{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}{{pp-move-vandalism|small=yes}} {{italic title}} {{Short description|Slang for poor-quality digital content}}{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{for|the surrealist AI-generated internet memes|Italian brainrot}} In Internet culture, the term '''''brain rot''''' (often written as '''''brainrot''''') describes digital media deemed to be of low quality or value.<ref name="Means2">{{Cite news |last=Roy |first=Jessica |date=13 June 2024 |title=If You Know What 'Brainrot' Means, You Might Already Have It |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/style/brainrot-internet-addiction-social-media-tiktok.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010004937/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/style/brainrot-internet-addiction-social-media-tiktok.html |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=26 August 2024 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Heaton |first=Benedict |date=2024-12-02 |title='Brain rot' named Oxford Word of the Year 2024 |url=https://corp.oup.com/news/brain-rot-named-oxford-word-of-the-year-2024/ |access-date=2026-03-11 |website=Oxford University Press |language=en-GB}}</ref> More broadly, the term refers to the harmful cognitive effects associated with excessive or disordered use of digital and social media, particularly short-form entertainment,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why teenagers are deliberately seeking brain rot on TikTok {{!}} Psyche Ideas |url=https://psyche.co/ideas/why-teenagers-are-deliberately-seeking-brain-rot-on-tiktok |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250111151231/https://psyche.co/ideas/why-teenagers-are-deliberately-seeking-brain-rot-on-tiktok |archive-date=11 January 2025 |access-date=13 November 2024 |website=Psyche}}</ref> AI-generated content, and doomscrolling.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scanlan |first=Rebekah |date=29 December 2024 |title='On the rise': Late-night ritual ruining lives |url=https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/warning-issued-over-brain-rot-the-2024-habit-thats-on-the-rise/news-story/e1205ce0ddd91c63749c8d2bba47a078 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250104153540/https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/warning-issued-over-brain-rot-the-2024-habit-thats-on-the-rise/news-story/e1205ce0ddd91c63749c8d2bba47a078 |archive-date=4 January 2025 |access-date=10 January 2025 |work=news.com.au}}</ref> Popularized by Generation Z and Alpha on social media, the term has since entered mainstream usage.<ref name="memes2">{{cite web |last=Rufo |first=Yasmin |year=2024 |title=Losing your mind looking at memes? The dictionary has a word for that |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n2r695nzo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241201224448/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n2r695nzo |archive-date=1 December 2024 |access-date=2 December 2024 |website=BBC |publisher=}}</ref> In 2024, it was named Oxford Dictionary's "Word of the Year".<ref name=":0" />
== Origin and usage == According to Oxford University Press, the first recorded use of the term ''brain rot'' traces back to the 1854 book ''Walden'' by Henry David Thoreau.<ref name="woty" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Levitin |first=Mia |date=28 December 2024 |title=Social media, brain rot and the slow death of reading |url=https://www.ft.com/content/fe9963aa-f4fd-4839-8732-5df7bc4317bb |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250102144015/https://www.ft.com/content/fe9963aa-f4fd-4839-8732-5df7bc4317bb |archive-date=2 January 2025 |access-date=15 February 2025 |work=Financial Times}}</ref><ref name=walden>archive.org: [https://archive.org/details/walden_202404/page/n317/mode/2up Walden, p 317] (quotation: ''While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?'')</ref> In that book, Thoreau reflected on materialism and argued that a tendency to prefer trivial ideas could weaken the mind, a harbinger for how the term would come to be used to describe the effects of disordered use of digital content.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yazgan |first=Ayşe Müge |date=31 March 2025 |title=The problem of the century: Brain rot |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/opusjsr/issue/90879/1651477 |journal=OPUS Journal of Society Research |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=211–221}}</ref> He asked:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thoreau |first=Henry David |author-link=Henry David Thoreau |url=https://archive.org/details/waldenorlifeinwo1854thor/page/348/mode/2up |title=Walden; or, Life in the woods |publisher=Ticknor and Fields |year=1854 |location=Boston |oclc=1158280598 |ol=26429580M |via=Internet Archive |page=348}}</ref>
