"Brain rot" has been named the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024. The word winning this title reflects the growing concerns about the impact of consuming trivial social media content on mental health.

The word was chosen from a shortlist of six words – demure, dynamic pricing, lore, romantasy, and slop - after a public vote involving over 37,000 participants.

Oxford University Press (OUP) highlighted the increasing use of "brain rot" to describe the perceived negative effects of excessive consumption of low-quality online content.

Meaning of Brian Rot

In a blog post, OUP describes Brain Rot as a noun which means the “supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterised as likely to lead to such deterioration.”