Brain Rot: Are You Addicted?
Are you scrolling on your phone at 2 AM when you know you should be sleeping? Do you use words like “yap”, “rizz’” and “cooked” in your everyday conversations? Ones that make no sense to your parents? Are you constantly tired, distracted, and low on motivation? Congrats! You might just have Brain Rot.
Source: statesmanshs.org
So, What Even Is “Brain Rot” Content?
The term Brain Rot was first used online way back in 2004 but only started becoming popular in the 2010s. In 2023, it became an internet meme and is now frequently used to describe Generation Alpha’s digital habits. It isn’t just about scrolling on TikTok or Instagram for hours. It’s that feeling of getting stuck doomscrolling through mindless, repetitive content. Content that’s made up of short, low-effort videos with many jump cuts, random effects and lots of internet slang. You are not just watching for fun anymore; social media has become your reality check. Such content is easy to watch but could take over your life–you could be doomscrolling just to entertain yourself for five minutes and before you know it, it’s turned into two hours. Where did the time go? The habit is addictive and does not leave anyone feeling good about themselves when they realise how long they've been scrolling for.
Why We Love It
Brain Rot content is made to be addictive. Fast-paced, hopping on new trends every week, it tricks our brains into thinking that it is something that we need to watch. With the additional use of slang, like “sus” “fam” and “bussin” being used in our everyday conversations, it starts to feel normal, like we all belong in this never-ending online conversation.
But why stop? NGL, it is fun! The internet is free and only just a click away. There’s news you can easily search up on TikTok instead of going to reputable sites, entertaining videos to watch, product reviews that I’m pretty sure you watch before buying something, even informative random facts you didn't know you needed, and obviously so much more, all in just one app. It’s so much easier to scroll than to actually search for it on Google.
The Downside: It’s Really Messing With Us
Source: healthline.com
It’s all fun and games until you realise that it’s actually affecting our brains. Research done by Stanford University shows that spending hours online has been linked to reduced grey matter in the brain – the stuff that helps us control our impulses and make good decisions. So… yeah… that means it could impair our learning, emotions, memory, making poor choices and having little self-control, which could lead to dementia and even Alzheimer’s.
And then there’s the whole language thing. All this Brain Rot content has made using slang so normalised that it has started taking over how we communicate. The more we use “rizz” and “slay”, the more we actually forget how to use real words, and it can make talking to people from other generations awkward as they stare at you blankly while you explain what it means to them…. Yeah we’ve all been there… Your mother has definitely looked at you, wondered what is wrong with you and where you are learning all these words from.
Source: Getty Images
Don’t even get me started on Gen Alphas! They’re growing up fully in this digital world, with parents giving their kids iPads to make them behave while the internet makes fun of them by calling them “iPad Kids”. They are addicted to watching dopamine-hitting videos that they think is funny but are very much questionable… like what is “Skibidi Toilet”? Kids are getting addicted to screen time, craving that instant reward from every swipe and video they watch, almost like hanging out with friends but without any actual people. This isn’t just something only Gen Zs deal with anymore – it’s practically everyone from the younger gen.
But It’s Not All Bad
Brain Rot might be real, but it does not mean all online content is bad. The internet is still an amazing place to learn, explore, and even make friends (the genuine ones at least, and not creepy 58-year-old men…). Gen Zs and Gen Alphas are more tech-savvy than any generation before us (sorry Boomers). And if we actually use the internet properly, we can make a real change in the future.
So… maybe we don’t need to stop scrolling entirely, we just need to try to scroll smarter. Because yes, Brain Rot is a thing, but so is making the internet work for us, and not against us. Put down your phone and stop procrastinating on real work already!
