‘Mind rot’ was final 12 months’s Oxford English Dictionary ‘phrase of the 12 months’ (I imply, technically it’s two phrases however no matter), referring to the “supposed deterioration of an individual’s psychological or mental state, particularly seen on account of overconsumption of fabric (now significantly on-line content material) thought-about to be trivial or unchallenging.”
Principally, it is what occurs while you fall down a TikTok scroll gap – or (my private poison) spend ten hours straight watching MAFS Australia. Many articles have been written about how consuming a lot web slop and horrible TV is making us kinda dumb, depressed, anxious and presumably even infertile.
However is it true? Effectively, I am personally undecided. On condition that we’re dwelling in a world the place horrible information is pinged into our lives at an alarming price, I discover that issues like The Kardashians or Gossip Woman (I am on my fiftieth re-run, WBU?) have a stunning soothing high quality that I couldn’t stay with out. The very fact is, most issues that are written off as ‘mind rot’ content material, significantly on TV, are usually not simply entertaining, they’re additionally a wonderful strategy to decompress.
TikTok particularly will get loads of flak as being a ‘mind rot’ exercise; and do not get me unsuitable, I am positive that if I climbed into mattress at night time and browse one of many many tons of (I am solely barely exaggerating right here) of books that I carry on my bedside desk, as a substitute of scrolling my FYP for 40 minutes, I might find yourself feeling more than happy with myself certainly. However actually, I’ve come to like my TikTok time. It’s sacred to me, a time which I’ve made clear to my boyfriend, I’m not to be disturbed. There’s simply one thing about having the ability to park my interior voice, even only for a short while, and devour one thing utterly passively that I’ve come to look ahead to.
This entire factor, the place new expertise is written off as ‘rotting our brains’, will not be new. In truth, it goes way back to historical Greece – the thinker Socrates warned towards writing as a result of it might “create forgetfulness within the learners’ souls, as a result of they won’t use their recollections.” In 2010, the neuropsychologist Vaughan Bell checked out many examples of ‘tech scares’, warning that the tendency to search out new applied sciences aggravating or annoying was usually unrelated to how damaging they had been.
My private concept is that a part of the rationale this concept – that scrolling is making us all silly/ unhappy and so on – obtained a lot traction is due to a vibe shift the place being offline has grow to be a sort of standing image. It was the model strategist Eugene Healy who known as IRL the “new standing image” in a video he made in regards to the post-brain rot period. “2024 noticed the posh trade get deeper into run golf equipment, ebook golf equipment, pop-ups and activations,” he mentioned. “I’m predicting that that is going to drive an perspective that spending extra time IRL is seen as a standing image, which conversely signifies that being tech addicted can be seen as a low standing trait.”
In 2025, being tied to our telephones is all of a sudden turning into sort of uncool. So perhaps it’s not that being on-line is dangerous for us, a lot as the truth that being offline is a sort of flex (a lot of a flex that luxurious manufacturers need to align themselves with this ‘standing image’ whereas the remainder of us
Nonetheless, I received’t deny that an hour of scrolling will most likely depart anybody feeling torpid and dissatisfied. I attempt to set myself limits. There is a cause that saying about “an excessive amount of of factor” exists. I be sure to stay to my designated TikTok time and hold my MAFS Australia consumption to an inexpensive quantity… effectively, I’ll as quickly as this season finishes.
