December 3, 2024
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Why “Brain Rot” is the word of the year in 2024
According to the creators of , the phrase “brain rot” skyrocketed by 230% from 2023 to 2024. oxford english dictionary
According to , “brain rot” is the official word of the year for 2024. oxford english dictionaryPublisher, Oxford University Press. This August English chronicler defines the phrase as follows: Brain rot is a “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual condition” resulting from “overconsumption” of trivial materials, especially those found on the Internet.
Brain rot is a symptom of mindlessly scrolling through nonsense memes and dirty content. It’s a sense of empowerment that’s warmly overshadowed by too many AI-generated photos. Check out the disturbing depiction of Jesus fused with a crustacean that’s popular on Facebook.
Of course, this term does not explain literal Decomposition occurs rapidly in most dead human brains (although, curiously, it does not occur in all brains). “‘Brain Rot’ speaks to one of the recognized dangers of virtual living and how we spend our free time,” Casper Glasswohl, director of Oxford Languages, said in a press release. ” “This feels like the right next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology.”
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According to the dictionary maker, the expression’s usage jumped by 230% from 2023 to 2024, and it was especially common on TikTok this year. The word beat out five others hand-picked by Oxford linguists and was submitted to a public vote, with 37,000 people taking part. (Another shortlisted word was “slop,” which describes low-quality images or text produced in large numbers by large language models.)
Notably, this expression is most commonly used by people who consume or produce most of the content that is supposedly responsible for brain rot. Graswohl says Gen Z and Alpha have been quick to adopt the phrase, in a tongue-in-cheek yet self-aware manner. This is a joke, but may have some crunch. 2024 was also a year marked by concerns about mental health harm and internet use. In June, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for warning labels on social media platforms.
Indeed, brain rot has been with us for years. Before the Internet, television was the great brain rotter of its time. And Oxford traced the expression to its first recorded usage. waldenan 1854 book by protohippie Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau wrote, “While England is trying to cure the rot of the potato, why not try to cure the rot of the brain, which is more widespread and deadly?” Our distractions may change, but our worries and complaints about them are timeless.
