SAN ANTONIO — Are you overwhelmed by the increasingly growing pace of social media? With the growth of social media comes shorter attention spans and a condition you may not know you have.
That condition is being called popcorn brain by some, even though it isn't a diagnosed medical condition, and it refers to our lack of attention and focus which makes us jump quickly from one thing to another, much like popping popcorn kernels. Psychologists say social media is a big part of the problem. Dr. Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry with UT Health San Antonio, told us, "Attention and concentration struggles are actually fairly common across a variety of mental health conditions, including things like depression, anxiety, ADHD."
According to the Datareportal January 2024 global overview, over 62 percent of the world uses social media. That is roughly 5 billion people worldwide. 266 million of those users were added just in the last year. And the average daily time spent on social media was 2 hours and 23 minutes. Dr. Robles-Ramamurthy added, "If you're somebody who is just kind of getting distracted by it. I would probably aim between 15 to no more than 45 minutes a day. And honestly, that's a lot."
What are the top 5 social media platforms? Facebook with over 3 billion users. These numbers are in millions of users. YouTube with close to 2 and a half billion. WhatsApp and Instagram are tied with 2 billion users. Followed by TikTok with 1 and a half billion users worldwide. "Self-awareness, that observation of how this is impacting your life is incredibly important because each of us is different. So the concern is there for everybody," said Dr. Robles-Ramamurthy.
Psychologists say to stay focused when you feel the itch to change tasks wait 20 minutes and see if that urge remains, and picture yourself at the end of the day and what you want accomplished to help you reach that goal.