Are Gen Z & Gen Alpha ‘Cooked’ from Brain Rot?
Whether you have TikTok or not, many Gen Z & Gen Alpha individuals probably have heard about brain rot. Brain rot, initially stemming from TikTok, has become a well-acknowledged trend amongst many social media platforms. But what even is brain rot? Brain rot is the term used to describe the negative effects of social media on young people’s brains due to over-scrolling on platforms like TikTok. Many brain-rot memes are meaningless pieces of the internet that do not make much sense. Brain rot is said by older people to decrease attention span, cause mental exhaustion, and impact teens’ brains forcing them to become addicted to the digital world. These absurd “brain rot” memes have no real intellectual thought behind them, but rather, are random ideas that turn into recognizable jokes among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. As someone who has found themselves on the brain rot side of TikTok. These are some of the most well-known forms of brain rot terms for those who might not know.
We have Gyatt, Sigma, Ohio, and Skibidi Toilet to start. To a person who is not chronically online or below the age of 25, these terms make no sense, but for brain-rotted victims (youths), these are common in their daily diction. Gyatt means large butt, Sigma stands for the alpha male leader of the pack, Ohio emphasizes how the state is strange implying such strange things only happen in Ohio, and Skibidi Toilet refers to a dancing toilet which went viral and now is commonly used as a word.
Then there is the famous or infamous mewing. The act of mewing is when you press your tongue to the roof of your mouth to make your jawline look sharper. Looksmaxxing is also another term that goes hand in hand with mewing. Looksmaxxing is a term that refers to the process of making yourself look more physically attractive. Another term that is associated with Looksmaxxing is mogging. Mogging is to be more physically attractive than others in photos. For example, in a TikTok video by @gomminie8, which got 5.5 million views, the user captioned the video of two stars standing next to each other by saying “bro on the left knew he was getting mogged”. Mogging goes hand in hand with the ideas of mewing and looksmaxxing. If you do not know these terms and are not yet confused, I am going to introduce you to Rizz.
Rizz is one of the most notable brain rot terms and some would say it is the most commonly used in everyday life. Rizz means to have style or charm. The term is short for charisma and was actually named word of the year in 2023 by Oxford University! Rizz was initially coined by YouTuber Kai Cenat in 2022 for teaching viewers how to rizz up or attract women. But The Rizzler was the one who invented “the rizz face,” to show people how to “rizz.” The Rizzler is a third-grade boy who is part of the father-son duo on TikTok called the Costco Guys, who go by the names of A.J. (father) and Big Justice (son). Recently the three appeared on Jimmy Fallon because of their viral song “We Bring The BOOM!” which is the epitome of brain rot. Brain rot got so popular it even made its way onto Fallon.
Brain rot can have a great impact on the young minds of today. Children with decreased attention spans are being coined “iPad kids” by many news publications, like CBS, for excessive use of being chronically online. Many parents are concerned about their adolescents growing up having negative mental health effects due to social media or “brain rot”. According to a study done by the Newport Institute of 1,051 young adults between 18 and 27 years old, “social media addiction has a significant negative association with executive functioning skills such as planning, organization, problem-solving, decision-making, and working memory”. Additionally, brain rot can deeply affect mental and emotional well-being. One study conducted by the National Library of Medicine showed that “doom-scrolling can lead to higher levels of psychological distress as well as lower levels of mental well-being”. Social media addiction has already proven to be hurting young adults in the long run, but what about brain rot specifically? Are the negative connotations around the brain rot terms as bad as parents say?
According to a recent survey on tweens by the market research group YPulse, 65% of 8 to 12-year-olds have an iPhone, and the same percentage have an iPad. For comparison, millennials got their first smartphones at 16. While a full 92 percent of 8 to 12-year-olds are on social media, and more kids in this age group prefer short videos over longer movies or shows. However, does this mean kids’ brains are fried? According to the Vox article “iPad kids speak up,” by Anna North, “As of now, there’s no hard evidence that being online is bad for young people’s mental health. And, of course, a phone or iPad cannot literally rot someone’s brain”. What parents are saying about Gen Z and Gen Alpha is not actually all that accurate. The common stereotype of tweens, teens, and kids being brain-rotted is not 100% true. Yes, teens and tweens are obsessed with using their iPhones, but they are very active in the real world compared to past generations.
