Brain rot.
Simply speaking, it’s deterioration, and in a way, your brain does indeed rot. That’s right. No metaphors, hyperboles, this is all real.
It is supposedly said as the aftermath of excessive consumption of online content, leading to changes of one’s mental and intellectual state. And nowadays, with technology advancing and developing greater than ever, this is becoming more and more common.
As a matter of fact, brain rot is used as a term to define the nature of someone who is too ‘online’, normally deriving from repetitive, passive scrolling of online media. Your brains can easily adapt to this, and continuously doing so would therefore lead to further excessive viewing of such or, in other words, internet addiction. This sort of content is like fast food for your brain – it may feel good at the time to scroll through it for a long period, but it can have lasting effects which are not necessarily good for our health and wellbeing.
What we are looking at here is excessive screen time so it is important to keep in mind that moderation, including separation of designated sessions of viewing are not as harmful as longer periods. Symptoms of brain rot can include altered behavioural aspects and poor learning capabilities. Yes, what you do on the screen can indeed impact what you tend to do in the classroom or workspace. Especially with young brains that are still developing, it is much easier for these bad pathways to form; if not monitored, may lead to a lifetime of poor mental and cognitive health. Brain rot can also make people seem unintelligible. The way they think and speak may not be understandable to the average person. Furthermore, this distorted thinking and behaviour leads to misinformation, and often will mean that they have extensive or intimate knowledge of certain topics. This capacity may have influences from what they see online, regarding certain topics like memes, slang terms and even bizarre opinions that are only found in online spaces. Likewise spending too much time on screens can cause signs of emotional dysregulation, and some may tent to feel a detachment from their own reality, like a daydream, and become oblivious of their environment.
In severe scenarios, brain rot can seem as quite a terrifying topic.There are ways, however, that one can consider to prevent this, and avoid the risk of sustaining anything too harmful. By having regular breaks throughout screen time, you can disorient the temptation to consecutively scroll through content. Break up the pattern to avoid an addictive routine. Also, try limiting the time you spend on screens to no more than 2 hours a day. By doing so, you reduce the risk of absent-mindedly consuming from your digital device. In other words, try to watch something using your brain, not only with your eyes. Try spending more time away from the screen and getting creative – through books or even forms of art. These can help you familiarise yourself better to some physical entertainment rather than drifting off to the digital world.
Regarding my thoughs on brain rot, excessively speaking, it can pose as quite a severe distraction. Especially for young children and adolescents, this can have a drastic effect on how they approach their schooling, Not only would they have the poorer capabilities to focus or participate, but their minds would be swarming of this content making it practically impossible to stay in the moment. A hive of bees in your mind is one thing, another would be what would occur next. People that cannot stop thinking about the online content they have previously watched or only going to be tempted to do it even more. This way, the impulse only becomes greater and the resistance to pull away weaker. Brain rot can lead to this endless cycle, where it seems that the person may not feel ownership of themselves anymore.
Learning is vital. Development is growth.
Without them, you will not get anywhere, it simply isn’t worth it to sacrifice your opportunity to learn in return for mindless content.
Think about it like chess. You sacrifice your rook to fork the opponent’s queen and rook, until you realise that you missed back rank mate…
“A future is not born on its own. It has to be crafted (not Minecraft) and creaged through adaptations of your past to get you further than who you are now.” – Lucas Wang (some quote I just made up, not sure if actually exists.)
I think it’s simply not essential to spend all this time which you could be learning, pursing, understanding the world around you, instead on your electronic device… until the battery runs out.
Remember, this does not restrict you from still spending time on your screen watching this. You can still continue to do so, but always try to monitor the amount you consume. And keep in mind that it is still quite possible to rot your brain.
Literally.
Peace! ✌️