Hello everyone, welcome to this post about tech, screen time and evolutionary neuroscience.
It was a while since I was looking to write about this topic, and I have never done it before as I always prioritised my daylife challanges against the academic ones.
In regard to academic achievements, please be aware that I am not a doctor or a scientist. I am a strong observer and, in the case of this subject, I am a father and stepfather, and I am a people leader in hospitality. An industry that has lots of young people passing through during their studies. So I have fresh examples and practical situations that made me develop this idea/theory.
PLEASE, TAKE IT AS MY OWN OPINION.
I will add referencing to this post below for you to check out.
Use this post as a stimulation of thinking, a personal opinion of someone who cares about his children, his step-children and all the workers I have met in many years of service.
Also, I have used AI to summarise my thoughts, to find online references that support and counter-arguments to my logic process and my conclusions. I will leave down here the rough thoughts and the AI version of those as proof that this is not an artificially made-up story but a long self-thought process, where the Artificial Inteligence as the part to make your experience more enjoyable and my time more valuable.
Enjoy!
Simone Berliat
The Evolutionary Mismatch: Why Screens Are Training Your Child’s Brain and Body to Fail
Have you ever wondered why a child can stay glued to a tablet for four hours without moving a muscle, but the second you turn it off, they can’t sit still, pay attention, or focus on a book for four minutes?
To understand this modern crisis, we have to look past the apps and look directly at human DNA. The truth is, our children’s brains are operating on survival software that was written thousands of years ago—and modern technology is completely hijacking it.
1. The Survival Brain is Thirsty for Data
Deep inside our genetic code, the human brain is wired to be an aggressive seeker of stimulation. In our ancestral past, survival depended entirely on constantly scanning the environment. A rustle in the bushes could be a predator; a sudden flash of movement could be food. Our ancestors survived because their brains were incredibly responsive to sudden sensory inputs.
Because of this, human brains are naturally thirsty for information. In nature, information equals safety and survival.
2. The Digital Trap: An Evolutionary Mismatch
Here is the core of the problem: our DNA did not design us for the artificial world we have built.
In biology, this is known as an evolutionary mismatch. A fast-paced video or video game mimics a high-stakes, hyper-stimulating survival environment. It fires intense bursts of sights, flashing lights, and explosive noises directly into the child’s face.
To the ancient survival brain, this screen is the ultimate environment to map out. The brain says: “Pay attention! There is so much happening here, this must be critical for survival!” Devices exploit our ancient survival circuits by mimicking an intense, fast-changing environment that never actually stops.
3. The 2-Channel Trap and Sensory Frustration
But notice how this information arrives. Our brains are designed to experience reality in a full, 360-degree sensory loop. Think about a child playing outside in the rain. Their brain receives a massive, coordinated symphony of data: they see the clouds, hear the drops, feel the cold water on their skin, and their muscles fire as they balance and jump. When all these pieces line up, the brain feels safe and grounded. This alignment brings the nervous system a profound sense of peace.
Contrast that with a child playing a video game. The brain is blasted with hyper-stimulation, but it is restricted to only two channels: eyes and ears. Visually, the child is sprinting through a warzone. The brain reacts to this intense data—the heart rate speeds up, adrenaline pumps, and the survival instinct turns on.
But when the brain checks the rest of the body for confirmation, it hits a wall of silence. The eyes see a sprint, but the legs are completely still. The ears hear an explosion, but the skin feels nothing. This creates a massive, stressful biological paradox. The brain enters a loop of intense Sensory Frustration. It is trapped in a virtual lie, frantically seeking physical return-signals from the body to feel safe, but those signals never arrive.
This is why turning off a console results in a physical meltdown. When the screen goes black, the brain is left stranded in a state of ungrounded neurological chaos.
4. The Path of Least Resistance: Neuroplasticity and ADHD Symptoms
Because children’s brains are highly adaptable—a concept known as neuroplasticity—they physically shape themselves to match the environment they spend time in.
