BENGALURU: Once thought to be an illness of ageing, dementia now has a twin in the digital age. Doctors in the city are pointing to “digital dementia” in children, a condition where the brain’s natural ability to build and retain memory is weakening because of constant smartphone use.
Experts note that many children are finding it difficult to stay patient or concentrate on tasks for long, as hours of watching fast-paced content on phones are shortening their attention span. Alongside this, doctors, teachers and parents are observing gaps in recall with children struggling to remember sequences in a story, retain what they study beyond a short period, or connect lessons from one day to the next and even their parent’s phone numbers.
Dr Ravi Kumar CP, Consultant, Paediatric Neurology at Aster CMI Hospital pointed out that among children, Digital Dementia is showing up as forgetfulness, poor concentration in school, difficulty retaining information, slower thinking, and even social withdrawal.
“Constant notifications, fast-paced videos, and quick information access train the brain to seek instant gratification rather than deep focus, which further worsens attention and memory. In cities like Bengaluru, where tech exposure is high and digital learning has become common after the pandemic, these patterns are being observed more clearly,” Dr Kumar said.
Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic, explained that children today are being introduced to smartphones at such an early age that their brains are not getting enough opportunity to naturally develop memory skills.
“Memory building is divided into types. The first layer is sensory memory, which comes from direct interaction with the world — touching, seeing, hearing, and experiencing things in real time. When this information is retained for about a day or two, it moves into short-term memory, and with repeated recall or practice, it eventually becomes long-term memory, which is what allows us to remember phone numbers, directions, faces, or even skills for years.
But this process requires active engagement. Now, because of constant dependence on phones, that cycle is getting disrupted.” Dr Sharma highlighted. For instance, instead of paying attention to what they see or experience, many children simply take a photo or screenshot and then forget about it.
They are outsourcing memory to the device rather than exercising their own brain. Over time, this weakens the natural pathways that help information shift from short-term to long-term storage, he added.
Children are increasingly unable to recall their parents’ phone numbers, even when travelling along the same route multiple times, they do not remember landmarks and as a result, they are not forming spatial memory or a mental map of their surroundings, Dr Sharma said.