Has anyone ever told you that the way that they reset after an intense experience is to sit down with their phone to maybe watch a funny video or two? It makes sense: laughter lowers cortisol and releases endorphins, shifting how we feel in our bodies, and if our phones can provide an easy laugh, then of course we'll keep looking to them.
There's a vast difference between watching a funny video or two and problematic smartphone usage (PSU), which research describes as the inability to control or regulate smartphone use, detrimentally affecting activities of daily life and relationships. PSU is further indicated by symptoms of withdrawal, anger, restlessness or anxiety when the device is not available (Ndayambaje, 2025).
But what happens to our nervous systems when one or two funny videos turns into an hour of scrolling, maybe followed by another? And to what extent can this affect athletic performance?
The answer, per existing research, is that it depends on many factors, including the type of content consumed, the frequency and duration of consumption (was it just an hour, one time, or is it thirty minutes to an hour multiple times a day), and individual traits and vulnerabilities, including age, pre-existing mental health conditions, and attachment to particular platforms and/or other users in those platforms. But let's look at the cascade of physiological effects that come with an hour of scrolling.
Researchers have found that for at least 30 minutes post-scrolling (and some research suggests it's more like two-plus hours), athletes show a decrease in decision-making performance and reduced capacity for training load (Mei et al, 2024). Another study (Freitas-Junior et al. 2025) indicates that using smartphones before training reduced attack efficiency and vertical jump ability in young male volleyball players.
Additional research outside of athletics has shown that an hour or two of scrolling can produce reduced cardiac adaptability (as indicated by lowered heart rate variability), increased stress activation, impaired recovery capacity, elevated cortisol, and prefrontal cortex impairments, leading to detriments in information processing and reaction capacity, both of which are crucial to performance in most sports.
Additionally, Mei and colleagues found that mobile phone usage depletes self-regulation, and that suppressed self-regulation lowered max heart rate capacity, mean power outputs, and intensified perceived exertion, meaning that the same effort felt harder for athletes who turned to mobile phones for quick rewards.
And not least of all, we also know that the lure of the scroll has impacts on sleep, which comes with many, many consequences for performance, and even if an athlete isn't scrolling right before bed, scrolling throughout the day still exacts a toll on sleep (Fiedler et al, 2024).
If somebody told you they had a pill you could take that would distract you from stress but also impair your reaction time, your coordination, your decision-making, your motor control, and your overall executive function, would you take it?
If we talked about scrolling the way we talked about substances, we'd be talking about a "pill" that depresses cognition, dysregulates your autonomic nervous system, and inhibits recovery. It might be competition-legal, but it's a pill that makes no sense to take if you're trying to enhance performance.
And yet, if the phone does provide a quick laugh and some endorphins, and it does provide connection to loved ones who might not be present at long training camps or competitions, and it does provide some reward-value and/or distraction from stress or distress, it's a hard pill to say no to. So how do we put limits on it?
How do we regulate this legal "substance"? What are the unintended consequences of coaches and organizations and sport psych providers warning against a source of perceived autonomy, particularly in high-intensity training or competition spaces where athletes' autonomy may feel deeply limited? These may be questions for athletes to discuss among themselves, with science as a guide and with their coaching and support staffs present to listen.