Last newsletter looked at the immediate effects of screen use on our mental energy.

Today, we will look at the effects of excessive screen use over a longer period of time.

The articles that I’m incorporating are based on screen or social media addiction.

While that may not be the case for all of you, I think the underlaying mechanisms can still shed some light on what long term excessive screen use is doing to us. And why the use of smartphones are negatively affecting our mental energy.

🎯 Excessive phone use weakens focus

One study showed that mobile phone addiction reduces frontal theta power during tasks requiring executive control.

📱 Dopamine loops hijack motivation

Social media algorithms overstimulate the brain’s reward system. This lowers sensitivity to natural rewards like completing meaningful work. Over time it might reshape brain regions tied to habit, impulse control, and emotional regulation.

In a study by Yan et al. (2024), the authors wanted to investigate how the degree of mobile phone addiction - especially to short form videos - impacted the ability to concentrate as well as underlaying EEG measures.

48 young adults completed a set of questionnaires which, amongst others, included the Mobile Phone Short Video Addiction Tendency Questionnaire and the Self-Control Scale.

Afterwards, they underwent EEG recordings while performing the Attention Network Test (ANT).

The ANT is a broadly used psychological and neurocognitive test designed to measure the efficiency of three distinct attentional networks:

-       Alerting Network

-       Orienting Network

-       Executive Control (or Conflict) Network

The results showed that higher addiction scores correlated negatively with results of the Self-Control Scale.

Moreover the EEG recordings showed that there was a significant negative relationship between addiction tendency and frontal theta power during parts of the ANT.

Specifically parts that measured executive control.

No such effects were found in resting-state EEG, which shows the deficits emerge specifically during tasks requiring cognitive control.

Frontal midline Theta power is an established measure of attention and concentration ability.

Together, these findings suggest that excessive short video use over time, might weaken self-control and disrupts neural mechanisms of attention.

Further, in another study by De, et al 2025, the authors explore how exactly it is that these social media can be so addictive to us, and what effects that has on our physiology and psychology.

The authors described how social media algorithms activate the mesolimbic dopamine system, which is the same system that is active while enjoying food, sex and misusing substances.

When we get a like, comment or a notification, it releases dopamine in nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental areas.

This gives a sense of reward.

Personalized algorithmic feeds create a continuous “dopamine loop”, where likes, comments, and notifications trigger dopamine release, which reinforces the urge to keep scrolling.

Over time this can lead to a decreased reward sensitivity, which may make natural rewards feel less exiting.

This could for example be less felt reward from finishing the Todo and work, the important presentation or preparing the decisive sales pitch.

And it could therefore have huge negative effects for your work performance.

The authors describe how previous studies on phone and internet addictions have found evidence of structural changes in important brain areas.

For example, increased grey matter in putamen/nucleus accumbens and decreased grey matter in orbitofrontal cortex have been documented in people with internet addiction.

The putamen/nucleus accumbens are central to reward and habit formation, while the orbitofrontal cortex regulates decision-making and impulse control.

Likewise reduces grey matter of the amygdala has been tied to social media addiction.

The amygdala is critical for emotional regulation and salience detection, which is important to how emotional responses are shaped by social feedback

Furthermore, the authors describe how previous studies show reduced inhibitory control, attention problems, impaired working memory, and risky decision-making in people with internet gaming disorder and problematic internet use.

Lastly research on internet gaming disorder demonstrates that overstimulation reduces natural reward responsiveness, and a meta-analysis have even found that each additional hour of social media use increases adolescent depression risk by ~13%.

PS; if you would like more frequent insights on mental energy, I have an x-account where I post bit-sized insights multiple times a week.

👉 Check it here.

I don’t think many of you are surprised that excessive use of mobile phone and social media is bad for you – I wasn’t as well.

However, I hope that with this newsletter you have learned just how damaging it can be to your mental energy.

And as people with ambitious goals, how it can be very suboptimal to the pursuit of those goals

It;

*Decreases our ability to concentrate – especially executive control.

*Decreases our sensitivity to reward

*Damages important brain areas for reward and habit formation, as well as emotional regulation.

Therefore, I hope that after reading this newsletter you have gained the needed motivation to establish at leas tone habit, that can decrease your use of mobile phone and social media.

This could be:

*No phone and social media for the first hour after waking

*No phone and social media for the last hour before sleep

*No phone and social media during breakfast, lunch break and/or dinner

*Put the phone in a different room in time-blocks dedicated for deep work

Good luck, see you next time.

Articles used for this newsletter:

_{Disclaimer: The above is mainly based on the 2 articles mentioned in the end of this newsletter, and aims to provide key takeaways and a condensed overview of its content. While the essence is drawn from the original articles, some parts have been simplified or rephrased to enhance understanding. Please note that we at, OptiMindInsights or any other potential writers or contributors to our summaries, do not accept responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of these summaries and/or newsletters as a whole. The information provided should not be considered a substitute for personal research or professional advice. Readers are encouraged to consult the original articles for detailed insights and references. The summary does not include references, but they can typically be found within the original publication. Always exercise due diligence and consider your unique circumstances before applying any information in your personal or professional life. We refer to the creative commons for reproducibility rights.}