A few months ago, I began noticing an unusual pattern across my digital feeds.
Wherever I scrolled, people kept telling me toplay Tetris.
But I quickly realized that I was late to the party.
Research on how the brain adapts to playing Tetris goes back even further.
But how exactly does it work?
Tetris was created in 1984 as an arcade game in Soviet Moscow by the scientistAlexey Pajitnov.
Players couldn’t get enough.
It wasn’t long before Tetris devotees began reporting a strange occurrence.
In 1994, Wired dubbed this the “Tetris effect.”
Instead of helping people move past the event, this approach often made them feel worse, she says.
Playing Tetris, on the other hand, has been found to have the opposite effect.
Other studies point to further applications for Tetris' magic.
“The person could be really rude to you.
But it’s part of the job.”
With Tetris, he realized he’d found his ideal solution.
“It helped me get over the initial 30 seconds of nerves,” Padilla says.
He went on toshare the tipon TikTok with fellow SaaS sellers.
Padilla’s explanation for why the game helped aligns with the research.
He’s even programmed a version of the game for personal use.
At least some of the surge in awareness over the science of playing Tetris comes down to simple SEO.
But with growing interest comes expanded misunderstanding.
“‘Play Tetris’ is the new ‘Have you tried yoga?’
It’s a problem that spreads far beyond Tetris.
It’s the same hive-mind instinct thatfeeds conspiracy theoriesand problematic health advice.
“But as we get more excited about it, we’ll do it more and more.
That, to me, is a societal ill, not a societal good.”
Morin sees things differently.
There’s little to lose in trying.
“But who hasn’t played Tetris or some other, similar game?
You’re not out on anything by giving it a shot.”
Kelli Maria Korduckiis a journalist whose work focuses on work, tech, and culture.
She’s based in New York City.
