your brain is rotting away, babe

“Brain rot” has been announced as the Oxford word of the year for 2024, amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and mind-numbing content.

We are not doing well, babe. We need to reclaim our focus and our sanity.

Are you not feeling crazy? I am. Not in an ex calling you a crazy woman way. More in a I have been online too much to know all of this, I’m Alice in the rabbit hole of video clips, and I cannot get out.

Suddenly, hours have passed, and I have wasted my time and my energy away. For what purpose? Naturally, to distract! Life is hard, and social media is right there at your finger tips. It’s the new drug. Your brain feels fried, and that, my love, is what I would describe as brain rot. The feeling of mental stagnation and overstimulation all at once.

It’s not a medical term by any means, and I am not a doctor or any other sort of professional. I can speak for myself that the term perfectly describes that dull, sluggish, unproductive feeling I slip into when I’m drowning in this low-effort entertainment microwave of digital noise.

It’s like I’m consuming too much, and creating too little.

I have filled every quiet moment of my life with distractions, instead of depth. It’s been going on for years. Maybe it truly is that damn phone.

This is how I figured out my brain was rotting away.

• Struggling to focus on books, deep work, conversations.

• Feeling restless but unmotivated. Like I’m electrified, but too numb to move.

• Constantly craving more content, hoping I stumble across even better content. Even if it’s so pointless and I forget about it the moment I get off it.

• Forgetting in general.

• Finding it hard to enjoy slow or meaningful activities. It even got to the point when I was watching films on my laptop with my finger on the right arrow button to skip forward 10 seconds.

It was bad. And I wanted to escape it. Here is a list of things I did to escape the rotting. You may call them my anti-brain-rot offerings. The goal: snapping out of autopilot, and the addiction.

• Challenge your brain with books, essays, articles, long-form content. Substack is perfect for this. It might feel hard at first, because we’re addicted to quick dopamine, but push through to retrain your focus.

• When you find yourself doomscrolling next time, try creating something. Write, draw, listen to music without the video, work on a puzzle, or on a project that requires more patience. The more you actively do, the less you’ll feel like some passive bystander in your own life.

• Journal!!! Your thoughts, what you’ve been doing or watching. Everything. Brain dumps are good and freeing.

• Set a no-screen period in your day.

• Do nothing on purpose, because we have forgotten how to just exist. Stare at the ceiling! Watch the clouds! Your brain needs empty space again to process thoughts instead of constantly being fed more information.

• Rearrange your closet or bookshelf.

• Check local restaurants or cafés you haven’t tried yet and save them.

• Take a shower in the dark.

• Doodle mindlessly. Straight lines. Only circles. Whatever comes to mind.

• Do some full-body stretches.

• Gua sha. Skincare. Body lotion. Dry brushing.

• Do your nails.

• Play with pets or nephews or nieces.

• Organise your notes, desktop, hard drive. Organise something you never think about (email drafts or socks).

• Untangle your cords.

• Sing some karaoke songs in your room.

• Clean your glasses, phone screen, laptop screen.

• Go to a thrift store just to look around.

• Look up an old map of your city and see what used to be where you live.

• People-watch in a bar or coffee shop. Make up backstories for random strangers you see.

• Add things to your to do list that you’ve already done that day.

If you liked this piece:

• bye, you should really read more

• the art of order

• digital feng shui