{{blockquote|While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?}}Thoreau was criticizing what he saw as a decline in intellectual standards, comparing it to the effects of potato blight in 1840s Europe, which had caused widespread crop failures.<ref name="memes2" />
In 2007, ''brain rot'' was used by Twitter users to describe dating game shows, video games, and "hanging out online".<ref name="sbs">{{Cite news |last=Prema |first=Shivé |date=8 February 2024 |title=What is 'brain rot'? Do you have it? |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/what-is-brain-rot-do-you-have-it/39fexbr4u |access-date=26 August 2024 |work=SBS News |language=en |archive-date=28 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250328110513/https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/what-is-brain-rot-do-you-have-it/39fexbr4u |url-status=live}}</ref> Usage of the phrase increased online in the 2010s before spiking in popularity in 2020 on Discord, when it became an Internet meme.<ref name="sbs" /> From 2023 to 2024, Oxford reported the term's usage increased by 230% in frequency per million words.<ref name="memes2" /><ref name="woty" />
As of 2024, it was used in the context of Generation Alpha's digital habits, with critics noting that the generation is "excessively immersed in online culture",<ref>{{Cite web |last=North |first=Anna |date=5 September 2024 |title=iPad kids speak up |url=https://www.vox.com/life/369953/skibidi-tweens-gen-alpha-brainrot-ipad-kids |access-date=16 September 2024 |website=Vox |language=en-US |archive-date=27 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127162355/https://www.vox.com/life/369953/skibidi-tweens-gen-alpha-brainrot-ipad-kids |url-status=live}}</ref> underscoring the fact that by 2024, an estimated 79 percent of the world's population of 15–24 year olds used the internet.<ref>{{Cite web |last=United Nations |first=International Telecommunication Union (ITU) |date=27 November 2024 |title=Global Internet use continues to rise but disparities remain, especially in low-income regions |url=https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/PR-2024-11-27-facts-and-figures.aspx |access-date=16 November 2025 |website=ITU Facts and Figures}}</ref> The term brain rot has been associated with the tendency for young people to pepper their speech with Internet references<ref name="Means2" /> such as ''skibidi'' (referencing ''Skibidi Toilet''), ''rizz'' (charisma), ''gyatt'' (buttocks), ''fanum tax'' (taking food from another's meal), and ''sigma'' (solitary, masculine men).<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 August 2024 |title=Parents and Gen Alpha kids are having unintelligible convos because of 'brainrot' language |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gen-alpha-kids-parents-brainrot-language-rcna162227 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240921052931/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gen-alpha-kids-parents-brainrot-language-rcna162227 |archive-date=21 September 2024 |access-date=16 September 2024 |work=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="woty" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Press-Reynolds |first=Kieran |date=25 June 2024 |title=How brainrot humour infected the internet with surreal gibberish |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/62947/1/how-brainrot-humour-infected-the-internet-with-surreal-gibberish-tiktok-skibidi |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626103639/https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/62947/1/how-brainrot-humour-infected-the-internet-with-surreal-gibberish-tiktok-skibidi |archive-date=26 June 2024 |access-date=26 June 2024 |website=Dazed |language=en}}</ref>
== Analysis ==
In an article for'' Literary Hub'', Josh Abbey argued that the concept of "brain rot" had existed long before the phrase was coined, likening it to William Wordsworth's criticism of "frantic novels" in 1800 and the criticisms of film and television by Virginia Woolf and Aldous Huxley in the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Abbey |first=Josh |date=20 December 2024 |title=New Media, Old Anxieties: Why is "Brain Rot" the Word of the Year? |url=https://lithub.com/new-media-old-anxieties-why-is-brain-rot-the-word-of-the-year/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505131616/https://lithub.com/new-media-old-anxieties-why-is-brain-rot-the-word-of-the-year/ |archive-date=5 May 2025 |access-date=24 August 2025 |website=Literary Hub}}</ref> Günseli Yalcinkaya compared "brain rot" to 20th century artistic and political movements such as Dada for being "intentionally absurd, context-less and fast-paced", and noted how it can be used to push political messages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yalcinkaya |first=Günseli |date=11 June 2025 |title=Digital Dada or Futurist slop? An investigation into brainrot as art |url=https://plastermagazine.com/features/brainrot-art/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250824233916/https://plastermagazine.com/features/brainrot-art/ |archive-date=24 August 2025 |access-date=24 August 2025 |website=Plaster Magazine |language=en}}</ref>
