“Erm wassup chat, it’s your sigma alpha male here,” is what 7th grade student Tucker Nobach recently exclaimed to his class. Everyone laughed, except for one student. Luana Hyla, an exchange student from Germany, has voiced her frustration about how peers constantly converse in a third language. She understands English and German, but cannot comprehend one new language – Brain Rot. This is a result of how slang words, scrolling, and Brain Rot have had a major impact on students across the country. It has a negative effect on today’s youth, causing both mental and physical issues. Students and adults alike need to cut back on mindless habits that are creating Brain Rot. In order to understand this concept, it is necessary to delve into the negative effects of Brain Rot and scrolling, as well as the positive impact of slang terms.
To truly know the effects of Brain Rot, it is necessary for people to first know what it is. According to Oxford University Press, their 2024 word of the year, Brain Rot, is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material.” They then said the aforementioned material is “considered to be trivial or unchallenging.” A person’s mental condition changes for the worse because they can get Brain Rot from doom scrolling, zombie scrolling, and slang terms.
One of the most negative of these concepts is scrolling. Students across the United States scroll endlessly on social media, either at night or between classes. Doom and zombie scrolling can easily be confused as the same thing, while in actuality, they are very different. Many students are guilty of excessive scrolling, but they may be oblivious to the fact that they are doing it. Doom scrolling means “to spend excessive time online scrolling (see Merriam Webster Dictionary) through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.”
Furthermore, “…zombie scrolling syndrome, is the compulsive habit of mindless scrolling in the absence of a destination or fixed benefit,” as found in The Journal of Public Health Countless kids, teens, and even adults are under the impression that they are doom scrolling, when they are in reality zombie scrolling.
Scrolling can also stop the progress that students make in school. This is exactly why some schools have phone restrictions. “School policy about keeping your phones away during class time is really important,” states teacher Holly Winget, about Cannon Falls Middle School and High School’s phone policy. She even spoke about her AP English Language and Composition class that she teaches, and she said that the class had to get their phones one day to do an assignment on selfies and selfie culture. “And they couldn’t even get to the next part because they got in their thumb roll and they scrolled through all their pictures and they laughed and they laughed and they laughed but they couldn’t choose and they couldn’t move on.” They fell into “…the abyss of scrolling.”
Some people will probably ignore the facts about scrolling online because scrolling can be entertaining and a hard habit to break. Scrolling may not be all harmful if it’s done in moderation. Someone can find a healthy recipe, diet, or an exercise catered to them online, which shows social media isn’t all that bad. Nonetheless, scrolling is still bad if overdone or if it stops people from being productive.
Zombie scrolling and doom scrolling can be where slang words are found. Slang words are informal variations of typical words in the English language. Ones that are trending today are bet, skibidi, chat, and alpha. These slang words were mostly started on social media and spread there as well, so how did slang words get started before social media? “Casual conversation and letter writing,” Cannon Falls veteran teacher John Fogarty states. He says many slang words are spread via mouth or ink.
Like clothing and hairstyles, words can go out of style. Words such as “swell” may seem old-fashioned and unused now, but sixty years ago, they were as used and common as words like “sigma” or “rizz” (rizz was Oxford University Press’s 2023 word of the year).
Slang words are generational; they can change at the drop of a hat. It may come as a shock to some people that slang terms are not a new addition to the English language. Dr. Juan Li, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Saint Thomas University, Minnesota, traced them as far back as the time of William Shakespeare. Slang terms come and go with generations. To some individuals, slang words used in the older generations may seem as commonly used as the word “awesome”, which was a slang term in the Gen X generation.
A study was conducted by Torch writers in which 90% of the middle school students at Cannon Falls M.S. participated. In the study, students were to choose which slang terms they use today from previous generations, ranging from Boomers to Gen Alpha.
The Boomer generation is the first generation whose slang terms are still somewhat used in today’s time. Today, the words aren’t necessarily used as slang words, but they are still used nonetheless. For instance, “Cool and awesome were the slang words used in my day, but now they are very common terms, and aren’t considered slang,” as stated by John Fogarty. Some of the slang terms from the Boomer generation are cool, swell, and nerd.
Next in line comes Gen X. The slang words from this generation are more commonly found, because the further back slang terms go, the less they are used today. Some famous slang terms from this generation include tubular and gnarly.
Cell phones and reality TV rose when millennials were young. This means that millennials were more likely to get addicted to screens and technology, increasing brain rot. Some of the more frequently used terms at that time were loser, bomb, sick, tight, and sweet.
The Gen Z generation had much more technology than other generations, which is why more studies on brain rot quickly came out. Therefore, there is a plentiful amount of information today on brain rot. Some of the commonly used slang words in that era were bling, whassup, bromance, sick, and GIF.
Some people view slang terms as a negative thing, but there are controversial opinions on it. Dr. Li says; “These slang expressions can pull people together.” She also added that they can differentiate people from each other. Dr. Li then went on to say that slang terms help to evolve and shape the English language.
Brain Rot is a complex term with many different components. Scrolling is where Brain Rot is produced. It consumes much of people’s time, and it’s where slang words are produced. Slang words and scrolling can be positive or negative, depending on how they are used. Brain Rot, though, has negative effects on society. Slang, however, is a sign of linguistic development. People today are taking slang words from previous generations and using them. As the times change, humans need to keep up. Brain Rot is a man-made concept that affects people around the world. Luana felt isolated because she couldn’t understand her classmates. Yet, as soon as she expressed this feeling, everyone came to her side and helped her understand. Now, Luana Hyla can speak in Brain Rot with them, feeling more a part of her community.
(This article is submitted to B.O.S. for the Middle School division by the Cannon Falls Torch)