The human brain is a master energy conservationist; it is programmed to hunt for the highest biological reward (dopamine) using the absolute minimum amount of effort. Screens offer a biological cheat code: high reward with zero active effort. The child receives massive stimulation while remaining completely passive.
We call it ADHD, but in reality, it is a brain that has been perfectly trained by a hyper-stimulated environment to only react, never to process.
[Screen Environment] -> High Reward + Zero Effort -> Brain builds Reactive Pathways
[Real Environment] -> Slow Reward + High Effort -> Brain lacks Analytical Pathways
5. The Ultimate Tragedy: The Body as an Anchor
This degeneration doesn’t stop at the skull. During childhood, the physical body looks to the environment to decide how strong it needs to be to survive. If a child doesn’t fight gravity, run up hills, or move, the body assumes those structures aren’t needed. Why waste valuable energy building dense bones and powerful muscles for a body that only needs to twitch two thumbs?
The body adapts to the couch: muscles atrophy, bone density drops, and metabolic energy is stored as fat rather than being burned for power.
Eventually, the child is left with an underdeveloped nervous system and an unconditioned frame. The physical body becomes an anchor. It is heavy, sluggish, and it physically hurts to move. When you take the screen away and tell that child to go outside, they face a double wall of failure: mentally, their brain lacks the neural pathways to process the slower analog world; physically, their body cannot support their own weight comfortably.
They retreat back to the digital trap because we have allowed technology to modify their biology. We have trained them to be incompatible with the physical world, systematically dismantling the resilience of the individual.
My original thoughts transcribed – Simone Berliat
Ok! Now I will tell you what my theory is, and you (AI) will integrate it with what is certainly studied and available online and develop a text that has reliable resources. I am happy even if they contradict my theory, okay!?
The idea is that the brain is constantly seeking stimulation! Why does it do it? It is a perfect technique for best survival, and what I mean is that.
Because the brain is thirsty of stimulations is constantly scanning the environment around itself to collect as much information as possible, so that it can define a safe pathway for survival, and obviously, this is coded in our DNA.
This coding was a successful strategy for many years that allowed the brain to adapt to new environments and life conditions. However, the DNA does not take into consideration a change so drastic in the environment as we have applied recently, with the introduction of smartphones and tablets, and the brain is not obviously designed to deal with the overstimulation that comes from an artificial environment, which is the one that we created.
What the brain does is to adapt to changes for the best outcomes of survival.
When food is available or even abundant, a safe, warm environment is accessible. What is left is just to make sure to prepare the body for the environment, the brain seeks more stimulation, which is equal to more chances of grasping the key to a more successful survival.
The hook is that the constant stimulation coming from unnatural life, overstimulating noises and constant situations presented in video and computer games. Those stimulations are obviously falsely training the brain as they are not providing a challenge equal to reality, especially in the consumption of online video content.
The brain’s real job is to develop itself in response to the environment, develop habits/pathways that are relevant to the analogical life. Technology addiction with a constants stimulation, with no moments of thought, a moment of developing concepts, analysis, and problem solving doesn’t equip the brain with the mental processes to face the slower and less stimulating real-life. Also, limiting the development of the other senses or squeezing down the stimulation we receive from less intense experiences makes real life greyer and ‘boring’. What it does, it is simply create a loop of over-stimulation; the brain is constantly looking for having, but it doesn’t develop other cognitive pathways in the brain, in the neural network, and that’s the problem for kids. Because childhood and adolescence are the times when they are developing this network pathway, which is pretty much adapting to the environment.
I would like to add the topic of the body. So what’s happening is that the brain is obviously really interested in this stimulation, a two-channel stimulation. However, it also seeks responses from other senses, for example. Yes, we have beautiful sunshine today, as the image on the screen shows to our eyes. However, the brain doesn’t feel the warmth of it, so there is a discrepancy between the stimulation that the brain receives from the look and the hearing, and the one that it receives from the other senses. There is a completely different stimulation from the environment for the touch, the smell, and the other senses in general. If the children are running a computer game that allows them to explore the hills, they are falsely experiencing it, but they are not really feeling it coming from the real action, and that creates a discrepancy that causes the brain to get frustrated. Why? Because the brain is trapped in that channel of information and constantly seek for confirmation from the other part of the body. That’s a way of feeling safe for the brain. When the brain has a relevant level of communication through all the senses, it actually feels ‘safe’ as the environment in which it is located is fully under control.
