Your smartphone making you older? Alarming link between screen addiction and brain ageing

Baby Chakrapani P STNN
Apr 9, 2026 | 13:32 IST

This is not a doomsday prediction. It is an emerging science, and should make you think twice before your next late-night scroll

Indians collectively spent 1.1 trillion hours staring at their smartphones in 2024 — an average of five hours a day per person, according to a new EY report. Nearly 70% of that time was devoted to social media, gaming, and short-form video.

However, a far quieter crisis is unfolding — a growing body of evidence points to a hidden biological cascade: Excessive screen time disrupts sleep, which ravages the gut microbiome, fuels neuroinflammation, and accelerates brain ageing in ways science is only beginning to measure.
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