The last time you watched your favorite television show, did you pay attention all the way through? Or did you pick up your phone to scroll Instagram or check for missed notifications?
This is “brain rot,” a condition so prevalent that the term became the Oxford Dictionary’s 2024 “Word of the Year.”
Oxford defines brain rot as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”
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The dictionary said that the word gained prominence in 2024, experiencing a 230% surge in usage. But it’s not new. The term’s first recorded use was in Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” published in 1854.
Thoreau used it to illustrate his belief that society favored simple ideas over more complex ones, which he saw as a decline in mental effort.
“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?” he wrote.
Now, Oxford said, the word has taken on a new meaning, encapsulating a cultural movement of digital overstimulation defined by doomscrolling, TikTok rabbit holes and “Skibidi Toilet.”
In the social media age, people have access to more information and technology than ever before, making their lives easier than ever. And yet, people report worse mental states than they did 20 years ago.
Is the explosion of content changing the way people use their brains, or is it facing the kind of disapproving scrutiny that new media, like vulgar music and violent video games, experienced in prior generations?
What does brain rot really mean?
Many see brain rot as the deterioration of their intelligence or their cognitive abilities. Some report having a harder time concentrating, while others experience brain fog.
Dr. Gary Small, a professor and chair of psychiatry at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in New Jersey, said brain rot could include a variety of different symptoms.
“It refers to consumption of unchallenging content on the internet and other devices,” Small told Straight Arrow News. “The symptoms people experience from consuming that content, anything from confusion, memory loss, physical symptoms like headache, fatigue — it’s quite an interesting term.”
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One type of behavior associated with negative social media use is called continuous partial attention (CPA) where people constantly divide their focus among multiple streams of information. An example would be listening to a podcast while working or studying. This causes a person to not fully pay attention to either activity, resulting in poor cognitive function. Researchers have linked CPA to diminished working memory capacity, inattentiveness and reduced cognitive flexibility. They say if this is a chronic condition, it could weaken cognitive function over time.
CPA is similar to multitasking but is more cognitively demanding. Multitasking might involve combining a routine task, like stirring a pot with writing an email. But CPA requires juggling multiple mentally active tasks, such as texting while listening in a meeting, leaving neither task with your full attention.
Curt Steinhorst has written about this issue since he found himself in an attention crisis when he first got into the workforce.
“When I started my own business, it was the first time that I was just completely bowled over by the amount of digital information,” he told SAN. “I’d look up, and it’d be 3 p.m., and I would have a great Google Meet conversation with my girlfriend, but nothing had gotten done.”
Steinhorst, now in his 40s, was diagnosed with ADHD at age 13. However, he never struggled with it as a kid and later found himself with an attention problem he needed to solve.
“It was a personal journey because I just needed to figure out how I was going to focus because I didn’t want to be destitute and homeless,” Steinhorst said.
How does doomscrolling impact mental health?
People often associate brain rot, or negative social media consumption, with doomscrolling, which is the compulsive consumption of news content — especially negative news. Studies suggest that doomscrolling can reinforce pessimism and lead to high amounts of stress.
Studies show that doomscrolling plays a serious role in negative social media habits. A study conducted by the Guangdong University of Technology in China found that this typically has a greater impact on women and younger social media users and is uniquely associated with stress and anxiety.
During that same study, researchers concluded that doomscrolling may begin when people start checking the news or social media feeds during times of uncertainty, such as a natural disaster. They suggested the practice may be a maladaptive coping strategy that provides short-term relief but makes long-term distress worse.
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According to research conducted by AddictionHelp, at least 10% of Americans are addicted to social media.
Human brains also appear to be naturally vulnerable to doomscrolling. Negativity bias refers to the tendency of the brain to focus more on negative concepts and experiences.
“We are biologically wired to see threats and to zoom in,” Steinhorst said. “When we see a negative thing, that becomes our whole world until it gets removed.”
