It’s Official: We’re Getting ‘Brain Rot’ From Watching Short-Form Videos

Peter Smith gives tips on leading meetings, developing marketing, and making trade show appointments in the age of short attention spans.

Peter Smith TheRetailSmiths@gmail.com

The Retail Smiths founder and National Jeweler columnist Peter Smith

Peter Smith is an industry consultant, speaker, sales trainer, and author. He can be reached via email at TheRetailSmiths@gmail.com.

In 2024, “brain rot” was the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year.

My first reaction to the announcement was to question whether brain rot was even a word, but apparently the learned scholars across the pond deemed it so, and that’s good enough for me.

Parenthetically, if you find yourself in London or thereabouts, be sure to take a train ride to Oxford. You’d never imagine them getting a word wrong once you see the place.

Brain rot refers to the excessive consumption of low-quality content on social media, a typical scene in just about Every Place, USA, including retail stores, waiting rooms, meetings (yes, look around), airports, trains, buses, people driving cars, couches, dinner tables, and bedrooms.

Scrolling our phones, it would appear, has become a national epidemic.

Lest we think (and, for future generations, hope) all the doom scrolling is a passing fad, the American Psychological Association just published the results of a study that concluded short-form video is “measurably bad” for mental health.

The study, titled “Feeds, Feelings, and Focus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Examining the Cognitive and Mental Health Correlates of Short-Form Video Use” (academia doesn’t do irony when naming studies), analyzed data from 98,299 participants across 71 different studies.

The APA looked at algorithm-driven platforms including Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.

“The scrolling habit has taken root across generations, and we are none the better for it.” — Peter Smith, The Retail Smiths

The results of the study show that the more short-form video a person watches, the worse their cognitive performance, including their ability to absorb long-form content, e.g., longer emails, reports, and books, and, one assumes, to stay present in longer meetings.

I suspect the results won’t surprise anyone in the business of hiring younger people, who seem permanently affixed to their phones—about 6.5 hours a day, according to the study.

But young people don’t own the exclusive on doom scrolling, nor are they alone in unintentionally allowing their digital habits to damage their cognitive performance.

Look around and you’ll see clear evidence the scrolling habit has taken root across generations, and we are none the better for it.

So, what does all this mean for business? What do diminished attention spans mean when managing people, developing marketing creative, holding meetings, and even booking appointments for JCK, Couture, and other trade shows?

The definitive story, of course, has yet to be written.

Even though there have been major developments in technology, in transportation, in education, and just about every other aspect of our lives, the truth is that it is uncommon for such developments to fundamentally alter our wiring.

We can give our attention to something new and exciting until it passes without it materially or permanently altering our brains, so this brain rot news is not a minor regression.

As we contend with what the longer-term impacts of short-form video could be, I’ll offer a few pointers that might help to mitigate the effects of shorter attention spans in business.

Trade Shows
For brands and vendors attending JCK and/or Couture: Give some thought to how much time you really need with clients and prospects.

If our attention span is shorter than ever, do you need 60- or 90-minute appointments? Can you exchange pleasantries and get down to business in a brisk manner without unnecessary friction in, say, 30-minute appointments?

If you need 90-minute appointments because trade shows are still the main place you write business, see How Not to Do Business in 2026, Part 1.

Marketing
Marketing might be the most obvious place to heed the reality of shortened attention spans.

With no lack of irony, shorter videos are best (contribute to the rot why don’t you!), along with edited copy (most probably have quit reading this column by now) and shorter, snappier tag lines repeated often.

The more time your marketing requires to consume, the greater the disconnect. Think about the psychological concept of the mere-exposure effect: Keep it simple and show it repeatedly.

Meetings
Meetings should be short and sweet and as infrequent as possible.

Make your employees put their phones away and out of sight but know they are collectively pining for the dopamine hit of a text, a like, or a cat video.

As the late comedian George Burns used to say, “The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible.”