My Experience With 'Brain Rot' and How I Got My Brain Back

It started a few months ago, when I noticed I couldn't…speak?

I have been a devoted user of social media since I was seventeen— Instagram, X, Pinterest, you name it — I have a distinct and carefully curated identity on all the platforms. Despite being a borderline technophobe, social media had me in a chokehold, a soft spot I simply couldn’t seem to get rid of. My mornings would start with scrolling X, trying to catch up on all the hot drama that may have happened while I was asleep not wanting to miss out on a crucial reference. I’d then switch to Instagram, continuously clicking the heart icon on a niche brand of content only those chronically online can understand. I felt good, like I belonged. I was finally in an ecosystem whose rules and language, I was perfectly fluent in.

Until real life happened.

In my bid to fight loneliness, I decided to ‘touch grass’ which is the internet equivalent of “get a life”. I decided to socialise, talk to people who weren’t pixels and see if it felt good. Spoiler alert! It did. It felt great but it also felt horrible. I realized because of me living in my little online world for so many years, I had forgotten how to…speak? I couldn’t talk to them without mentioning an internet joke or slang or pay attention to what they were saying, I would grow increasingly frustrated as my complex inner thoughts weaseled out my mouth sounding like a bunch of incoherent and erratic words trying to mimic an intelligent sentence. There was a clear disconnect and I knew I had to do something about it.

When Oxford named ‘brain rot’ as the word of the year in 2024—I decided to dig deeper. What started as a silly means of entertainment had now completely taken over my social skills.

So, what makes it so addictive?

At its core brain rot content is mindless and unserious. It allows us to ‘turn our brain off’, escape from our own anxiety-inducing reality. Climate change, fascist governments and looming recession has pushed Gen-Z to seek refuge in the world of social media. Brain rot thus serves as a self-soothing mechanism. It becomes a necessary strategy to avoid getting crushed under rapidly collapsing structures whilst also building a stellar life for oneself. Laden with expectations from society, one that fails to meet the individual’s needs—Gen-Z is left alone. This is primarily why while many terminally online people recognize the absurdity of their consumption habits but refuse to get away.

In my experience, brain rot speak, and memes seem to succeed in unifying people, flattening differences across race, class, caste and gender. It aids connection by giving an illusion of belonging. By becoming a part of the vernacular, it helps one identify and bond with others who speak the same language. When parroting memes, individual identity takes a back seat reducing any friction that may arise when meeting someone new. It’s protective in that sense. For instance, an otherwise socially awkward eighteen-year-old can easily create a fun and interesting persona, borrowing from his arsenal of internet jokes and memes. It fast-tracks connection, a superficial one at that.

How do you fix it then?

‘Touch grass’

I decided to go out and meet real people, especially ones who are not chronically online. The best way to do this if you are socially anxious like me is to simply get curious. Avoid speaking, focus just on listening. Let people talk about themselves while you ask follow-up questions. Try to learn more about their perspective, carefully observing how they use language. Drop the urge to be funny or entertaining, focus on building a real connection. It will require vulnerability from your side, and it may happen that you say something cringe or embarrassing. If they are a decent person, they’ll let it go and give you space and time to fully express yourself. If not, you move to the next.

Reconnect

Brain rot feeds from our disconnection to ourselves. The more you engage with it, the more alienated you become from yourself. Its absurdity lies in its unhinged-ness. The memes are so cartoonish as if they were designed for a toddler. So, that’s what you do. You think back to when you were a child. What made you laugh? What made you forget your real-world responsibilities? Do that. Paint a silly cat. Try learning how to do a cartwheel or twerk badly in your room at 3 A.M. Brain rot content ultimately speaks to our inner child. Memes are a masterclass in blending creativity, humour and relatability. Your challenge however is to create this mixture from scratch, using only real-world elements.

Plant a digital garden

Another strategy is to create your own digital garden. Practice intentionality in the way you consume content. You can either listen to the cat going ‘oee uuu oeee uuu’ (which is admittedly fun) or watch a 1-hour essay video on how cats domesticated themselves centuries ago. The choice is yours. Eventually, you will notice your attention span has increased, your memory has improved, and you have a bunch of cool facts to impress your next date.

The trick to undoing the damage is to make friends with delayed gratification. It feels painful in the moment, when you delete the apps and remove all distractions, but I can promise you it’s worth it. I have successfully curated my social media in a way where I only consume content which is both fun and educational. I have also been making an effort to speak in full sentences devoid of any internet slang. Reading books and learning more about what’s going on the real world is incredibly helpful. Investing in my hobbies, taking the time to intentionally do them daily, has also helped a great deal.

Know your why

Ultimately, understanding yourself and your unmet emotional needs is crucial to end this cycle once and for all. I found out my incessant consumption was caused by problems with self-expression and the desire to connect with others authentically. To show up as I am, weird and incomprehensible at times, felt too vulnerable so it was better to become a participant in this make-believe world, where I was accepted and validated. Everyone was absurd and unintelligent, I felt safe. However, as I tip-toed in the real world, to test the waters, I realised it was not that bad after all. People were more accepting and welcoming than I expected.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I urge you to go on this journey and find what works for you. It will demand discipline and honesty from you but once you start, you’ll come out of it feeling whole and fulfilled.

Now go, get your brain back from the Big tech guys!