In today's Buzzword Mix, our Buzzword is Brain rot.

Now I'm sure some of you have already heard of this buzzword before, the word brain rot was chosen by Oxford dictionary as their Word of The Year for 2024.

如果你比较关注语言, 特别是一些新词的话, 大概率已经听到过今天说的 buzzword, Brain就是大脑, Rot是腐烂, 这个词暂时被翻译成 “脑腐”, 它是牛津词典选出来的2024年的年度热词.

1 What is Brain rot?

什么是 “脑腐”？

'Brain rot' is defined as "the deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state", especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material, especially online material, online content, that are considered to be trivial or unchallenging.

听起来有点拗口, so let me rephrase it.

Basically, if you watch a lot of really low quality material online, like stupid, short videos that you're not challenging your brain enough, you're gonna get dumber.

Oxford dictionary noticed that brain rot gained new prominence in 2004 as a term that is used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low quality online content, especially on social media.

Although it's a recent buzzword, the first recorded use of brain rot can actually be traced back to the 19th century when Henry David Thoreau wrote his famous book, Walden.

可能很多人读过梭罗的那本《瓦尔登湖》.

That book reports his experience of living a simple lifestyle in the natural world. As part of his conclusions, Thoreau criticizes society's tendency to devalue complex ideas or those that can be interpreted in multiple ways in favor of simple ones.

梭罗在《瓦尔登湖》里面就说到, 现在人们都不愿意去想那些比较复杂的事情, 而倾向于把任何事情都简单化.

He saw this as a general decline in mental and intellectual effort. And he wrote in that book

瓦尔登湖

“While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”

所以他当时就关注到所谓的 “脑腐”的现象, basically saying that we no longer think or we don't think deep thoughts anymore.

2 It has taken on new significance

又火起来了？

The term has taken on new significance in the digital age, especially over the past year or so.

Initially gaining traction on social media platform like TikTok among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. 这个词在社媒上首先是在Gen Z, 相当于00后, 或者Gen Alpha, 相当于是10后这样的群体里火起来的。

Brain rot is now seeing more widespread use, such as in mainstream journalism, amidst societal concerns about the negative impact of overconsuming online content.

Having said that, let me give you a few detailed examples of brain rot behaviors and see if you have any of these behaviors. I know I do.

So brain rot behavior comes in different forms, including video gaming.

We know gaming can be addictive. And when gamers become so entranced by video games or online games or mobile games, alternate worlds, fanciful characters, and the plots, they can have difficulty functioning in other areas of real life.

And then you have zombie scrolling. I love this word and I think this word really describes a lot of our online behaviors nowadays.

除了游戏上瘾, 还有一个词叫做zombie scrolling. Scrolling就是向下滑, 那么Zombie是僵尸/丧尸的意思.

This behaviour refers to mindless habitual scrolling with no destination in mind or benefit derived. I'm sure many of you have experienced that. After dinner you were just lying on your sofa, on your couch or on your bed and scrolling down the screen on 抖音, on TikTok, on any of these short video platforms.

And before you know it, 2 hours, 3 hours have passed, and you had no recollection of what you have watched.

And then there's social media addiction where users can't stop checking platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, social media platforms, the constant notifications, bright colors, stimulating sounds can literally mesmerize them, causing them to stop thinking clearly.

I've even seen people who would post something on social media and literally wait to see people's comments and likes.

So all of these behaviors can be seen as brain rot behaviors.

上述那些行为都可以被理解为 “脑腐”行为.

Although it sounds really scary, but brain rot does not mean your brains are actually rotting away, but there are some harmful impacts backed by scientific research.

So in recent years, an abundance of academic research from institutions including Harvard Medical School, University of Oxford and King's College London found evidence that the internet is shrinking our grey matter, shortening attention spans, weakening memories and distorting our cognitive processes.

虽然说 “脑腐” 不至于是腐烂的这种程度, 但是近些年来确实有越来越多的研究表明, 这些脑腐的行为会影响我们的大脑灰质, 会缩短我们保持注意力的时长, 甚至会扭曲我们的认知.

Paper after paper spells out how vulnerable we are to internet induced brain rot, high levels of internet usage and heavy media multitasking are associated with decreased grey matter in prefrontal regions according to the research.

People with internet addiction exhibit structural brain changes and reduced grey matter有网瘾的人, 尤其会出现结构性的脑部变化, 以及大脑灰质的减少.

Too much technology during brain developmental years has even been referred to by some academics as risking “digital dementia”.

大脑发育的进程中, 比如说青少年过度的使用科技网络电子设备, 甚至有得digital dementia的可能性, 这个被研究者叫做数字或者数码痴呆症.

3 How to prevent brain rot?

如何避免出现“脑腐”

So having said all of these negative impacts, since we are pretty much addicted to the internet, to our mobile devices and to social media, how to prevent brain rot?

There are a few simple things you can do, for example, set limits on screen time, 控制你的屏幕时间;

If you don't know your screen time, go on your phone or your devices, going to settings and there's usually a tracker for screen time.

And trust me, you are going to be surprised or even shocked by how long you spend on your screen. I know I was.

Second tip, curate your feeds. 这个feeds相当于是推送的信息流.

Here is all about being aware of what you are actually following, how many accounts, what type of people. So you're not just zombie scrolling on all of the stuff.

And you can also pursue non digital interests or connect offline with other people, especially positive people. And if it needs be, you might consider doing a digital detox.

这个词我们原来还说过, 就叫做 “数码排毒”或者 “数码断瘾”.

Basically stay switched off for a few hours or even a few days.

I know all of these are easier said than done, but realizing that what you're doing has a negative impact on your brains and on your intellectual capacity, I think it's a great first step to improving the situation.

Now let's move on to the sample sentence.

例句示范

Sample Sentence：

-Neuroscientists tell us that "Brain Rot" is becoming a trend that can dampen a smart, "thinking" brain.