Doomscrolling can trap people in both dopamine and feedback loops. Since the brain releases dopamine during moments of learning — even when the information is negative — it can become hooked on a constant stream of distressing news. This repetition also creates a feedback cycle in which consuming negative content leads to emotional discomfort. That prompts even more scrolling to find answers or closure, ultimately worsening mental well-being.
A significant multi-year study, published in June in JAMA Network, investigated addiction levels related to social media, phone use and video games among children. Researchers discovered that children who exhibited a higher level of addiction to social media and phone use were associated with a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
The study’s authors suggest heavy screen use is linked to teens and children trying to avoid the challenges of their lives. Avoidance is often a key symptom of anxiety and depression. Researchers said that as children spend more time on social media, their depressive symptoms increase.
What do studies say about brain rot?
Research published by the Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics in 2024 studied undergraduates’ social media use in Kosovo. It found a significant negative correlation between frequent consumption of short-form videos and students’ attention spans. The researchers believe that this was caused by cognitive overload, or when a person’s working memory is overwhelmed with information, as attention-grabbing content depletes the brain’s limited processing resources.
Researchers also found a negative correlation with grades. Students who frequently watched short videos had lower academic performance compared to those who watched fewer videos or none at all. The students who viewed more short-form content also reported a harder time focusing in class, and said they often multitasked between social media and academic work. Nevertheless, these same students said it was hard to cut back.
But for Small of the Hackensack Meridian medical school, another concern is brain shrinkage.
“One of the more interesting recent findings is shrinkage or atrophy in the gray matter of the brain, in areas in the frontal lobe that control decision-making, memory and other functions,” he said. That’s a bit concerning.”
The boredom backlash
The main reason many people reach for their phones is because they’re bored, a feeling that few find enjoyable. However, a substantial amount of scientific evidence suggests that boredom is actually good for the brain.
A 2014 study conducted by two researchers from the University of Central Lancashire split people into two groups. The first group was tasked with doing a boring job before being asked to complete a creative task. The second group was only asked to do the creative task. Researchers found that individuals who were assigned to do the boring job first performed better on the creative task than those who didn’t. They concluded that boredom encourages the brain to seek something interesting and create creative ideas as a form of mental escape.
Steinhorst said if people don’t exercise their imagination, they’ll be less creative.
“Boredom creates and forces us to expand and to imagine,” he said. “Imagination is one of the foundational pillars of what will make people valuable in a world with AI. If I’m not exercising the mental muscle of imagination, then I lose the ability to bring that to bear on a technology that has all the information in the world, but not the ability to create the new.”
A different study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University and Dartmouth College, researched the default mode network in the brain, a set of brain regions active during wakeful rest and boredom, and found that boredom actually consolidates memories and rehearses future scenarios. Researchers claimed that when people think inwardly, they boost their creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Other studies found that boredom acts as a type of regulatory emotion, pushing people to look for new, more rewarding experiences to escape the boring task they’re doing. They also claimed that boredom is an evolved emotion, not a cultural trait, since other mammals seemed to exhibit “boredom-like behaviors.”
Fast content versus slow living
As more people continue to feel mentally sluggish and foggy, content creators are tapping into that to make content focusing on putting down the phone and practicing mindfulness. Not only are influencers getting in on the new trend, but companies are too, with many releasing apps focused on digital well-being.
TikTok recently released a new feature focused on users’ mental health. The feature, called Sleep Hours, targets users under 18 who are using the app after 10 p.m. The app notifies them that they should stop using it and offers a guided meditation to help them relax, in an attempt to get them to put down their phone and go to bed. If the user decides to ignore an initial notification, the app will remind them again in a harder-to-dismiss notification.
The company claims that 98% of teens kept the feature turned on during its testing. Adult users can also use the feature, but it’s not automatically turned on for users over 18.
