Whether you can’t make it through a task without scrolling through Instagram or regularly find yourself engrossed in watching TikTok videos when you should be going to bed, there’s no denying that social media can sometimes be a welcome distraction from daily life. But with internet users spending an average of two hours and 21 minutes on social media a day in 2025, what impact could this mindless scrolling be having on our brain health and memory? We caught up with an expert to uncover the science behind social media and memory, and how we can protect brain health without implementing a complete social media ban.
The science behind social media and memory
Research suggests there is a link between recent social media use and objective memory performance and day-to-day memory functioning, with one study finding that even the presence of a smartphone can negatively impact cognitive performance. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Debra Kissen says this is because using social media as a regular distraction can disrupt our focus, which is needed both to store memories and recall them later.
“Memory consolidation – the process of moving experiences into long-term storage – requires focus and sleep. Every time we divide our attention between multiple stimuli (say, studying while checking social media), we reduce the depth of encoding, which makes memories harder to store and recall later,” she explains. “On top of that, excessive screen time – especially at night – can interfere with sleep, further disrupting memory consolidation.”
How distraction interrupts recall
You may have already noticed the effects that distraction from social media has had on your memory, or feel that you struggle to focus on one thing at a time. Dr. Debra explains: “Think of attention like a spotlight. When it’s constantly darting from one thing to another, each item only gets dimly lit, which weakens recall. That’s why people often feel they ‘saw something online’ but struggle to remember the details or the source.”
Is your attention span shrinking?
Frequent social media usage could have an impact on your attention span, too. Reels and short-form videos are often short, snappy and edited to command your attention within the first second to stop you from scrolling by, and research by Microsoft indicates that fast-paced phone use has had a big impact on our attention span. Between the year 2000 (around the time when mobile phones came into regular use) and 2015, their research found that the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to just eight seconds – that’s less than a goldfish! Given that the research is now a decade old, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that this may have now dropped even further, especially given the trajectory of social media use in this time.
So, how do you know if your attention span is shrinking? “You may notice you can skim across many things but struggle with deeper focus. A useful exercise is to track your attention: pick a short period of reading or work each day, and note how many times your mind drifts or you feel the urge to check your phone. Over time, this gives you a real sense of whether your attentional endurance is improving or declining,” Dr. Debra suggests.
Expert tips to protect memory in the digital age
Even if your attention span has dwindled, all hope is not lost. With some conscious effort, cognitive training and habit changes, you can protect your memory and prevent further impact on your brain. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Debra suggests the following:
- Practice “monotasking” by giving full attention to one task for 20–30 minutes.
- Protect your sleep by limiting screens an hour before bed.
- Challenge your memory daily with brain-training exercises like crosswords, learning new words, or recall-based games such as Wordle.
- Seek out offline novelty – trying new experiences helps encode memories more strongly.
“In short, social media doesn’t erase memory, but constant distraction reshapes how our brain attends to, stores, and retrieves information,” she says. “With intentional habits, we can offset those risks.”