David DeWitt

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Scientists put kids through 100 hours of reading, then scanned their brains. New wiring had physically grown inside the language regions. Communication between brain areas sped up by a factor of 10. Kids who didn't read showed zero change.

That was a 2009 Carnegie Mellon study. It gets wilder.

In 2013, Emory University scanned 19 students every morning for 19 straight days while they read one novel chapter each night. Mornings after reading, the brain areas responsible for understanding other people's emotions lit up with new connections. So did the region that processes physical sensation. Their brains were simulating what the characters felt, as if it were happening to them. Those changes stuck around for 5 days after they finished the book.

Now flip to scrolling. A massive review published in Psychological Bulletin last September pulled together 71 studies covering 98,299 people. Heavy short-form video use (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) showed a clear pattern: worse attention, weaker self-control, and more anxiety. Consistent across teenagers and adults, across every platform tested. Oxford didn't name "brain rot" its 2024 Word of the Year for nothing.

A 2024 brain wave study found that people hooked on short-form video had weaker activity in the front of the brain, the part that controls focus and impulse control. Separate brain scans showed the same thing: heavy scrollers had less activation in the exact regions that deep reading strengthens.

UCLA neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf has been studying this for decades. Humans were never born to read. There's no gene for it. Reading is something we invented, and it hijacked neurons that were originally meant for recognizing faces. Over time, it built entirely new brain circuits connecting language, vision, and emotion. But those circuits only survive if you use them. Stop reading, and they fade. Wolf's conclusion is simple: screens built for speed produce a speed-wired brain. Books built for depth produce a depth-wired brain.

One honest caveat: most of these studies are snapshots, not long-term tracking. People who already struggle to focus might just prefer short videos. But the same pattern showing up across nearly 100,000 people is hard to shrug off.

The tweet repeats the line seven times. The research backs it up with brain scans, EEG data, and white-matter imaging across tens of thousands of people.

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@LI_Weather516 @ryanweather https://t.co/fjV7GahiAE

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@EliotJacobson Why do the previous years create three large bands? Is there a multi-year pattern? How far outside of this are we?

[AJ @hueydynamite]

Hermes Link, Ice Blue Mink

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@thisismollym Yes Molly! Congrats!

[Jennifer Begakis @jenbegakis]

A regular diet of naps could change this nation's culture and capitalism (for the absolute better)

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

It’s the perfect texture for running very low impact and it’s dry snow so your feet don’t get wet

[La Diablita 😈🎩 YHLQMDLG @Bebecitaaa69]

Damn! Portland, Oregon is going through it right now. 😂🤣

[Jason (U mad) @EmperorTChalla]

I'm gonna go ahead and say it. This is my exact issue with a segment of Black and biracial creatives in hollywood. Instead of making a film with Black people doing cool sh!t with magic against supernatural sh!t or KkKops or whatever...thiss is what the creative gave us. I...

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

Netanyahu: "Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews."

[savannah @savbrads]

People keep asking me why women’s trenches and overcoats don’t look like they did in the 80s and 90s and I have answers baby 🧵

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@ThePhoton_2023 And it’s the Persian Gulf 🙄

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@stunner_xoxo @capt_jayy It didn’t fucking happen

[karin slyvia @karinslyvia]

This is 95% of the NY Public Library’s budget.

[Voices in Movement @VIM_Media]

Solidarity with Palestine from the Zócalo in Mexico City. ✊🏿🔥🖤💚🤍♥️#FreePalestine

[Celebrity Book Club @cbcthepod]

The fact that Lisa Rinna doesn’t have an Emmy for Melrose Place is insane

[neil turkewitz @neilturkewitz]

This is truly too, too perfect.

[Sarah Dvojack @sarahdvojack]

If I could retweet this a thousand times, I would

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@matthewbennett @EliotJacobson And with 200m sq mi surface on earth, that’s 2.5 hiroshimas per sq mi, per year?

[David DeWitt @daveedyyy]

@teamlilmeat Love playing alongside a Senna