Brainrot – Let’s Stop Normalizing It.
By ELLEN JIN ‘26
You’ve been locked in doing homework for the past few hours and now it’s time to relax. You pick up your phone for the perfect reward. TikTok. Instagram Reels. YouTube Shorts.
Short form video content is everywhere. From a dorm common room to the dining hall, the library, grill, even walking on the paths, students everywhere can be spotted scrolling on social media in even the smallest windows of downtime.
Nowadays, online trends come and go in a matter of weeks. If someone told you they just found out about the song “Apple” by CharliXCX you would question their social awareness. If anyone still used the word “demure” you would say no one says that anymore. And you can’t stand to hear “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter one more time.
In reality, most of these trends came about just in this past summer. Come September, they’ve all already been wiped out and replaced by new ones. Sometimes, there seems to be a negative sentiment towards people who are not up to date with the latest trends. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say something along the lines of: “Have you seen that guy on TikTok who tries to eat everything in as few bites as possible?” This is usually followed by a collective yes and further discussion about said person.
It leaves the people who have no idea what they’re talking about confused. But in reality, they’re not the ones who are so wrapped up in social media rot to realize the stupidity of their sentence.
Imagine this: you’re walking on the paths and you suddenly hear two girls singing, “looky looky looky, it’s Crumbl cookie, Crumbl cookies for life, Crumbl cookies!” If you were clueless about the reference, you would probably think they were insane. But if someone were to later inform you that it was a social media joke, the girls’ behavior would suddenly seem pardoned or justified.
Some may argue that these references are good for a quick laugh with friends and I agree with that. The fact that I was able to list so many references says something about my own social media use. However, I also feel that as a society we should not continue to normalize this behavior of spewing senseless phrases with the excuse of humor.