Backing Away From Brainrot

Lately, I’ve felt a cognitive dullness… a brainrot. I don’t have an exact definition for brainrot and I’m not going to check a dictionary. No need, if you’ve been living in the modern world you know exactly what I mean.

That feeling might just be a part of aging, but I suspect that it’s really driven by consuming short videos from whatever the service-du-jour is (TikTok, SnapChat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). For what it’s worth, a lot of experts agree with me too.

So, I’m going to start producing, instead of consuming. I couldn’t care less if anybody actually reads my work, so let’s call it public (non-)consumption.

why public (non-)consumption?

You might wonder why anybody would publish publicly with no expectation of feedback.

I’ve been a content consumer for as long as I can remember. It just makes sense. When you’re growing up, and you’re brain is developing, your theories may be original to you. Those ideas will lack context though. Most people would find them naive or lacking nuance. And so you are encouraged to learn by reading others’ work, looking at photos, watching videos, and so on.

Now I’m slightly older, and I hope that the very act of curating and focusing my thoughts for public (non-)consumption will help develop mental acuity and reverse the brainrot.