It’s a Sunday night, and I have one essay, a quiz, three discussion posts and over 60 pages to read before Monday morning.
Logically, the smart thing to do would be to start on the mountain of work as soon as possible (or start it last Wednesday, when it was assigned). But, for some reason, I can’t pull myself out of the vortex of my phone.
As I scroll, and scroll and scroll, I’m hit with trend after trend, most of which I don’t really understand anymore. One of these trends is particularly confusing to me: brain rot.
The word “brain rot” is defined by the Oxford University Press as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”
While the term brain rot is not new, the context in which it is being used by TikTok is.
TikTok brain rot has set itself far apart from the actual definition of brain rot; so far that entire worlds, storylines and characters made by AI have been used to develop the TikTok brain rot universe.
As I scrolled through TikTok, I found that consuming all the different brain rot memes made my mind feel dull.
Despite every video being nonsensical, I felt inclined to keep scrolling, not because I was interested in the videos, but because I wanted to make sense of them (spoiler: I am still so confused by what I watched). My ability to think critically about these videos had disappeared, which is the entire point.
Brain rot inherently discourages critical thought and lessens the ability to concentrate. The more short-form, vapid videos a person consumes, the shorter their attention span becomes.
Chancellor’s Professor and Psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Gloria Mark said in an interview with the American Psychological Association that in 2004, the average attention span was measured at an average of two minutes and 30 seconds. In 2012, the average decreased to 75 seconds, and in the last five or six years, the average has decreased to about 47 seconds.
This decrease in attention span can be linked to social media use and the surge of short-form content, like TikTok brain rot.
UO freshman Ruby Moxley expressed that she’s personally seen excessive social media use create barriers between people in social settings.
“Those who are overly immersed in the digital world have a more difficult time connecting with others in the physical world,” Moxley said.
The normalization of brain rot and the shortening of attention spans has been a direct contributor to this phenomenon. The more a person engages with social media and brain rot culture, the more susceptible they are to falling into the bad habits social media scrolling manifests.
Social media has become an integral way to connect with people online, but it’s stifling face-to-face interaction, and people have become uninterested in forming meaningful human connections.
Many people today prefer to scroll through TikTok and engage in brain rotting rather than make small talk with a stranger.
The norm of in-person communication is being rejected to favor social media, and it’s concerning.
At the end of the day, it’s important to decompress from the stress and anxiety of daily life. But instead of rotting on TikTok tonight, maybe pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read. Or, take that walk you’ve been telling yourself you’d go on.
Take a minute for yourself, and stop worrying about missing the next big trend.
