TikTok offers several trends and challenges, music and sound clips, and other content. It has become a staple in the daily lives of many students. While the platform offers entertainment and educational content, there’s a growing concern about what’s known as “TikTok brain rot.” This term refers to internet content consisting of low-quality, humorous and exaggerated videos and memes that describe a feeling of becoming mentally consumed or “rotted.”
How do we know if we’ve been affected by it? In most cases, especially younger kids may say things such as skibidi toilet, rizz, where the huzz at, nonchalant dreadhead, negative aura, hawk tuah and so much more. These words are pretty popular all over TikTok and other social media platforms. If you’ve ever used any of these words, you’re most likely to be a part of the brain rot community.
This app is designed to keep you scrolling and alternatively damages the brain’s reward system. When you’re constantly engaging with TikTok, the brain gets used to high adjustments, which means you’re enjoying the feeling of pleasure when you see something funny or surprising. In reality, this connection makes it harder for people, including me, to stay focused or entertained with other activities.
But let’s break down to reality: TikTok knows what it’s doing. The app’s algorithm keeps us scrolling from video to video. Every for you page is built up by the person watching. It analyzes your likes, shares and comments, so you’re constantly presented with videos that keep you hooked.
And yes, not all brain rot is created equally. Many other categories have emerged; for example, the term “skibidi toilet” created by Alexey Gerasimov, which features a human-like head spinning on a toilet.
From that, we move on to mukbangs, where people only eat giant plates of food while filming themselves. Other brain rots include the “Only in Ohio” meme, a humorous conspiracy theory in which unimaginable things happen in Ohio. It was started after a Tumblr post in 2016 showed a glitching bus stating, “Ohio will be eliminated.”
In general, brain rot for our generation is used by most teenagers as a way to handle stress, which enables them to enjoy mindless content and to distract their brains for a while. The outcome of TikTok brain rot has led to the serving of an important purpose in the internet world.
As we now depend on technology for entertainment, TikTok has transformed the way we consume content. But as the world embraces this new age, the consequences of our behavior become unstoppable. While TikTok brain rot grows, let’s ask ourselves how we can reclaim our focus and mental health in an age that’s dominated by short videos and an algorithm that knows us better than we know ourselves.
Learning to balance your time on social media should be a priority. Not only does this target teens, but it also targets younger kids specifically. As they’re growing, they’re being introduced to useless crap that won’t benefit the status of their skills. Being humorous and acting a way are two completely different states, and TikTok brain rot is to blame.
