The Easy Way to Stop Brain Rot

You’ve heard about the dangers of TikTok and similar apps. They’re said to shorten your attention span and mess with your mental health. And for many people, it’s far worse than that…

It can rewire their brain in a way that they’re trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction and misery.

Think about it for a second – you’ve met people who don’t drink, don’t do drugs, but something’s off.

You’re talking to them but they’re struggling to focus and comprehend what you’re saying – you dumb it down, but still, it seems as if their brain is stuck buffering.

Doomscrolling has left them emotionally drained and disconnected from the world.

Now, is there a way to enjoy these short-form apps – to pass the time, to have some fun – without falling victim to digital brain rot?

I believe there is.

By understanding how TikTok works, you can break free from compulsive habits.

You don’t have to quit scrolling altogether. Instead, you recognize the psychological traps in real time and choose not to fall for them.

In this video, we’ll focus on TikTok because, in my view, it’s scarily effective in keeping people hooked.

Let’s start by analyzing a game with almost 0 chance of winning… yet people spend billions of dollars every year chasing that dream. Because while the technology of these apps is new, their design is not.

I’m talking about…

Slot Machines

The main reason why these machines are so profitable is because they use a powerful psychological tool called intermittent reinforcement.

It’s a simple idea—reward people in a random manner or put it in other words, dangle the prize just out of reach. When done right, it’s the perfect formula for addiction.

The way these machines work is that they give a small win, free spins, or bonuses at RANDOM INTERVALS.

This reinforces the idea that you just need to keep playing because the next spin might be a huge win or even the jackpot.

Another powerful tool are the near-wins. It’s where the symbols are very close to forming a winning combination but fall short.

While researching for this video, I kept thinking about the times I almost won a football betting ticket if it weren’t for a wrong match prediction or even a last-minute goal. Man, those are brutal.

You’d think those near-wins would make me throw in the towel, right?

To walk away and just accept the losses.

But they never did. Actually, those near wins made me more determined to try again.

I was like, next time luck will be on my side.

And there’s a reason for that:

Research shows that near-wins trigger your brain’s dopamine system almost as much as actual wins. It’s the same chemical rush. The same thrill.

But what happens when the lucky stars align and some gambler wins the mini-jackpot?

It’s not a big deal for the casino.

Because that same person will play the same money, probably at the same machine, again and again…

Look, the fact that the machine is a huge cash-cow for the casino is not an accident. Everything is designed to keep you focused on the game… so much that you lose track of time.

Even the simple act of pushing the button and seeing all those colorful shapes and lights releases dopamine. Because it gives you a sense of control.

However, you have no control. And there’s no such thing as luck coming to rescue either; there’s only the good ol’ principle of cause and effect.

You play, you lose.

At those moments, you are powerless.

You have temporarily lost the freedom to choose.

I know it seems weird.

At least, we are choosing to play, right?

But are you?

Think about it… You know deep down that you will lose much more if you play. So the rational thing to do is to admit defeat and walk away.

Yet, you can’t seem to stop. What’s worse, you don’t even think about stopping.

Not until you have no money left and the spell is broken. And of course, you feel like shit, afterward.

That my friend is addictive behavior.

Which leads us to…

TikTok Addiction

People seem to not understand that TikTok is not simply a social media app. It’s a digital slot machine. It uses the same psychological tricks to keep you hooked.

Unlike Facebook or YouTube, TikTok does not rely on recommending content based on who you have followed… where you have an idea of what to expect.

Instead, it creates a feeling that you will watch something incredible, but you don’t know when.

And when you find that one video? You experience a powerful rush.

So, you keep scrolling. And scrolling. Chasing that feeling again.

As you have realized, they are using the intermittent reinforcement strategy.

Most of the time, your feed is filled with semi-interesting videos, every now and then, the algorithm serves you a mini-jackpot – videos that impact you on a visceral level.

This fuels the cycle of doomscrolling, ensuring you stay trapped in the app.

Look, I’m not talking about videos that make you laugh, curious, cringe, or angry. Those are the free spins, small wins, and bonuses of TikTok.

I’m talking about videos that exploit your deepest desires, fears, and motivations—the stuff you barely admit to yourself.

Which raises an interesting question… How does the app know? How does it uncover the things buried in your unconscious mind?

Well, there’s a study that can help us understand how these apps seem to know us so well…

Researchers analyzed Facebook profiles—what pages people liked and what content they posted or consumed. From this, they assigned each participant a personality type based on the OCEAN Model:

For example, participants with high openness to experience tend to like Salvador Dalí, meditation, or TED talks –  while participants with high extraversion tend to like partying, a reality show star, or dancing.

