With ‘brain rot’ gaining popularity as Oxford University Press designated it as its Word of the Year for 2024, the term for mental fogginess, difficulty concentrating, reduced attention span, and a general feeling of cognitive decline has raised concerns – and debates.
Indeed, Oxford University Press defined ‘brain rot’ as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state” caused by overconsuming “trivial or unchallenging” material on online platforms, and Medical Xpress shared experts’ views on the matter in a report on June 17.
According to Dr. Andreana Benitez, an associate professor in the Neurology Department at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, “it’s what happens when you consume too much low-quality online content, which is like junk food for the brain.” However, it’s unclear whether or how it harms the brain, and Benitez explained that “there really isn’t a coherent science around it.”
That said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that one in four teenage frequent scrollers in the US are feeling anxious or depressed, while half of all teenagers in the country spend four or more hours looking at screens each day.
Brain rot causes and solutions
In 2024, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study showed that adolescents who spend more time in front of screens may experience mental health issues, like depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and even physical symptoms, including pain, dizziness, and nausea.
Other studies have suggested a possible link between brain rot and emotional desensitization, cognitive overload, negative self-worth, and impaired executive functioning skills, such as memory, planning, and decision-making, though there isn’t evidence that hours of daily screen time change the structure of the human brain.
Nonetheless, it’s what’s happening during that time that could be dangerous, particularly for young people whose brains are still developing. In the words of Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director and chair of Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City:
“Brain development requires a diversity of exposures. (…) When you are on your phone, you are not getting these other experiences. We are substituting artificial interactions for human interactions, and artificial interactions lack the complexity of the human experience—the verbal, sensory, and emotional reactions we have after interacting with people.”
Then there’s the low-quality content, which Benitez says may “distort your perception of reality and harm your mental health” if you consume excessive amounts of it. For this, she recommends sticking to the junk food analogy: “One bag of chips might not be that bad, but if you’re eating three at a time, that might be a problem.”
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has suggested families develop screen-time plans together and encourage use toward building creativity and connections with friends and family, as well as emphasizing the importance of offline activities like sports, music, art, and other hobbies.
Speaking of brain rot, using artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to write your essays could be causing it as well, in what the scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have dubbed ‘cognitive debt.’
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