Tetris effect occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.

A closer look

Tetris effect occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. Originally observed in individuals who played the video game Tetris for prolonged periods, these players reported seeing falling blocks in their peripheral vision or dreaming about organizing objects into perfect geometric shapes. Your brain is essentially a highly adaptable pattern-recognition machine that will aggressively optimize itself for whatever useless task you feed it. If you spend twelve hours a day swiping on dating apps, your neural pathways will physically rewire themselves until you start unconsciously swiping left on strangers you see at the grocery store. It is a terrifying reminder that our minds are incredibly plastic and completely willing to dedicate massive amounts of cognitive processing power to matching virtual candies instead of remembering important passwords or paying taxes