The study showed that Facebook’s algorithm only needs to analyze 300 likes, and it will judge your personality with more accuracy than your own partner.

Keep in mind that this study was conducted in 2015, and since then, the algorithms have become much more sophisticated.

TikTok collects a significant amount of data – from the content you consume to ip location to faceprints and voice prints. It also gathers data on the websites you visit even when you’re not using the app.

With this arsenal of data, TikTok can build incredibly detailed profiles for its users. Meaning it knows what you do on your phone while also having a good sense of why you do it.

So it can figure out our psychological motivations and recommend content that is more likely to keep us on the app.

Not what we want to see, but what keeps us addicted…

As we said earlier, TikTok recommends semi-interesting content to keep you scrolling as much as possible in search of what I like to call…

Mini-Jackpot Videos

The Wall Street Journal conducted an experiment that uncovered a disturbing feature of TikTok… By giving you highly personalized video recommendations, the app makes sure that you become addicted to the app.

Here’s what they did: They created 100 bot accounts, each programmed with specific interests. But the only thing that TikTok knew about these bots was their date of birth and the IP location.

From there, TikTok began by recommending generic viral videos to test the waters and figure out what each “user” liked.

It watched for patterns—where they paused, what they rewatched—and then adjusted its recommendations accordingly.

It took 40 minutes to 2 hours to figure out their interests.

Eventually, the videos kept getting more and more personalized.

But it gets even more problematic.

One bot, named Kentucky_96, was designed to show interest in videos about sadness and depression. The algorithm responded by feeding it a relentless stream of related content. Each rewatch pushed it deeper into a rabbit hole of despair.

Same thing with other interests. It will push you into a narrow view of a certain subject, so what is left to consume but extreme content.

For example, it’s very typical to find videos where someone is fully expressing their emotions and you can easily end up in a rabbit hole where you’re basically watching other people suffering!

Trust me, I understand it’s a bit relieving to know that you are not the only one struggling with a certain problem.

However, what’s better than being with people on the same sinking ship?

It’s to not be on the ship at all.

That’s why I don’t like these types of videos because you’re not actually finding solutions.

And then what? When those videos stop giving you that sense of relief, what’s the next logical step?

You start seeking out like-minded people in forums like Reddit, 4Chan, or The Real World. And it feels like progress, but again, you’re not solving anything. You’re just venting and collectively whining about how unfair the world is.

So, based on your psychological profile, once in a while, TikTok will recommend these mini-jackpot videos… Videos that tap into your primal fears and desires

It will gradually nudge you in a direction where you’re consuming more and more extreme content and hanging out with other people who are lost.

In my view, this is intentional.

It’s not in their best interest to promote videos that show you a way out of that particular problem.

In fact, it’s better that you stay in this vicious cycle.

I mean think about it… Would McDonald’s tell you to stop coming every day to the restaurant, or to order a small meal because if you continue down this road you’ll have health problems?

Of course not. That would be ridiculous.

First, they would probably get sued for discrimination.

Second, it’s not in their interest to do so.

Their best customers are those who consume a lot of unhealthy food.

They’re like, Do you want to continue? Yeah.

Then go ahead. You are free to make your own choices right? In fact, I’ll make the meals cheaper and larger so it’s easier for you to get addicted.

In other words, the more self-destructive you are, the more profitable you are for them.

It’s the same reasoning with TikTok and other huge corporations.

[you are both pieces of shit, and I can prove it mathematically]

You have to admit that their strategy is evil, but brilliant.

By keeping you anxious, stressed, and tired, your mental defenses go down and you are less likely to snap out of the state of flow.

You are completely immersed in the app.

But here’s the biggest problem…

And it gets worse…

Even when you are not using the app, your mind goes to those mini-jackpot videos, because they affect you on a deep visceral level right?

You cannot just watch them, close the app, and move on with your day.

And you know, to focus on your work or studies or socializing. It’s very difficult.

So you’ll feel the lingering effects of digital brain rot, with your focus scattered and your cognitive abilities dulled over time.

What do you do to feel better?

You open the app and start scrolling.

Without realizing that the app is actually making you more stressed.

It becomes automatic. You’re not even thinking anymore—you’re just reacting. Scroll. Dopamine hit. Repeat.

And here’s an interesting detail: You’ve reached a level where you’re not scrolling for fun anymore.

Now it’s more like scratching an itch that never goes away. And as time goes on, that itch gets worse. You find yourself scrolling more and more, not to feel good, but to make the discomfort stop.

