In 2024, “brain rot” was Oxford Dictionary's word of the year. The term, which has grown in usage to describe the rise in uber-online language, is defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state” due to the overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging content. And with more teens flocking to a scrolling and swiping culture – with approximately one third of U.S. teens using social media almost constantly according to Pew Research – general productivity, attention span, and even intelligence have been slowly drained from the minds of generation Z.
Here at Campo, reactions ensued when, in January of this year, popular social media platform Tik Tok announced that it would be shutting down in the United States. Junior Maneli Malboubi, who says she uses social media for roughly 1 and half hours a day said, “In those 15 hours that [Tik Tok] was banned, I felt like I was more productive because I didn't have it.” Junior Kate Griffith added that “When [the ban] actually happened overnight, I kind of freaked out. Because I always open the app out of habit, it just made me realize, like, wow, I spend so much time on that app.”
What makes Tik Tok, Instargam, or Youtube truly lethal is the effectiveness it has with stalling students’ time. Malboubi explained, “I think that people use communication as an excuse to use social media. For me, when I’m bored or when I have nothing else to do, or I just don't feel like being productive, [Tik Tok] is where I go.” Especially during years when student homework is at an all time peak, social media has a way of infiltrating people’s after school schedules. Because it appears to be a simple brain break that will only last 5 minutes, social media apps rely heavily on their usage of infinite scrolling features to deceptively capture the attention – and time, of busy students.
Junior Connor McLemore takes issue with yet another key aspect of the social media secret sauce: short-form videos. “Instagram reels aren't long enough to really give you an impactful message or insight. And because of that, society's attention span has gotten a lot shorter. We went from full length movies to TV shows to YouTube videos. And now we have 32 second shorts because people cannot pay enough attention to a full-length story.”
With this incessant shift towards shorter videos, the abandonment of regular TV series and movies has had a devastating effect on not only teens’ attention spans, but their shared culture. “I have friends that are like, ‘did you see this movie?’ And I was like, no, because I just scroll on Tiktok” said Griffith. Malboubi added “I don't watch movies as much anymore unless I go to the movies or have a family night. My version of screen time is social media, because really it's just convenient.”
Between its conveniency, effectiveness, and short-form style, Social Media has ultimately reinforced the growth of mindlessness. Brain rot doesn’t just infiltrate students’ form of entertainment, but even further, their way of conversation. “Because everybody that I know watches Instagram reels, and since the most popular ones are really common and are more likely to be shared among your friends, it's really a topic for conversation. I'm much more appreciative when I have actual conversations with my friends, because those have recently devolved into just what we saw on Instagram reels or videos.”
To combat this growing brain rot epidemic, many suggest putting larger guardrails or even fully eliminating what can be detrimental short form content. But as Malboubi puts it, “doing a Tiktok ban wasn't gonna really be effective in taking away people's social media, because once you take something away, people are gonna try to find something else that's the equivalent. Because a lot of people I know, once Tik Tok got banned, went to this other app called red note.”
So in order to truly benefit society, while a full banning may not be the answer, there are still features on social media that allow students to limit their usage. “Instagram has this feature where you can set yourself a time limit when it'll give you a warning that you've gone past the time limit…My parents helped by restricting it and while I still go on Instagram reels, I'm much better about restricting my time on it,” says McLemore.
In the coming years, the effects of brain rot on our generation will undoubtedly be studied. As McLemore says, “We're the first generation to have actually had these video sharing platforms that only last for 30 seconds…I think brain rot is funny, and I think the reels are funny. But I also think there should genuinely be stuff put in place to prevent its rewiring of our brain.”