The brain says: Okay. I can see the rain. I can smell the rain. I can feel the rain on my body. I can feel the humidity that’s his right. That’s real.
Instead, adding only two channels of communication, the brain does enter a frustration loop. Where it is constantly looking for this extra stimulation coming from other senses, as its survival depends on it, the brain ends up not feeling responses and that causes an overall feeling of dissatisfaction that ends in frustration. Reinforcing the brain to continue seeking a digital interaction without actually having a real run, a real smash, a real jump, a real feeling about the environment where they are, and overall development of unfulfillment. Losing their inner peace.
To finish, what is the outcome for the individuals!?
First of all, they do not grow the proper neuro network inside their brain, and that’s why you have ADHD, which is a lack of attention, because they’re being wired to constantly receive stimulation without having to process that stimulation and the outcomes that are coming from this stimulation, so they have a passive approach, so their brain doesn’t develop the cognitives required to process this information.
Also, the digital activity tends to be more stimulating and less energy-demanding, developing a sedentary habit where the overall experience comes actually from not doing it. Not to live it! Obviously the brain, what does the best is to try to achieve the best outcome with the lower energy, so for them became heavy or difficult face the reality, face the presence, because for their brain reality is less stimulating and more difficult, because they have been not building the neurological pathways to face the extra level of interaction, the thinking process and the to build up the resilience.
This also has an impact on their body development.
Obviously, if you don’t move your body, especially during the growth time.
If you do not build your muscles, facing your environment, forcing your body to go through the process of tears and repair, which builds it, adapted to the environment for survival.
If you don’t build your muscles, you don’t develop your bones, and you have instead this partial feeling of fulfilment coming from experiencing constant unreal stimulation, your body will simply save that energy. The brain will simply save this energy, and when they have to face an outside challenge, they will give up. The outside interaction becomes more difficult at that point. They are not getting stimulated enough. They are lacking in the neural pathways to process that interaction and the ones for perseverance. Plus, their body is not supporting them actually; it becomes the anchor that stops them from moving out of that state of dependency, and that is pretty much, in my opinion, equal to destroying an individual.
Referencing:
🟢 Direct Links Supporting the Theory
- Brain Scan & White Matter Organisation Data (Santos, 2025): This study tracks how screen time negatively alters white matter organisation and structural brain connectivity in early adolescence:
Read the Full Study Abstract on Ovid / JAMA Pediatrics Network - The Massive Systematic Review on Physical Harms (Stiglic & Viner, 2019): This is the landmark BMJ study tracking physical fitness drops, metabolic declines, adiposity, and childhood behavioural struggles: Read the Full Text Paper on BMJ Open
- The Evolutionary Mismatch. It happens when an organism has traits that were perfectly adapted for one environment (the ancient analog world), but is suddenly placed in a completely different environment (the modern digital world). Dr. Sanil Rege and other experts state that smartphones and games are “hyper-stimuli”—they exploit our ancient survival circuits by mimicking an intense, fast-changing environment that never actually stops. Read the Full Text Paper on BMJ Open
- The Bidirectional Loop Review (Umar, 2026): This literature review highlights that children with pre-existing ADHD traits aggressively seek screens for instant dopamine rewards, proving the relationship is a two-way street rather than simple cause-and-effect: Read the Full Literature Review on the World Journal of Clinical Paediatrics
The Mitigation and Context Scoping Review (Sticca et al., 2025): This paper explores how parental mediation, child resilience, and high-quality interactive contexts can actually stop screen time from causing developmental damage: Read the Full Article on Frontiers in Developmental Psychology