Several other social media companies, such as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, have also introduced digital well-being features. These features track the amount of time people spend on an app and also notify the user when to take a break.
The latest phones from Apple, Samsung and Google have similar features as well.
What does this all mean?
Some experts believe brain rot reveals broader issues in today’s culture.
Social media and being interconnected with almost everyone in the world creates a culture that’s constantly changing, even if you don’t want it to.
These fast topic changes cause you to continuously learn about new things. While learning things you actually enjoy is a great way to strengthen your brain, when this happens constantly, it can lead to information overload.
Information overload occurs when a person is given too much information to effectively process, leading to poor decision-making. Besides bad decision-making, researchers also believe that information overload can lead to negative mental health effects.
For one, the constant intake of notifications and messages taxes working memory and executive function. Also, since the brain is evolved to scan for threats, when it’s bombarded with constant information, the amygdala — the part of the brain responsible for emotional processing — stays on high alert.
These issues can create burnout, anxiety or even depression if they become a constant obstacle.
Have other generations experienced this with other technology?
The saying, “Don’t watch too much TV, it will rot your brain,” was often heard in the past. However, people didn’t have televisions with them at all times. Experts say smartphones and social media can lead to addictive behavior.
“I think it’s tricky because, with, say, alcohol or drug addiction, you can abstain from that, most of us need the technology for work and for our social life,” Small said. “It’s impossible to abstain from it, so we have to figure out other ways to help people.”
What can we do?
According to AddictionHelp, about 10% of Americans are addicted to social media. However, there are some ways to deal with problematic social media usage.
Experts say the best way to cut back on using social media is to create times during the day when you don’t use your phone.
“It’s not rocket science,” Small said. “Make sure you don’t overuse the technology, take breaks and even use your technology to remind you to take breaks, set the alarm, get up, have a conversation, exercise, stretch.”
He said one of the best ways to overcome the foggy feeling people experience when using technology excessively is to exercise.
“I have my seven-minute standing workout that I do to take a break and get my heart to pump oxygen and nutrients to my brain cells to get me functioning a bit better,” he said.
Practicing mindfulness, or just being fully present in the moment, is another way to help break up negative social media habits. Steinhorst said it doesn’t need to be long — a few minutes can go a long way.
“Create rhythms to get out of the noise,” he said. “Ten full minutes a day of mindfulness makes a big difference.”
While individual strategies like mindfulness, exercise and digital detoxes are powerful first steps, some experts believe those alone aren’t enough. Broader changes — at the platform and policy level — may be necessary to truly protect mental health in a hyper-connected world.
“I think the European Union is ahead of us,” Small stated. “They started a while ago, restricting cell phone use among kids in school.”
Several U.S. states have enacted laws that require parental permission for minors to sign up for social media apps. Utah has even created a “social media curfew” for minors between 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.
Now what?
Generation Z, the generation that pushed brain rot to the mainstream, may also be the group to beat it. Younger people are most acutely aware of the effects of brain rot and are working on their own strategies to tamp it down.
The best way to stop the negative effects of social media and short-form content is to take a look at a personal level. People should ask themselves not just how often they use social media, but also how it affects their minds and moods.
“If you see all negative, it’s probably because your attention has been hijacked,” Steinhorst said. “That’s not a great way to thrive.”
Steinhorst says people need to look at ways this new technology can help them. Rather than using it to comfort boredom with short videos, use it in productive ways.
“Instead, to focus on the areas that actually allow you to see the benefits of this incredible moment of technology and the world that we’re in,” he said.
People need stimulation — without it, the brain would atrophy just like any other part of the body. But it also requires the correct stimulation.
“If you know that your attention is deeply valuable, and not just because what you pay attention to is where you spend your money, but what gets your attention, what doesn’t, shapes the reality that you see,” Steinhorst said.
As the world continues to get more interconnected, the issues will continue. Instead of letting technology take control of you, maybe it’s time for you to take control of it.
contributed to this report.