Mind Rot Content material Is Enjoyable – Why Does It Get So A lot Hate?

‘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 considered on account of overconsumption of fabric (now significantly on-line content material) thought of 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. Provided that we’re dwelling in a world the place horrible information is pinged into our lives at an alarming charge, I discover that issues like The Kardashians or Gossip Woman (I am on my fiftieth re-run, WBU?) have a beautiful soothing high quality that I couldn’t stay with out. The actual 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 technique to decompress.

TikTok particularly will get plenty of flak as being a ‘mind rot’ exercise; and do not get me mistaken, I am positive that if I climbed into mattress at evening and browse one of many many a whole lot (I am solely barely exaggerating right here) of books that I carry on my bedside desk, as an alternative of scrolling my FYP for 40 minutes, I would 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 with the ability to park my internal voice, even only for a short time, and devour one thing utterly passively that I’ve come to stay up for.

This complete factor, the place new know-how is written off as ‘rotting our brains’, shouldn’t be new. In truth, it goes way back to historical Greece – the thinker Socrates warned in opposition to writing as a result of it will “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 hectic or annoying was typically unrelated to how damaging they have been.

My private idea is that a part of the explanation this concept – that scrolling is making us all silly/ unhappy and many others – obtained a lot traction is due to a vibe shift the place being offline has develop into a form of standing image. It was the model strategist Eugene Healy who referred to as IRL the “new standing image” in a video he made concerning the post-brain rot period. “2024 noticed the posh business get deeper into run golf equipment, ebook golf equipment, pop-ups and activations,” he stated. “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 might be seen as a low standing trait.”

In 2025, being tied to our telephones is all of the sudden turning into form 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 form 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 a superb factor” exists. I be certain that to stay to my designated TikTok time and preserve my MAFS Australia consumption to an affordable quantity… nicely, I’ll as quickly as this season finishes.