Twitter Brain

a story told by a survivor

My dad always said you are what you eat. I had to wait until I was about 23 until I fully understood what he meant (such was the era of plus sized Jords). Now I’m beginning to realise my brain functions the same way.

My body is shaped by what I eat, my mind is shaped by what it consumes.

Now I want to be clear, because much is written on this subject. I don’t mean that my attention span feels a bit lower or that technology is bad. I have extremely tangible examples that I can point to, on both sides of this problem.

If I spend a week or even a few days with high screen time on X, I develop what I like to call Twitter brain. My thoughts will format in 280 character max.

While I’m Tweeting and reading tweet-sized content for hours per day, my brain adapts to its new ideal state. I am giving my brain inputs and it does its best to figure out what it can do to optimise for this new behaviour.

A thought pops up, such as ‘remember when you used to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time?’ and my brain registers it as ‘that’s a nice tweet’. Then it shuts off, its sole purpose is to remember that one line, or perhaps try to improve the Tweet.

It might go so far as to begin thinking about the responses to said Tweet, but it will not press forward on the journey toward critical thinking.

Twitter brain also affects my ability to learn. I spend several hours per week taking language lessons and practicing. When I am in Twitter brain mode, it just feels like I’ve handicapped myself.

The ability to sit down and focus on something dissipates, like I have de-evolved.

I feel Twitter brain’s pull most while I watch sport. Never in my life have I had issues enjoying a full game of the many variations I enjoy.

But the last few years I’ve noticed a new gravitational pull from my pocket. I want more stimulation, all the time. My dad can barely watch a game anymore without his laptop on his knees. It appears the brain continues to adapt until we die.

Twitter brain creeps up on me when I’m in cyborg mode. Sometimes I move around the house like I’m in Ready Player One and hyper connected to everything that’s ever been connected to the internet.

I am on twitter while listening to music then I flick to another tab then check Claude then get up to get something from the kitchen and play a podcast out loud. It’s like I’m trying to introduce an epileptic fit to my brain through constant stimulation.

There should be absolutely zero surprise when I wake up the next day and don’t feel capable of studying French verb tenses, or reading 3 pages without checking the charts.

After all this time, I am self-aware of the affliction. I can feel it as it rises up and cherish its demise on the other end.

I wave goodbye to this curse as I sit down and write. After I log off and focus on one thing at a time. These pieces I write take several hours, with most of them being contemplation and reflection. Ah, what beautiful things they are.

Being able to reflect and contemplate deeper ideas is becoming an edge over all those who have accepted Twitter brain as their permanent state.

After writing, I can feel my brain begin to breathe again. My ability to concentrate returns, quite rapidly I’ve found. It scares me how quickly my attention can fluctuate on any given day.

It also scares me how much of a change I notice. My ability to do everything increases. My critical thinking skills improve, my presence in relationships is noticeably better, my routines are easier to follow and I can think. Like, actually, think.

It feels much like when I have a great night’s sleep and wake up the next day feeling fresh vs feeling tired. If I have fuelled my brain the day before then it is capable of doing either great things or sweet fuck all (except maybe a banger Tweet).

So what is the solve for this? There are courses being sold, coaches being paid and a near-infinite amount of self-help books written on the subject. The problem of attention spans has become an epidemic and I believe most are losing the battle simply because it is difficult to understand where to start.

It feels like one of those unsolvable things that is too difficult or long to be bothered about. Why swim against the tide, let your last braincells float away.

But I can attest that it is absolutely solvable, and does not take very long. You just need to understand that your mind is the output of what you consume. We are extremely adaptable beings and are never too far gone.

The truly difficult problems are the ones that take years to solve. Losing significant weight, learning a language, building a business. These take years of dedication and positive behaviour change, regaining your attention span can take as little as a week of doing things that seem hard but really aren’t.

If you research the problem, you will probably be led into some meditation rabbit hole. While I endorse meditation, it’s also pretty fucking annoying to do consistently, and maybe too high a bar to set for those who can’t watch a video for more than 15 seconds. The answer is always the same, do something and don’t do nothing.

You are probably at the stage where your attention is decreasing everyday, like a tire with a puncture, slowly sssssss’ing its air until it is flat, and let’s face it, useless.

What you need to do is literally anything you want, but wholeheartedly. Yes you can call it mindfulness but the title is much less intimidating if you just call it what it is, doing one thing at a time.

I don’t think there’s anything bad you can do, if it’s done by itself. The only rule is that it must not have an infinite scroll. Play Playstation, listen to an audiobook or eat junk food. Just do it with only one source of stimulation at a time.

I read something beautiful the other day. Rest is to a creative what cardio is to an athlete.

I feel this sentence with my entire being, but I think it is far more than just the creative. Rest is the brain’s cardio, and only by concentrating on one thing at a time are we able to generate the wonderful thoughts that can change the world.

So many of the greatest ideas have come during periods of rest. I wonder whether Newton’s apple or Archimedes’ eureka moment would have inspired a TikTok instead of groundbreaking science if they were alive today. Maybe they would have had to become content creators on the side?

I ponder briefly how many magical thoughts never arose because they were optimally formed for a Tweet. I think about how many times my brain interrupted itself on the way to create something beautiful.

You are what you eat and I think it’s about time I stop going to the fucking buffet everyday.