Stemming the Rot

Oxford's Word of the Year, Brain Rot, captures the mental toll of social media overload that is eroding real-life connections and distorting relationships while urging humanity to reclaim authentic bonds

- ADITYA GOLE

When Oxford University Press (OUP) declared 'Brain Rot' as its Word of the Year for 2024, the perpetual allure of 'Coffee Houser Sei Addata Aaj Ar Nei' orbited in a loop. The anodyne lyrics pregnant with antithetical emotions of restive refrain and fond remembrance dawned on me with renewed relevance, perhaps in a way as never before.

In times of fleeting thumb scrolls on cellular screens, we no longer have real Nikhilesh, D'Souza, Moidul, Roma Roy, Sujata or Amol in our lives. We have virtual fairy tales of 'friends' or 'followers'. The grim space where tweens, teens and beyond are spasmodically drawn into with nervous energy of keeping up with the times. It leaves indelible imprints of innocent fun morphing into cruel torment.

The word 'Brain Rot' flags the legitimate scare of social media overload in our everyday lives which is leading to cognitive decline. The ruthless subversion of intellect and human connect is a deadly product of mindless exposure to suboptimal content. The word itself, though, traces back to 1854 when American author Henry David Thoreau bemoaned society's slide into triviality orphaning intellectual discourse. Its usage saw a boggling surge of 230 percent in frequency from 2023 to 2024. Interestingly, the chosen word in 2023 - 'Rizz', had a telltale insinuation of how netizens are disrupting lives and reshaping languages. 'Brain Rot' further stamps how social media is colonising our consciousness and conscience.