This is my first introduction to the term ‘brain rot’. Perplexed, I ask them what it means. Laughing, they describe it as a ‘Gen Alpha word’ that refers to the ‘stupid stuff’ they see on their main TikTok feeds (which are called, for those who aren’t on the app, For You pages or FYPs).
‘It’s stuff that’s dumb, like, it rots your brain. Memes and just random stuff.’ One participant shows me a video on her phone as an example as the others look on. What I see on the screen – an absurd, poorly animated colourful character dancing in the style of a drag queen – looks like nonsense to me, and I say so. This makes them all laugh even harder.
Brain rot: stupid, mindless internet (though mostly TikTok) content. It may seem like a silly bit of slang, but as a researcher I think this new teen terminology can tell us something important about how the younger generation are managing their media lives.
…As a term, brain rot is most definitely not meant to be taken literally. Though the medical websites proposing brain rot as an emergent mental health crisis facing our society may be well meaning, their definition is misguided, at least as far as teens are concerned. The group of 16- and 17-year-olds I work with in Oslo aren’t worried that watching dumb videos on TikTok will really rot their brains. It’s a bit of jokey terminology; one small piece of a broader vocabulary they use to negotiate the vastness of TikTok as well as all the other digital media saturating their lives. As a genre of participation, brain rot is an oasis of calm amid the media chaos.
Moreover, this oasis is a much needed one. My participants tell me they know that brain rot is a waste of time, but they don’t express any genuine fear about it. However, they do tell me about plenty of other things on TikTok and the internet more broadly that make them worried or upset.
Read more:
Owens, E. (2024, October 8). Why teenagers are deliberately seeking brain rot on TikTok. Psyche. https://psyche.co/ideas/why-teenagers-are-deliberately-seeking-brain-rot-on-tiktok