The amount of time teens spend on their phones and tablets, excessively scrolling through social media posts, is likely diminishing their brain activity and creating health concerns.
The act of excessively soaking in negative news or social media posts, known as “doomscrolling” has led to growing amounts of “brain rot” over the past year, experts found.
Oxford University Press selected “brain rot” as its word of the year for 2024. Researchers found that between 2023 and 2024, the times “brain rot” was used in conversation increased by 230%. “Brain rot” is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state” as a result of over-consumption of online content, Oxford University Press wrote this month in announcing its annual Word of the Year honor.
In addition to popular online platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, researchers also included artificial tools such as ChatGPT as a source of “brain rot.”
The term “brain rot” dates back to 1854 when author Henry David Thoreau used the word in his book “Walden” when he criticized society’s tendency to devalue complex ideas.
Oxford University Press experts found that “brain rot” has increased because of the impact of teens and other online users consuming excessive amounts of “low-quality online content.”, especially on social media.
