How You Are Rotting Your Brain

The Reality Check You Needed

Jun 26, 2025

In the past several years of studying Psychology, I have learned several disturbing facts. Our minds are remarkably unique in the way we process information. In today’s day and age, we face unsettling truths about how we are evolving, but there are a few truths that—once we know—we can’t unsee.

Here are 3 important facts you need to know about TV:

Don’t worry—it’s for the best that you do know them.

YOUR BRAIN THINKS YOU JUST WITNESSED A CRIME

Have you ever cried during a movie as a child? Maybe you still do?

Either way—when you are a child and your brain is developing, everything you see on a screen registers almost the same as witnessing it in person. Your brain cannot tell the difference between watching a screen or seeing something in real life.

This is why when you grow up, you become desensitized to gore, trauma, and more. You are processing emotions outside of your own life—forcing your mind to detach as a survival response. Over time, this can create anxiety in the body and mind from long-term exposure to unprocessed trauma. Yet, the trauma isn’t real, because you were watching a movie, not a real event.

When it comes to in person, this programming prevents you from processing real-life events properly. With constant distractions, people hold trauma inside themselves longer than they should. After years of doing so, it can cause them to crash-out, have a midlife crisis, or commit other disheartening actions.

How can you prevent this?

You can’t go back, but you can stop watching horror, traumatic scenes, and disturbing films to calm your anxiety. Many people with anxiety disorders might find these types of films interesting because they provide an outlet for their nerves—validating the intense feelings they’re already having.

But in reality, they reinforce your anxiety over and over—keeping you on edge and emotionally unsettled all the time.

Imagine if everything you watched on TV—you witnessed in real life. Would your brain still be okay?

Click on this link to read more about it!

MEDIA IS KILLING YOUR ATTENTION SPAN

Have you ever sat down to watch an old film and found it almost irritatingly boring? Well, it’s not really your fault. Movies in recent years have shortened scene intervals to mere seconds, whereas in the past, the average scene lasted significantly longer. When we look at the numbers, we see that movie scenes now last just 1 to 6 seconds on average—while in the 1950s, scenes typically lasted 2 to 4 minutes.

When it comes to our brains, this means our mind has to readjust to a whole new scene within seconds. Our minds were not built for this at all—so after awhile, it can drastically affect our attention span. Even long YouTube videos once appealed to the young generation—now it’s TikTok’s and Instagram Reels.

Everything is speeding up and getting faster—but our brains were meant to move slowly and adjust gradually on a daily basis. It’s important to preserve the quick reflex our mind has built in for times it’s needed. When we exhaust our mind all throughout the day, it makes it hard for us to think quickly in a serious situation.

To turn this around, becoming aware is the first step. Be in the moment. Don’t crave checking your phone. Watch slower movies, and avoid spending long stretches of time watching fast-paced apps like TikTok and Reels.

Also, don’t forget how fast time passes when watching films and videos like this… and think about how behind we are in processing our own lives.

If people back then thought their lives went by fast, how fast do you think yours is going to go?

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YOU SPEND A DECADE WATCHING MOVIES (Probably Longer)

If you spend only 3 hours a day watching TV, you will spend over 11 entire years of your life staring at a screen. Don’t forget about the years you spend driving, working, or going to the bathroom.

In this day and age, we forget how much time is wasted staring at a screen. Even if it wasn’t TV, but TikTok or Reels—it still adds up to a significant chunk of your life.

Of course, if that doesn’t bother you, then go ahead. But if it does—enjoy a movie now and then, but don’t let it stop you from writing the book you said you’d write or finishing the scrapbook collecting dust on your shelf. We only have a few years on this earth—if we’re even blessed to live all of them. TV and smartphones may be our modern comforts today, but they are also silent thieves of time.

Is watching TV and social media posts truly what you want to spend a decade of your life doing?

Click on this link to read more about it!

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