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.

如果你比較關注語言, 特別是一些新詞的話, 大概率已經聽到過今天說的 buzzword, Brain就是大腦, Rot是腐爛, 這個詞暫時被翻譯成 “腦腐”, 它是牛津詞典選出來的2024年的年度熱詞.

1 What is Brain rot?

什么是 “腦腐”？

'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.

聽起來有點拗口, 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.

可能很多人讀過梭羅的那本《瓦爾登湖》.

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.

梭羅在《瓦爾登湖》里面就說到, 現在人們都不愿意去想那些比較復雜的事情, 而傾向于把任何事情都簡單化.

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

瓦爾登湖

“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?”

所以他當時就關注到所謂的 “腦腐”的現象, basically saying that we no longer think or we don't think deep thoughts anymore.

2 It has taken on new significance

又火起來了？

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. 這個詞在社媒上首先是在Gen Z, 相當于00后, 或者Gen Alpha, 相當于是10后這樣的群體里火起來的。

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.

除了游戲上癮, 還有一個詞叫做zombie scrolling. Scrolling就是向下滑, 那么Zombie是僵尸/喪尸的意思.

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.

上述那些行為都可以被理解為 “腦腐”行為.

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.

雖然說 “腦腐” 不至于是腐爛的這種程度, 但是近些年來確實有越來越多的研究表明, 這些腦腐的行為會影響我們的大腦灰質, 會縮短我們保持注意力的時長, 甚至會扭曲我們的認知.

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有網癮的人, 尤其會出現結構性的腦部變化, 以及大腦灰質的減少.

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

大腦發育的進程中, 比如說青少年過度的使用科技網絡電子設備, 甚至有得digital dementia的可能性, 這個被研究者叫做數字或者數碼癡呆癥.

3 How to prevent brain rot?

如何避免出現“腦腐”

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, 控制你的屏幕時間;

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. 這個feeds相當于是推送的信息流.

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.

這個詞我們原來還說過, 就叫做 “數碼排毒”或者 “數碼斷癮”.

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.