The ping of a notification, the sight of two blue ticks, the silence after a message is read — these digital cues are not merely annoying. According to Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, they can trigger a form of “social pain” that activates the same brain regions associated with physical pain. Modern digital communication, she argues, causes stress by mimicking the sensation of social rejection, exploiting neural pathways evolved for face-to-face interaction within stable, small groups.
Sridhar, who began teaching at Oxford University in 2005, recalls a time when communication was formal and confined to scheduled office hours a couple of times a week, with emails reserved for rare occasions and most issues discussed in person. By 2026, that world has been replaced by incessant emails and Teams messages, with responses often expected within hours if not minutes, blurring the line between evenings, weekends and normal working hours. This “always on” culture, she writes, is pushing our minds to the limit, even without the influence of social media. Studies show that excessive digital technology use can impact cognitive functions including attention span, memory, and decision-making, with some researchers coining the term “digital dementia” to describe the cognitive decline associated with over-reliance on screens. A 2025 Bainland Lodge Retreats study documented high rates of burnout in the UK, while the Global Mind Project has tracked declining UK mental wellbeing. The 2026 Belonging Barometer survey and a 2022 study by the Campaign to End Loneliness both found that significant percentages of UK adults report chronic loneliness, despite being more digitally connected than ever.
At the heart of the problem lies a mismatch between our ancient biology and modern messaging. For most of human history, communication occurred face to face within small, stable groups — typically no larger than 150 individuals, a number prominent anthropologists call Dunbar’s number. Those interactions provided context through facial expressions, vocal tone, eye contact and body language. Digital messaging strips away these non-verbal cues, leaving text-based exchanges that are prone to misinterpretation. The “cues filtered out” theory explains why. A 2022 study in Boston found that days with more frequent text messaging were linked to greater stress and more negative feelings, while days with in-person contact were linked to feeling more positive. A 2026 review of numerous studies on texting versus in-person interaction confirmed the same: our wellbeing is higher with in-person interaction than with screen-based communication.
How read receipts and ghosting cause social pain
If plain texting is stressful, the introduction of read receipts — the two blue ticks signalling a message has been seen — has added a new layer of emotional burden. Sridhar explains that from a neuroscience perspective, delayed or ignored messages can activate brain regions associated with physical pain, particularly the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula. This phenomenon, known as social pain, reflects how our brains respond to exclusion or rejection. Research by Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues on social exclusion and stress responses has demonstrated this overlap. A 2017 study by Lynden and Rasmussen found that nearly half of respondents felt ignored or anxious as a result of read receipts. A later 2020 study showed that people feel bad faster when waiting for a response to a message that has been read, while a 2016 study found students postponing opening messages specifically to avoid generating a read receipt. The pressure is not only on the receiver: features that show when someone is typing, or when they were last online, intensify the expectation to be constantly present, forcing users to engage even when they would rather not, for fear of appearing rude or emotionally distant.
The pain of being left “on read” or ghosted — where communication is abruptly ended without explanation — runs deeper still. Sridhar points out that for nearly all of human history, people lived in small, tight-knit groups where disappearing from someone’s life was not an option. Modern studies show that unexplained disconnection in romantic relationships activates our biological alarm systems, raising stress levels, heart rate and blood pressure, pushing us to restore the bond or seek an explanation: “But why did they ghost me? What did I do?” Without a narrative, Sridhar writes, our brain has no way to resolve what has happened. Even short periods of being left unread can lead to feelings of micro-rejection, because the brain is primed to detect tiny shifts in social availability — a response that can be especially hard for those who already suffer from low self-esteem.
The toll on cognitive function
The constant availability demanded by modern digital communication does not merely trigger emotional pain; it also overloads the brain’s cognitive function system, which is responsible for decision-making. Every notification represents a small decision: should I respond now, later, or forget about it? Multiply this by dozens of times a day, and this constant multitasking leads to cognitive fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Research supports this: a 2009 study by Ophir and colleagues examined multitasking and attention, while a 2013 study by Anguera et al. explored how action video games can improve cognitive function — but the reverse is true for constant digital interruption. A 2012 study by Spitzer specifically described “digital dementia” arising from excessive technology use, and a 2018 study by Fossati et al. linked digital media use to diminished cognitive control. Sridhar summarises the result: “We have study after study on high rates of burnout, exhaustion and loneliness, not just in the UK but globally. We’re more in touch than ever, yet more lonely and stressed than ever before.”
Our nervous systems, she concludes, were designed for immediate, tangible threats — not for the constant pinging in our pocket and the stress of being left unread. The body’s alarm systems, triggered by the social pain of a blue tick that does not lead to a reply, are responding to a perceived exile from the group, even when the group is now a WhatsApp thread. And unlike our ancestors, we cannot simply walk away.