[TfTi] Brain-Rot then, Brain Rot now: Stop It!
The seeds of this post came via my NPR newsletter.
You can blame Oxford University Press for the latest mental health scare headline declaring BRAIN ROT the word of the year for 2024. But before you run to schedule an MRI, please be aware that this is a malady you have the ability to control.
I’m not saying it’s easy, since the modern form can be viewed as an addiction-based problem rooted in social media. But like other addictions, it can be faced and overcome.
“Brain-rot” as a 170-year old epidemic
The Oxford folks credit Thoreau as the first to use the term “brain-rot” in his book Walden (1854). He expressed a deep concern about the minds in his day, comparing it to the potato-rot crisis that had been centered in Ireland:
“While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
For Thoreau, a main source of this brain-rot could be found in the reading material most people consumed, the “penny post” and newspapers (“I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper”) and contemporary “shallow books.”
He devoted a whole chapter to “Reading,” arguing for reading the “classics,” both in the ancient Greek and Latin and those written more recently in English. He waxes poetic about the curative value of such books:
“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. … Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage.”
But he rails against those who fail to read those books:
“The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers. What does our Concord culture amount to? There is in this town, with a very few exceptions, no taste for the best or for very good books even in English literature, whose words all can read and spell. Even the college-bred and so called liberally educated men here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the English classics ….”
Okay, so Thoreau thought the popular media of his day was a big part of the brain-rot problem and reading “serious books” was part of the cure.
What does “brain rot” mean now?
When Oxford talks about “brain rot,” they’re not exactly talking about skipping your Homer and Virgil (though their Literature professors might disagree). Nope, in 2024, “brain rot” is more about our digital diets, from our fixated staring into handheld devices to the content streaming on desktop monitors and wall‑sized TVs.
These days, we’re not just worried about sensational “breaking news” and trashy novels. We’re talking about endless TikTok scrolling, mindless Instagram reels, and those YouTube rabbit holes we all fall into at 2 AM. It’s like Thoreau’s concerns on steroids!
Thoreau was worried about people reading too many cheap novels and newspapers, and here we are, 170 years later, fretting about spending too much time on social media. It’s been well-documented how the social media companies design and constantly refine their platforms to keep us scrolling and reacting to each other’s selfies, cute pet videos, and political rants. As a Harvard Business Review article notes, they’ve
“not only designed their platforms to be wildly addictive but have kept them that way even amid mounting evidence that social media overuse has a horrible effect on people’s mental and physical well‑being.”
The media might have changed — and we can consume much more, much faster, some of it in near real‑time — but the concern is generally the same: Are we filling our brains with the right stuff?
A glimmer of hope, perhaps
It may be an encouraging sign that, according to the NPR article, the reason “brain rot” came into common enough usage to win the title this year was it “gained traction on platforms such as TikTok … thanks to Gen Z and Gen Alpha.” If the cool kids are recognizing the problem, we just might not all succumb to the epidemic after all.
The wide popularity of hashtags like #BookTok and #Bookstagram supports the notion that these platforms are not entirely wastelands of mindless scrolling. They can also drive us toward putting down the phone and returning to Thoreau’s remedy for brain rot: reading books.
And writing books, too. That quote from Thoreau above that starts with “A written word is the choicest of relics” hints at his view of the brain-building value of writing, as well as reading, books.
It echoes a major theme of my own book, Read ‘Em & Reap: 6 Science-Backed Ways Reading Puts You on the Road to Achieving More and Living Longer, that books are a conduit between writer and reader, an asynchronous conversation of ideas, creating meaning for both, with the ultimate goal of sparking action — including writing the next book in the conversation.
So, What’s a Book Lover to Do?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we should all ditch our smartphones and move to a cabin in the woods (though if that’s your thing, go for it!). But maybe Thoreau and the Oxford folks are onto something. Maybe it’s time we took a good look at our mental diets.
Here are a few ideas to keep your brain from rotting:
- Mix it up: Sure, scroll through TikTok or your favorite social platform, but learn how to manage your time, avoid bottomless rabbit holes, and protect yourself (and others) from the dangers of misinformation and disinformation lurking there. For a detailed guide, see Down the Rabbit Hole: Slowing the Spread of Misinformation and Disinformation on Social Media, by our clients Lacey J. Faught and Adrienne Harvey. Their “Three-Click Method” and other teachings will help you break the addiction and behave more responsibly when you’re on social media. Then, after you read that one, keep cracking open a good book now and then, both fiction and nonfiction. Variety is the spice of life, after all!
- Quality over quantity: Remember Thoreau’s urging to read “serious books”? Well, that doesn’t limit you to heavy nonfiction, or textbooks. It means, instead of mindlessly consuming content, try to engage with stuff that makes you think. Lots of classic and contemporary fiction books do that, right? As I explained in Read ‘Em & Reap, there is so much research on the value of reading fiction for building “soft skills” like empathy and leadership that the US Army’s leadership manual urges aspiring officers to read lots of fiction. Your brain will thank you.
- Take a digital detox: Every once in a while, unplug and give your brain a break. Maybe shut down the electronics and spend a weekend with someone you love, just reading and discussing books. You could even try reading by candlelight like Thoreau (who knows where that might lead). Or get outside, as Thoreau also advised, to learn from nature or by visiting a different neighborhood.
- Share the joy of reading: Got kids? Nieces and nephews? Neighbor’s dog? Share your love of books with them. Model your reading habit where they can see you doing and enjoying it. I’ve written before about “The Joy of Reading with a Child.” It’s like a vaccine against brain rot — for both of you!
- Be curious: Whether it’s online or offline, seek out content that teaches you something new. Check out this BBC article, “Curiosity: The neglected trait that drives success,” to discover some of the science showing the mental benefits of exercising and cultivating your curiosity. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it’ll keep your brain fresh!
- Write: Write about something that matters to you. Whether you intend to publish or not. To reiterate the advice from my book and Thoreau’s, few things put your brain to work thinking deeply better than writing a book. (Disclosure: this will force you to read “serious books” and engage in real-world research, too; revisit “Be curious” above.) And, as we tell people all the time, you don’t even have to start with a book in mind. You could start as simply as scripting a presentation or posting long-form articles on LinkedIn or your blog. Just get your mind beyond the snap thought, bite-sized, unedited stream-of-consciousness that goes on in texting, or most social media threads. A book may emerge, to your surprise!
What’s your take on the whole brain rot thing? Let us know in the comments.
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