We live in a world where time spent online is often measured in hours, not minutes.
The never-ending stream of videos, memes, and posts has become as much a part of daily life as eating or sleeping.
But as we immerse ourselves in this digital playground, a question looms: what is it doing to our minds? This year, Oxford University Press gave that concern a name.
The term “brain rot” has been declared Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year, according to Digi24.
The phrase, which captures the worry that endless scrolling through trivial or mind-numbing content is eroding mental sharpness, struck a chord with voters.
Over 37,000 people helped push it to the top of a shortlist that included other timely contenders like “dynamic pricing” and “slop” (a jab at low-quality, AI-generated content).
What Does ‘Brain Rot’ Really Mean?
Oxford defines “brain rot” as “the perceived deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially due to excessive consumption of trivial or unchallenging content.”
It’s a term that reflects a shared anxiety about how our habits—especially online—might be shaping us for the worse.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, called it a fitting choice for the digital era. “It captures one of the dangers people see in virtual life and how we spend our free time,” he said.
Grathwohl also noted the phrase’s popularity among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the same groups driving much of the content creation it critiques.
A Modern Problem, an Old Term
Though it’s having a cultural moment now, “brain rot” has older roots. It first appeared in Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 classic Walden, though it referred to very different concerns at the time.
Today, the term has found new life as a way to talk about our uneasy relationship with technology.
The shortlist for 2024’s Word of the Year reflected similar themes, with entries like “lore” (background stories tied to pop culture), “romantasy” (a blend of romance and fantasy), and “demure” (a reserved or modest attitude).
In choosing “brain rot,” Oxford isn’t just naming a word — it’s pointing to a phenomenon many are grappling with daily.
Whether we’re doomscrolling on Twitter, binging videos on TikTok, or zoning out to endless Netflix episodes, the question is the same: at what point does it stop being entertainment and start being too much?