Alexander Serenko has attributed popularization of "brainrot" content to supply and demand factors. On the supply side, Serenko associates "brain rot" both with the business models of the major social media platforms that rely on maintaining user attention, and the desire on the part of creators to monetize low-quality material for profit, increasingly with reliance on generative AI (see ''AI slop''). On the demand side, he links consumption of such material to users' psychological preference for low-effort, repetitive, rewarding activities. He sees typical features of "brain rot" content as being associated with emotional intensity, brevity, familiar characters, and references to cultural or societal themes, and ease of understanding.<ref name="Serenko2026">{{cite journal |last1=Serenko |first1=Alexander |date=2026 |title=Brain Rot – The 2024 Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year: Why Should Technology Leaders Care? |url=https://www.aserenko.com/papers/Serenko_Brain_Rot.pdf |journal=IEEE Engineering Management Review |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=14–20 |doi=10.1109/EMR.2025.3583977}}</ref>
=== Mental health responses === Educational psychologists began utilizing the phrase "brain rot" in reviews of research into the relationships between cognitive decline, mental exhaustion, and excessive exposure to low-quality social media materials, arguing that research has demonstrated that brain rot leads to "emotional desensitization, cognitive overload, and a negative self-concept".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yousef |first=Ahmed Mohamed Fahmy |date=7 March 2025 |title=Demystifying the New Dilemma of Brain Rot in the Digital Era: A Review |journal=Brain Sciences |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=283 |doi=10.3390/brainsci15030283 |pmc=11939997 |pmid=40149804 |doi-access=free}}</ref> By 2024, mental health organizations had begun to use the term, offering suggestions for prevention and treatment. The Newport Institute, an organization dedicated to providing resources for young adults, suggested the following prevention techniques: "try limiting screen time, deleting distracting apps from your phone, and turning off unnecessary notifications".<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 January 2024 |title=Brain rot: The impact on young adult mental health |url=https://www.newportinstitute.com/resources/co-occurring-disorders/brain-rot/ |access-date=16 November 2025 |website=The Newport Institute}}</ref> Others have suggested resilience training, AI literacy, and regular mental health assessments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roy, Ritendra and |first=Banerjee, Tamali |date=3 September 2025 |title=Impact of Digital Devices on Mental Health Leading to Brain Rot in Higher Education Students |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5400111 |journal=SSRN Open Access |ssrn=5400111 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> Those in higher education have also sought to promote responses to brain rot. Professor Dr. Sri Lestari from Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta observed that although brain rot has not been classified as an official psychological disorder, she recommended instilling self-control at a young age and reducing screen time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gustati |first=Genis Dwi |date=8 July 2025 |title=Brain rot and the decline of critical thinking |url=https://www.ums.ac.id/en/news/global-pulse/brain-rot-and-the-decline-of-critical-thinking |access-date=17 November 2025 |website=Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta}}</ref>
==Influence== The term ''brain rot'' was named Oxford Word of the Year in 2024, beating other words like ''demure'' and ''romantasy''.<ref name="memes2" /><ref name="woty">{{cite press release |last1=Heaton |first1=Benedict |title='Brain rot' named Oxford Word of the Year 2024 |url=https://corp.oup.com/news/brain-rot-named-oxford-word-of-the-year-2024/ |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2 December 2024 }}</ref> Its modern usage is defined by the ''Oxford University Press'' as "the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging".<ref name="memes2" /> Offering an explanation for the term, ''The Guardian'' journalist Siân Boyle provided commentary on the "brain rot" scholarship that purportedly identified links between excessive screen use and reduced memory capacity and reduced attention.