Brain rot is a noun referring to material of low or addictive quality typically in online media. This term becomes synonymous with Tiktok and any short form content circulating around social media these days. These short form content hooked our brain and making us spend more into a platform that takes away our "opportunity cost". But who are to blame in this phenomenon? Is it the company who provides the platform, the content creator who creates the content, or us, who consume the said content? Or nobody is to be blame because that’s just the way it works these days?

How dangerous brain rot is that even the government decided to step in and educating people about the dangers of it?

Remember there was a phrase like “attention span like a goldfish”, now it’s worse than just short attention span. It’s not our attention span that’s getting affected but our entire lives.

When you’re consuming shorts, it’s easy to get lost to it and spend hours scrolling through tiktok, youtube shorts, etc. Indirectly, you're affecting your own productivity even potential opportunity cost that could have spent in something that actually brings us joy and elevate our lives.

The danger of brain rot doesn’t just stop there. Just as you see in this study below, these negative association is also echoed throughout many nations with concerns that their Gen Z generation, in Gen Z word, NGMI (Not gonna make it).

according to a study of 1,051 young adults between 18 and 27 years old, social media addiction has a significant negative association with executive functioning skills such as planning, organization, problem-solving, decision-making, and working memory._{ref Newport institute}

Even more so with the rise of AI these days which could do almost everything that is said above, what should we do as a human being?

Are we heading towards a dystopian society sooner than we expected?

Are big companies solely to blame for getting us hooked?

I find this particularly fascinating because I can understand the train of thoughts that goes beyond making a product.

As a business, platform wants its place to succeed & generate money. In social media companies retention is a key. Even around hive, retention should be the metric for success too. It’s where people stay loyal into the platform, uses it and it is ingrained in their daily life. That is more easier for them to buy in and such.

Platform creates a product that not only people love but also ensure they are stay chained to it. They create rule around it so that people who use it also caters to their best interest. In this chain of process, enters content creator/people who make content. They’re not necessarily just a consumer but has quite significant voices to influence others. A consumer can also turn into a content creator. After all, this is 2025 where user generated content reigns especially in the age of AI.

Are they to blame for following the platform rules?

In 2025, being a content creator is almost a job title itself. It used to be something a lot of people sneer at and was seen as something of a joke. But, many platforms offering people with significant followers the opportunity of earning money. By nature, these people want their content to be liked and be at the mercy of algorithm god. So, they contribute in making these so-called brain rot content since that’s something people enjoy and consume.

We can’t help it but to continue scroll of our favorite topic. Are we then to blame for not having a self-control?

Are we to blame for contracting the brain rot?

In this long chain of activity, some of us think that us, people/user are the sole victim. Yet even when you see through the lens of platform owners, content creators, and society, they are all the victim too. We are all trapped within our own problems that leads us to this complex and intricate spider’s web.

Can we avoid brain rot?

Yes, sure we can. I personally believe that change starts from within and we have the ability to create some changes. We lead by examples.

These days, I thought about this quite a lot as I also consider myself entangled in this complex spider’s web. I am a consumer but also someone who writes and I also used to write to influence people to buy something a.k.a a copywriter. I felt like sometimes I neglected my responsibilities to create something that doesn’t contribute to brain rot. There were moments when I write for the sake of writing without thinking much of it. There were days when I spend merely 20 minutes to write and I’d consider it a day. In all honestly, anything that is lack of depth can be considered brain rot.

“Who read long winded paragraphs these days?”

When I heard that question thrown around, it’s just another cue that brain rot has seeped into our society and might as well be ingrained. It’s as if we lose hope that people have no ability to read anymore or spend more than 10 minutes in reading something.

Sure, some writers can write nothing but empty words. It might just be strings of words, tied together without much of meaning but there are also others in the other spectrum whose words are not empty.

Where things get interesting for me

I ran some experiments to myself these days in a journey to reset my brain. I try to write 60 minutes a day and I can produce better stuff than what I normally would. I am not rushing anymore and I kind of enjoy it because short bursts of writing were making me burning out faster than I would like. Sure, I can spend 25 minutes or less and maybe in a day I can write 2-3 pieces but honestly, they lack of depth.

The same goes with the way I interact with others, not just here but anywhere. We often overestimate the amount spent to read something because we’re always distracted. The thing is, to read 1000 words and leaving more meaningful interaction won’t take more than 10 minutes of our time. Rather than just “Thank you” or “Nice”, try to spend a little bit more time. If it doesn’t worth your 60 seconds skip and leave.

This has been the second week since I ran this and I’ve noticed such tremendous change. I am back to where I was at some point in my life where I was never rushing to anything. I am back to that point where I felt genuinely happy of my craft and enjoyed every second of it. Most importantly, I also want to contribute against the brain rot that’s currently plaguing our society.

See you around!

_{graphics created with canva}