According to YPulse, “88% have a hobby, and while some play video games, others are interested in sports or crafting”. And “75 percent of tweens say they’re passionate about causes like animal rights or cyberbullying”. Older generations, like our parents, like to frame Gen Z and Gen Alpha as mindless individuals who are dependent on technology or lazy. As one adult Reddit user says, “Just (feel) like they think they are more entitled. They have a lot more access to information than we did so they do speak up more freely”. Especially with new technology innovations like Chat GPT and generative AI, this gives parents all the more reason to be scared for their kid’s future and blame technology’s existence. Parents are more worried about technology negatively affecting the newer generations, but more teens are doing better than past generations.
A UCLA study found that “teens are partying less and focusing more on academics than past generations”. There has been an increase in IQ scores in the newer generations as well. Younger generations of Americans perform better on standardized measures of intelligence, yet teens are still framed as lazy or “brain-rotted”. According to the National Center For Education Statistics, recent generations of American children have been in school for more hours per week, with more jam-packed schedules, and with less free play, than any earlier generations.
They’re also connecting more through social media rather than at parties, especially since the pandemic. According to another study done by NPR, “teen pregnancy has actually dropped 77% from Gen X”. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also states that teen sex has been on a decline for years, with the numbers falling lower. 30% of teens even said that they had never had sex, which was the sharpest drop the survey had ever recorded. So why are Gen Z and Gen Alpha looked at with such disgust by older generations as brain-rotted, underachieving, and self-obsessed individuals? According to an article called “Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking”, by scholars John Protzko and Jonathan W. Schooler, “when observing current children, we compare our biased memory to the present and a decline appears. This may explain why the kids these days effect has been happening for millennia”.
For example, slang terms from past generations like “cool,” “swag,” “tubular,” or even “photograph” are now regularly accepted in the English language but originally were not. Back in the 80s when the parents of today, or Generation X were younger, these terms were confusing to their parents, or the “Baby Boomers”. My mom would say that’s “totally tubular” all the time and think she was all that. My mom used to tell me how my grandma would say “What does that even mean? You sound ridiculous Adele”! Sound familiar? “Omg, Rachel is so mogging Tyler in that photo”! So parents complain about the absurdity of terms like “Gyatt”, “Skibidi Toilet”, or even “Mogging”, and how the online world is harming us in the future. Still, they were faced with the same treatment when they said “Totally tubular” or “That’s so cool to their parents”. The vernacular is still the same narrative over time, just a different context. Baby boomers also faced their own set of critiques from their parents from being called ‘‘dirty, unlawful, immoral…lazy, and we don't wanna work,’” as Kelly Ellis Florez, who is a boomer, told the Deseret News. It was all the same methodology. Sakshi Venkatraman writes for NBC in the article “Parents and Gen Alpha kids are having unintelligible convos because of ‘brain rot’ language”, that “Every single person throughout history has always complained about how the younger generations are ruining language with their made-up slang”. This argument is nothing new so when will we learn? It happens generation after generation to frame the newer generations as abnormal when the older generations can’t understand the new ways or slang of modern times. Similarly, scholars John Protzko and Jonathan W. Schooler emphasize again how this phenomenon that has been going on for generations is called the “Kids these days effect”. The older generation always tries to blame the new technology of the time out of fear of the unknown but it is just evolution. Every time I scroll on TikTok I hear my dad say “Get off your phone Eva! It is rotting your brain”! Next time I plan to clap back and say “Doesn’t matter Dad because according to science I am smarter than your generation”! I will not be saying this but you get the point. Time and time again history finds a way of repeating itself when the new comes along and the old reacts in an accusatory and fearful way to the new ways of time because it is not the society they grew up in. That is why living in a mindset that hears out all sides before pointing fingers and blaming technology or this generation is important. It is better to look at the context of the situation. I will continue to scroll on social media and laugh at the TikTok Rizz Party and Grimace Shake memes all while studying for my midterms and finals while maintaining my mewing streak. And until the day I maybe become a parent then it will be my turn to shake my head in disbelief and say “Uh I just don’t understand the kids these days”.
