One of the most important lessons of content creation is to catch the audience’s attention in the first three seconds. Why? Technology, specifically social media has severely cut down people’s attention spans and given rise to popcorn brains.

The ‘popcorn brain’ trend refers to the scattered, distracted state of mind caused by constant multitasking and digital overload,” enlightens Dr Rahul Chandhok, head consultant, mental health and behavioural science, Artemis Hospital, Gurugram. 
 
Expanding on it further, Dr Parth Nagda, consultant, psychiatry, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Navi Mumbai says, “Popcorn brain is a colloquial term used to describe a state of mind, wherein, there are excessive, scattered, unrelated thoughts, on different topics that hamper our ability to focus on one specific task. It is like how popcorns pop in a pan when heated – randomly without order. It is an informal term used to describe certain moments in a day when a person feels active but unfocused. It is associated with various other physiological or pathological processes like stress, sleep deprivation, and anxiety.” 
 
The term 'Popcorn brain or kernel brain' was first coined in 2011 by David Levy, a quality-of-life researcher at the University of Washington. It denotes the tendency of the mind to hop from one thought or task to another in a manner similar to popcorn popping in a pan – quick, sporadic, and unpredictable.