So you’re trapped in a vicious cycle.

Let’s make a quick recap of what we have discussed so far…

Just like Slot Machines, TikTok uses intermittent reinforcement, a simple design that reduces mental effort, along with an infinite loop content – to create a fluid experience where you lose track of time.

However, a fluid experience promotes rigid thinking which sends you into a

Mental Labyrinth

Rigid thinking is when people have a narrow way of thinking or problem-solving.

They insist on sticking to their beliefs or strategies even when the evidence clearly shows that what they are doing is not working anymore or it’s flat-out wrong.

What I find fascinating about rigid thinking is how it creates the illusion of change.
It’s when we convince ourselves we’ve overcome a problem, only to find ourselves stuck in the same patterns later.

Why does this happen?

We repeat the same mistakes, rationalize them as progress. We procrastinate. We blame others. And refuse to admit we’re clinging to the wrong approach, even though the poor results are slapping in the face.

This is one circle for one challenge.

But think about how many challenges we have in our life.

[Vazhdon muzika per nja dy sekonda me rrathet qe sillen]

So if you have a rigid mentality, everything is challenging. Achieving even the minor goals in the sense that you’ve the necessary skills to achieve them, it still feels like climbing a mountain.

No wonder that rigid thinking is associated with poor mental health.

And it gets worse… You become incredibly naïve.

The more problems pile up in your life, the more extreme content you consume as an escape, the more you get disconnected from reality.

You are living on illusions and gradually go deeper into a mental labyrinth.

You go into a state where you are convinced about things that are not real.

This reminds me of a powerful quote by Mark Twain, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that it ain’t so.”

From here, things only get worse. When you lose your grip on reality, you’re not really in control anymore. It’s as if there’s a toxic version of yourself pulling the strings—making one bad decision after the other… And you? You just sit there, powerless to stop it.

Alright, TikTok uses the same strategies as casinos, creating a fluid experience that hooks people into the app. This addiction can make thinking rigid, and over time, this rigidity may lead to mental health problems.

Now, I know the link between scrolling TikTok and rigid thinking might seem weak at first, so let me give you three exact reasons:

First, you are training your brain to only pay attention for a short time and only if that thing is very exciting.

What happens when we don’t pay attention to the world around us?

  • It will be much harder for you to learn new skills. Because that requires paying undivided attention to activities that feel dull or repetitive.
  • It gets harder to hold conversations. And you’ll hang out with people less and less because you find them boring, compared to highly curated short videos.
  • It will be much harder to solve your problems because since you haven’t been improving yourself and you haven’t been socializing, you’ll overlook important details. And as the saying goes: You can’t solve a problem unless you understand it.

The second way is that we waste precious mental energy on stuff that doesn’t matter to us.

In order for a TikTok video to go viral, it should impact people on a visceral level, right? And to do that, the video needs to be highly dramatic and polarizing.

This means that you will binge-watch content that raises your adrenaline levels but that doesn’t inform you or help you in any way… These videos might be about anything, health, religion, politics, sexuality, showbiz, conspiracy theories… whatever you find compelling.

So you spend a great deal of time, probably most of your day, obsessing over these subjects.

The problem is that instead of spending your limited mental energy on solving your own problems, you waste it on trying to solve global problems.

The third way is that the short format doesn’t allow you to look at things from different points of view. I mean, how can you make a well-formed argument on a complex subject in one minute or less?

Preventing Brain Rot

If you are a content creator and you want the best for your viewers then I think this strategy might work: You create short videos that redirect them to watching a comprehensive video, a documentary or to read an excellent book on the subject.

You take them from where they are and persuade them to consume content that might open their mind.

So far, we’ve talked about how we end up in the mental labyrinth and what keeps us trapped there.

But is there a way out?

The answer is:

It depends.

Look, I don’t want to downplay that getting out of this mental labyrinth is very difficult, especially if you have spent many years wandering through it.

That said, it is possible.

When you, for whatever reason, realize how lost you are, how fucked up everything is, and that you’re sick of being this way…

That can prompt you to make a clear decision to do whatever it takes to get clean out of this mental virus.

Now, if you are struggling with addiction or mental health disorders, find an experienced psychologist and work with them.

Another recommendation is to educate yourself on psychology, technology, and philosophy.

Think of these areas as powerful levers—small actions in the right places that can move massive weights in your life.

By focusing on understanding how your mind works and how external forces influence you, you can achieve exponential results in a relatively short time.

Scroll to Top