What does "brain rot" mean?

Social media have started frying our brains. Our grandparents and parents used to say it, but we didn’t listen. Now, however, the world of social media and digital engagement, with its metareferential culture, its memes bouncing from one corner of the planet to another, and especially with its incomprehensible words for those who live solely in the offline world (try explaining to an elderly relative what “Hawk Tuah” means or why the aunt who overindulges at Christmas dinner is called a “brat”), is taking over. This is why today the Oxford University Press has chosen “brain rot” as the Word of the Year 2024. Selected through a public vote involving over 37,000 participants, followed by deliberation from linguistic experts, the term “brain rot” has emerged as the best representation of the concerns troubling our society. Between 2023 and 2024, according to the New York Times, the usage of the term "brain rot" saw a 230% increase, fueled by its spread on platforms like TikTok and Twitter (now X). Initially adopted by online communities as a humorous or self-deprecating expression, the term has taken on a broader meaning, reflecting growing concerns about the negative effects of digital overexposure, particularly among younger generations. Its connotations (describing both the cause and effect of the intellectual or cognitive decline we are collectively experiencing) make it a fitting choice for a year defined by increasingly in-depth discussions about the impact of technology on the human mind, mental health, and the ways social dynamics have been altered by the anonymity of social media, as well as the rise in youth violence.

What is the origin of the term “brain rot”?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "brain rot" refers to «the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially seen as the result of excessive consumption of material (now particularly online content) considered trivial or unstimulating.». Additionally, the term also describes the content itself, perceived as a probable cause of such deterioration, encompassing both the medium and its psychological effects. The history of “brain rot” dates back nearly two centuries, long before its contemporary associations with social media and viral memes. The first documented use of the term dates to 1854, in Walden by Henry David Thoreau. In this celebrated book, Thoreau critiques society’s tendency toward intellectual apathy, asking: «While England works to cure the potato blight, will no one work to cure the brain rot, which prevails much more widely and fatally?» For Thoreau, "brain rot" symbolized the erosion of critical thinking and the preference for simplistic ideas over real, nuanced, and, above all, serious and mature intellectual engagement. With the advent of the digital age, Thoreau’s concerns have found new relevance. While his critique was rooted in the philosophical and cultural context of his time, today “brain rot” more directly refers to the relentless consumption of superficial online content, such as memes, viral videos, clickbait articles, and the like, which dominate much of modern life. This evolution of the term highlights its adaptability and enduring significance.

In 2024, "brain rot" has become synonymous with the effects of low-quality, banal, or overly abundant digital content, often referred to as “slop” when generated by AI. Its spread is closely tied to the explosion of platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, which serve both as fertile ground and amplifiers for the very content the term critiques. For many, the term captures the mental fatigue and cognitive overload caused by doomscrolling, where fleeting entertainment often replaces deeper intellectual engagement, shortening attention spans and creating a series of internal references that may carry meaning but appear increasingly illogical and almost anti-verbal: with words regressing to onomatopoeia, complex terms becoming monosyllabic, and lexical structures disintegrating and fragmenting more and more—from “charisma” to “rizz,” for example; from the English “simpleton” to “simp”; or concepts like “mogging” and “looksmaxxing”. Given the metareferential nature defining the phenomenon, “brain rot” is often used humorously, with a certain degree of self-aware irony in the memes themselves. Online communities frequently use the term to critique their own consumption habits, joking about the addictive and alienating nature of the content they create and consume daily. This self-aware irony has played a key role in popularizing the term and embedding it in everyday language.

While much of the discourse around "brain rot" is steeped in humor, the term also embodies serious concerns about the mental impacts of excessive digital consumption. Psychologists and mental health professionals increasingly emphasize the risks of prolonged exposure to trivial or toxic online content, particularly among children and adolescents. These risks include reduced attention spans, heightened anxiety, and weakened critical thinking skills—all phenomena aligned with the modern interpretation of “brain rot.” In 2024, these concerns have gained greater prominence, with organizations and experts beginning to address the phenomenon directly. These are some of the reasons why many countries are considering banning social media for minors, as recently implemented in Australia. According to Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, «this term encapsulates the perceived dangers of digital indulgence and reflects our collective reckoning with how we spend our leisure time». Grathwohl also noted the irony that younger generations, who are both creators and primary consumers of digital content, are also the ones speaking most openly about the term’s implications.