Brain Rot: A New Word for the Age of Trivial Content

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - Brain Rot is the Oxford Dictionary word of the year - defined as the 'supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging'.

For interest first used in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden, criticising society's tendency to devalue complex ideas and how this is part of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort. It leads him to ask: "While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?" Tempting to think 'twas always thus' and dismiss the impact of social media, but let's not do that.

Loving one of the other words on the shortlist too:

Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate

Being an old person I hadn't heard of either, but they are spot on and will use them now. Congrats to the young people for nailing the language as usual, maybe a tipping point for action.


https://lnkd.in/eP9d5fyU