Friday, June 12, 2026

SciShow explains 'How Instagram Hacks Your Brain' plus Howtown on brain rot for Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I promised "Stay tuned for another winner at the News & Doc Emmy Awards along with a retrospective of posts on a related theme" for today and get to both of those after I lead into them beginning with SciShow explaining How Instagram Hacks Your Brain.

Do you feel addicted to social media? You're certainly not alone. Social media and our brains have a messy relationship, and researchers are working hard to understand what's going on, who might be more or less at risk, and why.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is the Emmy winner I'm featuring today and it's all about how social media algorithms make the platforms addictive and how they especially harm teenagers. Howtown examined another possible cognitive harm in What the actual science says about "brain rot".

Are TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts actually destroying our attention spans, or is “brain rot” just another moral panic? In this video, we dig into the science behind short-form video and attention, from debunking viral goldfish statistics to explaining real cognitive psychology experiments testing analytical thinking and prospective memory. We break down what researchers actually mean by “attention span,” how infinite scroll and autoplay feeds are genuinely different from previous forms of media, and what lab tests can and can’t tell us about the mental effects of short-form video.
As much as I have proclaimed "Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm," I at least had the choice of clicking on the preview of the intriguing video the program presented to me. With YouTube shorts, TikTok, and Instagram reels, the only choice I have is to watch the next video or stop watching unless I see the preview of the short on my YouTube home page, where I still have the choice to click. It's one of the reasons I generally avoid TikTok, the other being the ownership, both old and new. Do I think the format is making me stupid? No, although it's certainly distracting, entertaining, and surprising, especially as Instagram reels, some of which I find educational. That loops back to Hank Green's observation about Instagram hacking my brain. I like closing loops.

The second loop to close is today's featured News & Doc Emmy Award winner.


After I watched Can't Look Away's trailer, I declared, "I don't have to look at the other two trailers; I think this is the winner." I was right; it won. Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for the final loop, today's featured post from the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, which was also about a legal action against social media.


Steve in Manhattan linked to PBS NewsHour explains 'How Meta's blockbuster antitrust trial could have major implications for big tech' — a Throwback Thursday special from May 29, 2025 at Crooks and Liars helped it earn 371 default and 388 raw page views to rank first among entries posted during May 2025 and second overall during the month. I shared it at the Citizen Connect/Coffee Party USA Facebook page during June, where I recorded it collecting 111 default and 148 raw page views during its second month, placing 13th during June 2025. It ended the 15th year of the blog with 461 total raw page views, placing 76th overall and 53rd among entries posted between March 21, 2025 and March 20, 2026.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for a driving update followed by the Sunday entertainment feature, which might also be the final retrospective of the 15th year of this blog.

Previous posts in this series Previous posts about the 57th News & Doc Emmy Awards
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