Are you suffering from Brain Rot?
Losing your mind looking at memes? The dictionary has a word for that
Are you spending hours scrolling mindlessly on Instagram reels and TikTok? If so, you might be suffering from brain rot, which Oxford University Press has named its phrase or word of the year.
It is a term that captures concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media. The usage saw an increase of 230% in its frequency from 2023 to 2024.
Psychologist and Oxford University Professor Andrew Przybylski says the popularity of the word is a "symptom of the time we're living in".
Brain rot beat five other phrases or words on the dictionary publisher's shortlist, including demure, Romantasy and dynamic pricing.
What is brain rot?
Brain rot is defined as the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging,
The first recorded use of brain rot dates much before the creation of the internet - it was written down in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden.
He criticises society's tendency to devalue complex ideas and how this is part of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort.
It leads him to ask: "While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?"
The word initially gained traction on social media among Gen Z and Gen Alpha communities, but it's now being used in the mainstream as a way to describe low-quality, low-value content found on social media.
Prof Przybylski says "there's no evidence of brain rot actually being a thing".
"Instead it describes our dissatisfaction with the online world and it's a word that we can use to bundle our anxieties that we have around social media."
Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, says looking back at the Oxford Word of the Year over the last two decades "you can see society's growing preoccupation with how our virtual lives are evolving, the way internet culture is permeating so much of who we are and what we talk about".
"Last year's winning word, 'rizz,' was an interesting example of how language is increasingly formed, shaped, and shared within online communities.
"Brain rot speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time."
What other words made the shortlist?
Demure (adj.): Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing
Dynamic pricing (n.): The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand
Lore (n.): A body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question
Romantasy (n.): A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline
Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate
Other dictionary words of the year
Oxford University Press - publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary - is not the only one to have a word of the year. Last month Cambridge Dictionary announced that manifest was its winner.
The traditional definition of manifest included the adjective "easily noticed or obvious" and the noun "to show something clearly through signs or actions".
It now includes "to manifest" in the sense of "to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief doing so will make it more likely to happen".
It comes off the back of a global wellness trend endorsed by celebrities including singer Dua Lipa who said she manifested her headline slot at Glastonbury.
Collins English Dictionary also announced in November that its word of the year was brat - a word that has been everywhere over the last couple of months thanks to Charli XCX's viral album.
Brat is defined as someone with a "confident, independent and hedonistic attitude".
It started as the name of her number one album, but it has arguably grown into a cultural movement for some, with people adopting the brat way of life.
Another internet phenomenon has inspired the Dictionary.com word of the year which is demure.
The word took off in August after content creator Jools Lebron, posted on TikTok abut her demure work outfit and mindful make-up.
The "very demure, very mindful" trend took off after that and the satirical idea pokes fun at the stereotypical ideas of femininity.
Comments
My definition of brain rot is “a waste of time watching nonsenses on social media”. It isn´t strange people are going crazy. In my opinion, our brain is fuelled of ideas and concepts and when these ideas are rubbish, the brain rots. As said Mr. Thoreau some people don´t make a mental and intellectual effort and only know to speak about clothes, por instance.
I like this word which Oxford University Press has named as word of the year. The word manifest can be another interesting word, but not the winner for me. Collins English Dictionary said that its word of the year was brat. The meanning of the word brat is “mocoso and niño mimado” accordint to WordReference and Collins Dictionary, but they said that it is defined as “confident, independent and hedonistic”. I don´t understand it, you will give an explanation.
Romantasy is a word which sounds very well and its meaning, as romantic fiction and fantasy, is beautiful, could be the winner for me.
I don´t like the words demure, dynamic pricing, lore or slop. I won´t choose them as word of the year. Anyway, it´s to talk for the sake of it (it´s unbelievable my English), because I don´t know the rules and requeriments to choose the word of the year.
See you.
I'll let you into a secret - this Word of the Year malarkey (there's a great word for you) is growing a bit tiresome. The committees that make the decision (just like many organisations and businesses nowadays) appear to be woke. I won't be using, indeed I won't remember, the great majority of these words.
Some of these words, like brat and manifest, are words that already exist. I'll stick with the original meanings.
My definition of brain rot is “a waste of time watching nonsense (uncountable) on social media”. It's no/little wonder that people are going crazy. In my opinion, our brain is fuelled by ideas and concepts and when these ideas are rubbish, the brain rots. As Mr. Thoreau said, some people don´t make a mental and intellectual effort and only know how to speak about the likes of clothes and so on.
I like this word which Oxford University Press has named as word of the year. The word manifest may be another interesting word, but not the winner for me. Collins English Dictionary said that its word of the year was brat. The meaning of the word brat is “mocoso and niño mimado” according to WordReference and Collins Dictionary, but they said that it is defined as “confident, independent and hedonistic”. I don´t understand but I am sure you will give me an explanation.
Romantasy is a word which sounds very well and its meaning, as a mix of romantic fiction and fantasy, is beautiful, This could be the winner for me.
I don´t like the words demure, dynamic pricing, lore or slop. I wouldn't choose them as word of the year. Anyway, it´s just talk for the sake of it (my English never ceases to amaze), because I don´t know the rules and requirements for choosing the word of the year.