal is not limited to a single study.
The clearest effect may appear after the screen goes dark. A 2024 study published by the American Psychological Association followed 1,200 people across seven experiments. Participants who used infinite scrolling felt more bored than those told to watch one 10-minute video. They also reported less satisfaction with social-media use in the scrolling condition.
Boredom can create the pause needed to leave an unhelpful situation or make a change. Constant digital stimulation takes away that pause. Waiting in a supermarket queue or riding an elevator, even while expecting a friend, can trigger automatic phone use.
The problem is not that every short video causes cognitive decline. An endless supply of rapid, disconnected stimuli can weaken the habits needed for attention and memory, as well as self-control and sustained reading. The routine itself may be reshaping what the brain expects from each moment. That risk is easy to miss.
