Brain rot (also written as brainrot) is not a medical or scientific term.
What is brain rot?
Ironically, brain rot is also a meme in itself and has led to the creation of intentional, self-aware brain rot content.
He says there are two definitions of brain rot, one of which is used to describe the content itself.
The second definition of brain rot refers to the phenomenon of associating things such as memes, gaming and pop culture references with the real world.
A TikToker (right) thought he had developed ‘internet brain rot’ because he recognised Thomas Lea’s famous That 2,000 Yard Stare painting (centre) from internet memes (top and bottom right). Credit: (left to right): TikTok @joshlunchbox, Thomas Lea (1944), Instagram @spongeglob, TikTok @therealkurtangle.
“When you are repeatedly exposed to media in a particular field, in a particular vein or a particular situation, you tend to associate other things with that,” Jeyasingam said.
The painting was Tom Lea’s That 2,000 Yard Stare, which portrays the shell-shocked look of a World War Two soldier, and is often used in response to content that is considered brain rot.
ANU’s Dr Neil Jeyasingam is a psychiatrist who has examined the use of video games as therapeutic tools and has a keen interest in social media.
Where does the term come from?
The term brain rot has been used online since as early as 2004 but has seen a steady rise throughout the 2010s before exploding in popularity in the latter half of 2023, according to Google Trends.
Source: Google
Notably, brain rot is a disease that gamers can contract in the 2011 game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, contributing to the term’s use online throughout the 2010s.
But Jeyasingam says although the term ‘brain rot’ is relatively new, the phenomenon of people disparaging various forms of media content is not new.
“And back when newspapers were invented, all these strange young people who have lost the art of conversation and are having their faces buried inside newspapers.”
How does brain rot affect us?
“What happens when you watch a meme or when you read a meme? For the most part, nothing. But the reason why we do it is that they’re kind of entertaining, they are fun to look at, which is why we keep on indulging in them,” he said.
“But a balanced diet may not be as much fun, but you’re definitely going to get a lot further in terms of your health and satisfaction and growth and development.”