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boyle |first=Siân |date=9 December 2024 |title=Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/09/brain-rot-word-of-the-year-reality-internet-cognitive-function |work=The Guardian}}</ref> In the Spanish language periodical ''El Pais'', Uruguayan journalist Facundo Macchi then similarly reviewed scholarship on the effects of excessive amounts of low-quality online materials, utilizing the disputed phrase "social media addiction" (rather than the scientifically accurate phrase problematic social media use) to argue that the scholarship supported a link between so-called "junk content" and both shortened attention spans and weakened memory.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Macchi |first=Facundo |date=26 December 2024 |title=The effects of 'brain rot': How junk content is damaging our minds |url=https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-12-26/the-effects-of-brain-rot-how-junk-content-is-damaging-our-minds.html |work=El Pais}}</ref>
In the same year, millennial Australian senator Fatima Payman made headlines by making a short speech to the Australian parliament using Generation Alpha slang. She introduced the speech as addressing "an oft-forgotten section of our society", referring to Generations Z and Alpha, and said that she would "render the remainder of my statement using language they're familiar with".<ref>{{cite web |title='Skibidi': Payman opposes social age limit in speech to gen Z and gen Alpha |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQi9uFPEOWY |website=YouTube |access-date=13 November 2024 |date=11 September 2024}}</ref> Using slang terms, Payman criticised the government's plans to ban under-16s from social media and closed by saying that, "Though some of you cannot yet vote, I hope that, when you do, it will be in a more goated Australia for a government with more aura. Skibidi!" The speech, written by a 21-year-old staff member, was labeled by some as an example of "brain rot" outside the online world.<ref name="dd">{{Cite web |last=Weedston |first=Lindsey |date=13 September 2024 |title=Fatima Payman Gen Z Slang Speech Declared 'Brainrot' |url=https://www.dailydot.com/memes/fatima-payman-gen-z-slang-speech/ |access-date=16 September 2024 |website=The Daily Dot |language=en-US |archive-date=19 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241119025348/https://www.dailydot.com/memes/fatima-payman-gen-z-slang-speech/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
In the 2025 Jubilee of the World of Communications, ''brain rot'' was also used by Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, as he urged people to reduce their use of social media and avoid "{{Lang|it|putrefazione cerebrale}}".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Craig |first=Sean |date=27 January 2025 |title=Pope Francis Says Too Much Online Scrolling Causes 'Brain Rot' |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-francis-says-too-much-online-scrolling-causes-brain-rot/ |access-date=30 January 2025 |website=The Daily Beast |language=en |archive-date=14 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214152833/https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-francis-says-too-much-online-scrolling-causes-brain-rot/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=25 January 2025 |title=Il Papa: La dipendenza dai social media provoca 'putrefazione cerebrale' |url=https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/politica/2025/01/25/il-papa-la-dipendenza-dai-social-media-provoca-putrefazione-cerebrale_6463b211-b0ac-4a6d-b281-5396a97cc125.html |access-date=30 January 2025 |website=Agenzia ANSA |language=it}}</ref>
Taking a different approach, one researcher who interviewed Norwegian 16- and 17-year-olds about the term has argued that "brain rot" is best understood as a way that young people participate in social media, utilizing deliberately non-productive messaging as a means of resisting the pressures of productivity and self-optimization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Owens |first=Emilie |date=26 June 2025 |title='It speaks to me in brain rot': Theorising 'brain rot' as a genre of participation among teenagers |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251351 |journal=New Media & Society |doi=10.1177/14614448251351527 |via=Open Access|doi-access=free }}</ref>
== See also == {{Sister project auto|wikt=brain rot}} * {{annotated link|AI slop}} * {{annotated link|Algospeak}} * {{annotated link|Digital media use and mental health}} * {{annotated link|Elsagate}} * {{annotated link|Enshittification}} * {{annotated link|Glossary of 2020s slang}} * {{annotated link|Low culture}} * {{annotated link|Shitposting}} * {{annotated link|Sludge content}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Generation Z slang|state=expanded}} {{Portal bar|Humor|Internet|2020s}} Category:Internet memes introduced in 2023 Category:Internet terminology Category:Generation Z slang Category:Generation Alpha slang