We read the research on what phones, feeds and AI do to attention, memory and learning, and report what it actually shows. Including when the answer is inconvenient.
Choose a topic to browse its research-led guides and articles.
What phones, feeds and notifications actually do to attention, and which findings survived replication.
Explore topicWhat changes when notes, search, study tools and AI carry part of the thinking for us.
Explore topicHow interfaces use ranking, defaults, autoplay and stopping cues to influence what we do next.
Explore topicWe will point you at the research that speaks to it.
New research-led articles on the human mind under digital pressure.
Two 2025 meta-analyses and a 1,661-person Facebook experiment agree: reducing social media use brings a small, real wellbeing gain. Quitting outright brings nothing, and sometimes the opposite.
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A Cochrane review of 17 trials found blue-light glasses do not reduce eye strain or improve vision. Evening screen light still affects sleep - through brightness and timing.
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Confirmshaming, measured: guilt-worded decline buttons lift acceptance by about five points, but the effect stopped reaching significance once people had to pay.
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The roach motel dark pattern, measured: cancelling takes more clicks than subscribing, but the strongest evidence says attention, not friction, keeps you paying.
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Should you accept cookies? What 'Accept all' really consents to, and what field experiments show banner design does, and does not do, to your click.
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Does speed reading work? The research shows a trade-off between speed and comprehension that no technique removes, and why being able to reread matters.
Read articleEvery load-bearing claim is traced to a named source. Where a finding failed to replicate, we say so. Where the research does not settle a question, we say that instead of guessing.
Our research standardsAlongside the articles, we keep a short library of books, tools and further reading relevant to attention, memory and digital design. Every entry is chosen on editorial merit, and any paid link is labelled as such.
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