History Main / TheTetrisEffect

** When Lisa became a crossword puzzle addict, she started to see crosswords in everything.

* Henk Rogers describes it perfectly in both the trailer of Film/Tetris2023 and its opening scene. Unsurprising, since the film deals with the TropeNamer. It also shows up as a ChekhovsSkill during the films final climactic ChaseScene.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Children who worked long hours in factories in the Victorian Age were reported to be repeating their work (mostly simple hand movements) while they slept.
* The name of the programming forum [[http://www.dreamincode.net Dream.In.Code]] refers to this phenomenon.
* The Tetris effect is so strong, that people with short-term memory loss can experience the effect, despite not remembering even playing the game. It showed scientists that humans have a secondary type of memory. So, Tetris actually helped advance science.
* If you spend enough time learning music theory, it is very difficult not to conduct along to every song you hear. Or, [[http://xkcd.com/389/ as xkcd put it...]]
* Late author Robert Asprin attributed his creation of the first ''Literature/MythAdventures'' book to this trope, as his deep immersion in writing the grim corporate-mercenary novel ''Cold Cash War'' was causing him to regard people, and even family members, as potential threats or targets. Writing a comic fantasy was his way of canceling out this alarming effect.
* One Storycorps podcast episode tells the story of a former steelworker who, dying and drugged up on morphine, would sit on his back [[http://storycorps.org/listen/ken-kobus-and-ron-barraf/ and make steel]].
* This is, of course, the main reason JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.
[[/folder]]

* During an interview at the end of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', Jackie muses that he started having Tetris nightmares after playing.

* In a post-credits interview for ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', Creator/JackieChan was asked if he played any video games. He responded that he liked Tetris, but played it so much that he would eventually started to have nightmares about it, which prompted him to stop.

* One part of a ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' episode in which Josh had to spend several days without playing video games showed him imagining his teacher as the DistressedDamsel in a SaveThePrincess game.

--> '''Kid:''' (while using a hammer and nail) Where's the delete key on this thing?!
--> '''Grandpa:''' (turns the hammer around to the claw side)
--> '''Kid:''' Wow!
--> '''Grandpa:''' I hate your entire generation.

* The Tetris effect is so strong, that people with short-term memory loss can experience the effect, despite not remembering even playing the game. It showed scientists that humans have a secondary type of memory. So Tetris actually helped advance science.

* This is, of course, the main reason JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife .

-->-- '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8fVT_Ds4Q Announcement trailer]]''' for ''Tetris Effect (2018)''

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1657084602096025400 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* By Creator/{{Quino}}: [[http://stuartngbooks.com/images/detailed/18/quino_dejenme_1.jpg Ever wondered how would life be for the guy who draws the sound effects in comics?]]
[[/folder]]

* In the first chapter of ''Literature/DonQuixote'', we see that Alonso Quixano, a ImpoverishedPatrician with way too much time on his hands, is a FanBoy of ChivalricRomance books. He evolves into being FanDumb, then he wants to write Fanfiction about ''The tale of Don Belianis of Greece:'', but he instead decides to change his life drastically by [[AscendedFanboy becoming a]] KnightErrant, changing his name to Don Quixote.

* In ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' Captain Holt gets addicted to a Candy Crush-style game called Cwazy Cupcakes (the w is backwards), and acknowledges that he has a problem when he makes two men in a police lineup swap places so that three people with the same color shirt are standing next to each other.
-->'''Gina''': It's so addicting, right? I play so much that when I close my eyes at night, I just see cupcakes now, instead of my normal dizzying array of flashing lights.

* Watch enough ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and you could find yourself visualizing what every vehicle or household appliance would look like if it spontaneously turned into a robot.

* Happened in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Skill Crane". After being stuck playing (and losing) the Krusty Krab's new crane game all day, Squidward goes home to find that he's lost all his motor skills, dropping everything he tries to pick up while hearing the sound of the crane's claw closing down.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' had an episode which asked the question of video game haters: If kids are supposedly imitating violent games, why isn't the same true for ''non-violent'' games? As well as pointing out there are plenty of nasty things on television as well that no one cares about. In the episode, the kids are worried that watching "informative murder porn" will make their parents want to kill each other, so they put a blocker on the TV, with the unlock code being "How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?" Wanting to watch their shows, the adults end up getting hooked on Minecraft and start punching trees and making castles out of blocks of junk in real life.

* There's a story, probably a legend, of a 40-year Marine Veteran with Alzheimer's who only responded to a few commands from the Marine Drill manual.

* This is not limited to gaming. If you've ever had a repetitive job that involves working with large quantities of the same kind of object all day long, you probably dreamed about them on the night after your first day.
** Especially annoying in the case of piece work. In jobs such as tree-planting, where you are paid for each tree you plant, and often live in a work camp for a condensed season (meaning that aside from basic needs and the occasional day off, your job is basically the only thing you do), dreams about planting trees are frequent, but frustrating, as you basically worked for free all night long.
* Working a job that has you answering the phone a lot. Ever answer your phone at home with the name of the company you work for? Or end a casual conversation with a friend by thanking them for calling? Psychologically, this is called ''imprinting''.
* Anyone who's ever worked in retail has stories about using their "customer service" demeanour in non-work settings. Or you ask people if they want a receipt even if you are the one who is paying.
* If you work at a job (like bagging groceries) where you literally are playing Tetris with the objects. Similarly, if you work the closing shift of a retail position and later go shopping, you'll find yourself compelled to move items to the front of the shelf and organize them.
* Off duty taxi drivers will sometimes look for the meter if they are driving their friend in their regular, non-taxi car.

