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Have you heard about #brainrot? If there’s one thing about these chronically online buzzwords, it’s that they sure know how to conjure a disgusting image.
If you can bear to read the phrase again, #brainrot is a term used to describe how one feels after scrolling through hours of TikTok/Internet content.
It comes from the now rather ubiquitous idea that the way we consume content is altering our neurochemistry, shortening our attention spans and, well, just generally rotting our brains.
I’m revealing my age here, but basically, it’s the 2024 version of “don’t watch too much television or your eyes will go square”.
Pictured: Brainrot is "the 2024 version of “don’t watch too much television or your eyes will go square".
I’m no scientist but I have conducted a long-term experiment on a particularly weak-willed and susceptible test subject to observe whether #brainrot does indeed exist.
(It’s me, the test subject is me.)
Whilst my brain is too rotten to actually take in the *air quotes* facts and figures *air quotes* I certainly resonate with the term #brainrot after a big TikTok session. See also: scrambled egg brain, porridge brain, not a single thought behind the eyes, algorithm zombie.
Because guess what? It turns out that a barrage of videos about why you should start getting Botox in your 20’s, evaluating if you’re ‘rabbit pretty’ or ‘deer pretty’, the latest ‘It Girl’ products, armchair psychologists diagnosing you with endless conditions via the algorithm and countless hair, makeup and miscellaneous tutorials of how to improve yourself can certainly take its toll on the old noggin.
The only light relief is when I get fed a video of kind-hearted people finding abandoned and mistreated cats and dogs, taking them in, nursing them back to health until eventually the once untrusting and wounded creatures open their hearts up to love again. Those videos make all the other #brainrot inducing #doomscrolling worth it.
Pictured: "I just thought that it was interesting that I thought being without Wi-Fi would be scary and alarming, but what I actually felt was free."
Now, I don’t want to be that person, but I recently went away and spent some time in the mountains where the Wi-Fi was weak, and the mosquitoes were out in full force. And what’s the point of going to the mountains if you aren’t going to return with a self-satisfied level of smugness that you can rub in everyone’s faces?
What’s scary is that I was honestly relieved not to have to do my usual TikTok session of scrolling before bed and when I woke up in the morning. Instead, I played cards, read a book (shock horror) and, heaven forbid, conversed with my partner. He couldn’t believe it considering we’ve only conversed via memes since 2019.
I’m not going to metaphorically stand here and metaphorically get onto a metaphorical high horse after exactly two (2) days in a forest with patchy Internet. Obviously not. I just thought that it was interesting that I thought being without Wi-Fi would be scary and alarming, but what I actually felt was free.
Anyway, those are the kind of dangerous ideas you can get if you stop letting your #brainrot so I’m going to get back to my TikTok time now.
This article first appeared in Connect Magazine which you can read in full below.
