Which came first? Polarization or brain rot?

A quiet afternoon spreads before me like a workaholic smorgasbord. These are the mother lodes. Without classes, meetings or interviews to occupy my time, I can accomplish anything. Grade papers. Edit the book. Write. I might even finish this column.

And I will, just after I watch another video. A tanker truck turned in front of a semi hauling large industrial pipes. Crash! Pipes everywhere. The gentlemen recording the incident suggests in colorful terms that the driver of the truck is a goner. We never find out.

A click later I am watching OSHA’s most wanted, a rogue’s gallery of workplace mishaps. Dashcam footage from Russian truckers draws my attention toward a meteor strike in rural Chelyabinsk. UFO speculation follows like carrion birds. Scenes from shows I watched six years ago filter in, along with women in workout clothes telling me how to manifest a better life. I sip Diet Mountain Dew and watch longer than I should.

Quite suddenly, the end of the workday looms. My concerned Fitbit tells me I haven’t moved in a while. I know if I get up to prevent blood clots that I best just go upstairs and start the chicken pot pie because the family will be home soon.

To be clear, this does not happen every day, but it remains an ever-present risk. As with skiing and knee injuries, cockfighting and police raids, while using the internet you must be vigilant against brain rot.

“Brain rot” is the 2024 Oxford Word of the Year. Oxford Dictionary defines brain rot as, “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”

In other words, watching Facebook Reels and TikTok all day leads to brain rot. This also creates a commercial incentive to create brain rot, creating a stupid doom loop of stupid doom.

Now, you might dispute this characterization. Maybe some people can’t handle their internet garbage, but I can. I know better. I can quit anytime I want. While we’re at it, have you tried the all-natural flavor of Winston cigarettes? Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. Oh look! A plastic baggie full of gasoline! SNNNNIFFFFF.

One of the depressing side effects of brain rot is the ease with which subtle propaganda and misinformation seeps into the mix to deliver addictive dopamine attached to someone else’s political agenda. That leads to what Merriam-Webster Dictionary calls its top word of 2024: “polarization.”

Merriam-Webster defines polarization as, “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”

Americans have experienced political polarization throughout history, though it’s gotten progressively worse this century. Perhaps we’re all completely independent thinkers who happen to adopt diametrically opposed perspectives on literally everything, but probably not.

What really changed after Bush vs. Gore in the 2000 election is the way we consume information. I remember local politicians reading e-mail forwards to warm up rally crowds in 2004. Today, they reference memes that everyone’s been sharing on their phones. It’s been a long time since specific local policy outcomes have won elections. That won’t change as long as we maintain the same behaviors.

You have your feed. I have mine. Our feeds, more than anything else, predict which “side” we’re on.

Words don’t impose their meanings upon us. Instead, we shape and empower their meanings. So when “brain rot” starts showing up in academic discussions, we’re dealing with a large, measurable phenomenon that deserves action.

Read local. Think local. Act local. Your community is here, not on your phone.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and college instructor from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and co-hosts the podcast “Power in the Wilderness” on Northern Community Radio. This piece first appeared in the Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024 edition of the Mesabi Tribune.

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