There’s a lot of criticism of silly, nonsensical content that kids and teens enjoy lately, and a lot of that has involved the term “brain rot”. Believe it or not, this is not new!
Henry David Thoreau recorded the first official use of the term “brain rot” but the idea of choosing purposefully silly, lighthearted, inconsequential, or meaningless media as a way of decompressing or taking a break is about as human an idea as I can imagine. And when I hear people deriding brainrot as if it’s a new idea, I cannot help but think of the literal hours I spent watching silly internet videos in my adolescence and early adulthood.
And of course, there’s nuance that gets missed when we dismiss something as “brainrot”. If our kids are gravitating toward something we’d consider brainrot, and that seems to be all they ever consume, then get curious. Are they trying to distract themselves? Disassociate? Numb? Or are they just…being a child? Use it as an opportunity to talk about the silly videos you watch now, or even show the stuff you used to watch to your kids- I can only imagine how modern teenagers would feel about Mr. Nice, my favorite early internet video.
What was your favorite brainrot as a kid? Personally, I have a soft spot for the “Head On” commercial.