* Combine this with DamnYouMuscleMemory. If you're doing something physically repetitious enough, you may find your spouse waking up one night to see your unconscious body still trying to do that physical motion.
* People who grew up (or spent a substantial part of their lives) during the period when films, and later television, were in black-and-white had a tendency to dream that way. For years it was assumed that some (non-colorblind) people just naturally didn't dream in color, or at least not exclusively... until sleep studies performed on people who were born after color TV proved otherwise.

* Professional copyeditors and proofreaders are usually among the most thorough and unrelenting {{Grammar Nazi}}s in existence. Some have claimed to have actually [[GrammarCorrectionGag proofread love notes sent to them out of sheer habit]].
* There's a story, probably a legend, of a 40 year Marine Veteran with Alzheimer's who only responded to a few commands from the Marine Drill manual.
* If you work in a library you may find yourself unintentionally re-shelving your books to better reflect their Dewey placement.

* Chess tournaments. Play in one and while trying to sleep at night, you'll start playing games in your head.
* Unfortunately, this is a big problem in the military. Many battle-trained soldiers must undergo "deprogramming" to get the "anything could be out to kill me" mindset out of their heads, among other ideas that are useful in a war zone, but not conducive to civilian life. When it gets too bad and they will never be the same, they call it PTSD. Scanning the road for [=IEDs=] is a very good example.
* After spending quite a bit of time on any graphic design or art program (such as Photoshop or Blender), it's difficult not to start looking at the lines on the roads or various architecture and think, "Now how would I make that in [the program]?" Same thing for cars, or any object you come across everywhere.
* Sometimes people will look at real scenes and objects and think "[[RealityIsUnrealistic this looks shopped]]".
* Artists may attempt to "save" and "undo" while making non-digital artwork, among other things.
* People who knit and/or crochet, often times, will see a knitted/crocheted item and try to figure out how to reproduce the results after admiring it for a short time.
* This applies on a more industrial level. Once you learn how to operate an industrial lathe, milling machine, or learn G & M code programming, once you learn all the steps it takes to actually ''create'' something, you will have a different outlook on life and start to look at every thing we use and take for granted in every day life and wonder how it's all constructed. Really, any sort of educational process where you learn how to produce something new will have you wondering "If I were the one making that, ''how'' would I go about it?"
* If you go to sleep shortly after studying for a final, chances are you'll dream of anatomical charts, periodic tables, legal cases, math tables, or whatever else you were studying.
* People who regularly drive a manual transmission will sometimes use their left foot to feel for the clutch when they get into the driver's seat of an automatic.
* There are many parents teaching their kids how to drive who automatically hits the brake, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory despite being in the passenger seat]].
* Practitioners of LeParkour can suffer from this to a maddening degree. After practicing for a while, Traceurs (the word for a Parkour practitioner) begin to see potential paths everywhere they go. EVERYWHERE. Even watching enough ''videos'' of it can cause this.
* Someone who watches enough martial arts movies or videos may start looking at the people around him and thinking [[TemptingFate "yeah, I can take 'em"]].
* If you've spent any significant amount of time 3D modelling, it won't be long until every building that you see gets analysed and recreated as a 3D model in your head.

* Ever done a study on literary/art/film analysis? You will analyze every book/artwork/film you encounter, even if just for leisure.
* Using a touch screen can cause this to happen when you interact with electronics that aren't touchscreens; you may find yourself poking at an icon on your regular PC with your finger. Worse, you might start trying to scroll through a book/newspaper in dead tree format as if it's a touchscreen! If there's anyone in the room with you, they might point and laugh at you, [[NeverLiveItDown much to your embarrassment]].
* New students in any field of design -- graphic design, architecture, interior design, etc. -- are often told only half-jokingly by their professors that they will never be able to look at their chosen field the same way again once they start.
* After spending some time at the beach or on a cruise some people may experience sea legs, the sensation that they are still rising and falling, or feeling the sea waves. It's not clear, however, if this is a form of Tetris Effect or an adaptation of the sensory system to a constant stimulus.
* Any person who's been in a marching band for an extended period of time may find themselves subconsciously glide-stepping and/or trying to align their steps to their music while walking in public.
* While shopping, [[{{Cosplay}} cosplayers]] may find themselves analyzing everything they see in terms of what can be utilized for their next costumes or what would look perfect for certain characters.
* People in technical theatre tend to not be able to watch plays or musicals they aren't involved in due to this trope. After a couple shows, they'll find themselves looking for and judging the sets, lights, and sound and not paying attention the actual show due to them needing to focus on those things on the job.
* The clinical part of a doctor's or nurse's brain does not just shut off because they're not at work; they're seeing and examining and picking up on things all the time. Some physical signs are quite subtle.

* Anyone who has worked as an usher at a movie theater will often accidentally tear their own movie tickets out of pure habit.
* If you're a fan of a certain series be it an anime or a video games, the chance of you having a dream of said media is pretty good. Even if you aren't a fan of said series there's a chance of you suddenly dreaming about it.
* Anyone who works in a GMP laboratory for long enough will find themselves trying to follow protocols at home, like trying to print the weight on their home kitchen scales, or having to stop themselves from writing opened dates on food.
* Many dancers often feel the urge to move alongside music, even if they are just casually listening to it in their free time. This worsens if it's a piece they have performed previously, good luck at trying to sit completely still then.

** Due to his exposure to the Animus, Desmond in ''AssassinsCreedIII'' views his sequences in Brazil and Italy with "counter" prompts and "awareness" indicators, both of which were not visible the last time he was in a battle in the present day in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII''. Also, if it is not a TranslationConvention, the exposure also gives him enhanced language acquisition, as he is able to understand Portuguese enough for it to be translated in subtitles as he passes people by. Essentially, the exposure since [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations finding his Synch Nexus]] has had added beneficial components, while lacking the SanitySlippage.