Is Our Brain Rotting from the Internet?

02/06/2025

I've been noticing something strange about the kind of content we consume online. It feels like more and more people (including myself sometimes) are stuck watching things that honestly make no sense — and not in a good way.

This kind of content is often called "brainrot". It includes fast-paced, loud, absurd, or just outright nonsense videos that flood platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. One famous example is the Skibidi Toilet series — where heads come out of toilets and sing, fight, and fly. It’s chaotic, and yet... millions watch it.

Before this, there was Elsagate — a weird wave of creepy "kids" videos on YouTube showing characters like Elsa and Spiderman doing strange, even disturbing things. These were often auto-generated and slipped through YouTube's filters. I still remember how uncomfortable it was seeing thumbnails like this:



One time, I was scrolling YouTube and suddenly found a video where Elsa was pregnant and Spiderman was helping her give birth... seriously, what were kids watching back then?

What scares me is how these kinds of content are no longer fringe — they’re becoming normal. Kids imitate them, adults ironically enjoy them, and now we even hear rumors of companies turning memes like Skibidi Toilet into actual movies or games. It's like we're rewarding the internet for making us dumber.

I’m not saying everything needs to be serious or educational. Fun is fun. But when your daily dose of content is only chaotic randomness, it can mess with your attention span, creativity, and even how you think.

Maybe it's time we become a little more mindful of what we consume. It's okay to laugh at a meme — but let's not lose our brains in the process.