'Brain rot’ is apparently so prevalent in today’s society that it was named ‘Oxford Word of the Year’ in 2024. I was initially surprised by this as surely ‘brain rot’ is two words? You’d think those clever people at Oxford would have spotted this. Does pointing this out make me a pedant? And is being a pedant is a sign of a rotting or a healthy brain?
Anyway usage of the term ‘brain rot’ increased 230% between 2023 and 2024, mainly to denote the decline in attention span in young people due to excessive time spent on social media. The first recorded appearance of the expression dates way back to 1854 in a book by the American writer Henry David Thoreau. If people in the mid-nineteenth century thought that their children’s ability to focus was shrinking - a good fifty years before such things as gramophones, radios and TV started to come along, let alone the internet and mobile phones - then this is a serious issue, or possibly just a grumble that older people have always made about the younger generation.