Your Brain on Brainrot

What in the Ohio skibidi sigma rizz is going on?

By Nikki Lipner

Scroll through your TikTok feed for long enough, and you're sure to stumble across clips of memes, microtrends, and catchphrases, all while your attention span is slowly shifting away. This phenomenon is known as "brainrot," a term coined to describe wasting time engaging with seemingly meaningless content for long enough for it to infiltrate your mind. This harmless scrolling has rewired our brains to the extreme, to the point where our attention spans are so short that many find it difficult to even watch a full-length television show without pulling out our phones. Honestly, there's a good chance a robotic voice is reading this article out loud to you while a Subway Surfers clip plays in the background. Are we doomed?

Brainrot is defined as "mindless digital content; the fixation on it and the harmful mental effects of it." In other words, brainrot is the 2026 equivalent of your grandma saying, "TV rots your brain!" While this might seem like an issue for only the chronically online, brainrot truly affects almost everyone in our generation. When was the last time you heard someone say "6 or 7" without anyone around you chuckling under their breath? Statistics and physics students have to say "sigma" and "alpha" every day, and everyone who lives in Ohio just cannot catch a break.

Slang in general dates back hundreds of years, but only became more mainstream as time went on ("Take a chill pill!" - your mom in the 80s, probably). Internet slang, specifically, however, took off in the early 1990s with the launch of the World Wide Web. Shorthand for commonly used phrases became crucial for rapid typing, introducing terms like "LOL," "BRB," and ":-)." Slowly, as social media sites became more popular and people began combining different types of media, language became more ironic and memetic ("that top is on-fleek!") and spread very quickly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when everybody was basically forced to be on the internet at all times, apps like TikTok and Instagram blew up with running jokes, parodies, and slang (let's not forget that "Miss Rona" was used in casual conversation for a very long time). From there, internet slang skyrocketed, and brainrot, as we know it, began to develop.

But how will this affect us in the long term?

"Brainrot is definitely limiting our cognitive development, and it will 100% affect the younger generation's ability to process and comprehend literature, develop critical thinking skills, and be creative," said Liv (CAS ‘29). "I'd say I'm a bit more brain-rotted than some people my age, because I am addicted to social media and have FOMO (fear-of-missing-out), so I always need to be updated on the latest trend or phrase."

"Brainrot will BE THE END OF US! BE WARNED!" said Sam (CAS ‘29).

Brainrot, or even basic internet slang, has not been around for long enough for us to see how it will affect our minds long-term or if it will be "the end of us." What we can observe, however, is how quickly it affects how we communicate, pay attention (or not), and process basic information. If we make the conscious choice to balance brainrot with focused thought and meaningful experiences, it can remain a harmless and enjoyable part of modern culture in this fast-moving, digital world.