Monday Musings: ‘Brain Rot or Brain Revolt’

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By Amitabh Srivastava, Edited By TIO Bureau, The India Observer, TIO: (We traditionally say Happy New Year but there is hardly much to be happy about in January 2025.)

The Oxford Word of the Year 2024, brain rot ; caught a lot of readers of English language in the world, unawares but not many have reacted to it to my knowledge.

According to Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, this word is a noun “symbolizing, supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.

Also something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” He went on to  add that the word was chosen as it got over 37,000 votes, worldwide through public discussion, and analysis of language data. By Indian population standards this figure may seem trivial but since the authority to add new words to the Oxford dictionary rests solely with Oxford we have to accept it as fait accompli.

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But the point is that this analysis of the term is not so simplistic according to me. The Oxford authorities say that their experts noticed that the term ‘brain rot’ gained prominence last year as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.

It says that the term increased in usage frequency by 230% between 2023 and 2024. According to records, the word ‘brain rot’ was first used in 1854 in Henry David  Thoreau’s book Walden, but it had taken a new dimension in the digital age. The implication of this reasoning is that the vast majority of the new generation has stopped using its brains and has become a slave of the information being dumped on it through the Internet whose authenticity is questionable.

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The Introduction of AI in a big way last year and easy availability of its applications seems to have further obliterated the difference between the real and the fake. So far do good. But is the new generation as stupid as is being assumed? My personal experience tells me there is something more to it than appears on the surface.

When I interact with the new generation through my talks in colleges and even with my own children and grandchildren I have no hesitation in admitting that this generation is technically miles ahead of my generation in understanding and using data without getting sentimental. They don’t carry a baggage of the past and sometimes their clinical thought process shocks me.

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When for instance, my son was doing his MBA from a reputed B School 15 years ago and he came home on vacation after his first year, he was more on the phone chatting with friends than at home spending what we like to call Quality Time with his parents (who had brought him up spending hard earned money and all that jargon that mothers typically like to use). But even if this was not downright a sign of protest against sentimentality and overbearing parents trying to smother children with love isn’t this changed behaviour natural? If as a student you are sharing 18 hours of your waking up time with friends and sharing your good and tough times together where do parents fit in the picture, in those two years of PG studies at least?

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But even a somewhat allegedly liberal father like me was rudely jolted when very casually he said, “Our professor says that when you have to take monetary or business decisions don’t trust even your father” exactly in so many words. But that was only meant to say that sentiments have no place in their life and this is a lesson that has been drilled into their minds as business leaders in schools where we have sent them to become market savvy.

When we or the Oxford Dictionary owners condemn this generation of becoming slave to the new technology we are shirking our responsibility by not trying to understand why the youth of today is behaving like this. The Oxford spokesperson maintains, ‘Brain rot’ speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time. It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. But such generalizations don’t give the real picture as my experience with youth shows.

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For instance one youngster I know is a very hard working boy coming from a very poor locality of Delhi. He has created assets for his old parents and taken care of his sister’s family as a Chartered Accountant like a caring child.
But when it came to his own career he started his own business with two partners on clear and written legal agreement. That is the reason that the relationship of such tech savvy generation has stood the test of time for over two decades. On the other hand relations of our generation based on vague terms like sentiments, mutual respect and family friendship tend to crack at the slightest jerk.

But outside India this generations addiction to Brain Rot is also a sign of its desperation when it is it not allowed to protest on campuses.

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In several campuses they have been arrested and thrown out for going against the policies of capitalist or corrupt regimes. Student protests in neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have succeeded in throwing out corrupt regimes. This too has a precedent in India when student movement started in Bihar started a movement against dictatorship in the 70s which under the leadership of Jai Prakash Narayan overthrew the regime of Indira Gandhi in 1977. But the stark reality is that in most of the regime changes politicians have taken over and they are more corrupt and dictatorial than those they deposed.

If this new generation is today trying to drown its frustrations and sorrows in the information glut available at its finger tips, fake or real, can you call them stupid.
I would not!

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Curated and Compiled by Humra Kidwai

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