January 16, 2026
“A study by a Singapore government agency has found that children exposed to high levels of screen time before age two showed brain development changes linked to slower decision-making and higher anxiety in adolescence, adding to concerns about early digital exposure.” Bloomberg
As a public service, I have copied the link to the entire article at the end of this piece.
As evidence continues to accumulate it appears that web surfing and inordinate time on the screen/keyboard creates health issues that we are only slowly beginning to understand. That our society, most especially younger people seem addicted/hooked to it, the long-term implications, while not yet fully understood, are understood well enough to cause concern.
As a simple example, web surfing can create fatigue, and there are several mechanisms at play. Researchers have found the following.
Cognitive overload: Constantly jumping between topics and information streams forces your brain to repeatedly switch contexts. Each switch requires mental energy, and the sheer volume of information…headlines, images, videos, notifications…can overwhelm your brain’s processing capacity.
Decision fatigue: Every click represents a micro-decision about what to look at next. After hundreds or thousands of these small choices during a browsing session, your decision-making ability deteriorates, leaving you feeling mentally drained.
An aside…I wonder what effects this might have on someone like me who spends hours each day trading in markets with eight 27” screens of information constantly blinking. Each blink can be a call to action.
Eye strain: Staring at screens, especially without breaks, causes digital eye strain (also called computer vision syndrome). Symptoms include tired eyes, headaches, blurred vision, and difficulty focusing. Somehow, I seem to avoid these problems.
Dopamine roller coaster: Web surfing provides intermittent rewards (interesting content, social validation, new information), which trigger dopamine releases. But this creates a boom-bust cycle that can leave you feeling depleted, similar to a sugar crash.
Again, I do not seem to suffer from this.
Lack of deep engagement: Skimming and scanning dozens of articles or posts activates different neural pathways as opposed to deep, focused reading. This superficial processing can be surprisingly exhausting because your brain is constantly in “search mode” rather than “comprehension mode.”
Posture and physical factors: Hours of sitting hunched over a device restricts breathing, reduces circulation, and creates muscle tension – all contributing to fatigue beyond the mental aspects.
Taking regular breaks, limiting session length, and being intentional about what you’re looking for can help manage it. But of course, no one does that.
After decades of more or less constant screen time during my working day (and sometimes working night), I do have the ability to spend a full day “glued” to screens, even eating lunch at the desk, without fatigue. This doesn’t make me special, it simply tells me that it is possible, through practice, to handle all of this.
But I think it’s worth the question: Is that worth it? In my case, of course, trading/investing was (and is) how I grow my net worth. So, the financial reward is clear. But let’s set that aside. Do I really want to become an iron fortress in my ability to handle an overload of web-based information?
Here, we’ve been studying how to increase our reader count. It has become abundantly clear that the way that is generally accomplished is to attempt to “hook” the surfer with a headline, the more outrageous the better. Obscenities, raucous insult, sensational attention grabbing… all in the acquisition playbook. Not our thing, as you know, but that’s evidently what you do to really ramp your eyeball counts.
And this seems to be especially true among Gen Z’s and other younger generations. Many seem to be feasting on a diet of, let’s face it, Internet Garbage. And this helps form their world view which in turn shows up at the ballot box.
I have been steadily unhooking myself. A simple example…outside of market hours, I switch to my $60 flip phone. I forward my cell phone to it and so, can get calls. But it’s too painful to surf the net on a flip phone to bother and so, this forces me off after the markets close. I can pick it all up again in the morning.
I have been shedding apps, closing subscriptions.
More reading (and more and more from physical books). We aren’t cable news watchers so currently, 95% of our cable time is binging Victoria. Michael read her biography and so for her a very meaningful binge. All of that kind of stuff is infinitely better than surfing around, generating brain fatigue.
The purpose here is to create awareness about this issue. To help sensitize you to the simple fact that research is increasingly showing that excessive consumption of the Internet is not good for you. The direction of the research seems clear.
Where to start? As below, sensitize your kids who have infants.
Bach is OK in the crib (according to research), but clearly not the video version, it would appear.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
