By the evening edition.
The University of Oxford has elected “brain rot” as the word of the year 2024, the French equivalent of “cerebral rot”. A choice which refers to a disastrous trend linked to digital technology and in particular to the consumption of content on social networks.
Voted word of the year 2024 by the University of Oxford, “brain rot” has been talked about. More than a word, it is a trend described as “worrying” in the digital world. Its French translation would be “rotten brain” or “cerebral rot”. But what does this mean?
This trend “describes this state of overconsumption of content, whether short videos on TikTok, threads Twitter [désormais X] endless or series marathons »explains the media So Evening . The “brain rot” would notably allude to the “mental degradation” linked to this overconsumption of “content not very intellectually stimulating”according to the American media Time .
Read also: What happens in the brain when we have a word “on the tip of our tongue”?
An increase in the use of the term of 230% among young people
L’expression “presents itself as a lucid observation of our digital dependence, with a hint of self-deprecation specific to Internet culture”continues So Evening. Indeed, this is what the linguists of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) point out: “The expression illustrates a growing collective awareness around the deleterious effects of digital technology on our ability to concentrate and our habits of thought”. They refer to that moment when you realize you have spent a lot of time on social networks without having learned or retained anything.
This term is the “symptom of our times”testifies psychologist Andrew Przybylski, professor at the University of Oxford. As the media explains 20 Minutes , “the frequency of use of the term “brain rot” increased by 230% between 2023 and 2024, especially among younger people”.
-« Dopamine loop »
More broadly, the term refers to our inability to cope with the continuous flow of content offered to us, often very short, to constantly capture our attention. Accentuated by well-crafted algorithmic mechanisms, it is very complicated to extricate oneself from the madness of social networks and other digital platforms, which operate on this addiction to rapid content. This is called the “dopamine loop,” a viral loop system that is based on our desire for dopamine, the pleasure hormone.
The election by the University of Oxford as word of the year is therefore not insignificant. In a time where the burn-out digital is very real and where calls for disconnection are multiplying, the highlighting of this term has a perfect resonance. The objective is to warn of this very harmful state by initiating a “collective awareness that will be transformed into action”explain So Evening.
Highlight contemporary social and technological concerns
The phrase is believed to have been first used in 1854 by the philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in his work Walden, in which he criticized society's tendency to favor simple over complex ideas.
37,000 people had to choose from a shortlist of six words, submitted by university experts, to elect the one of the year. “Among the other candidates, there was “romance” a literary genre favored by younger generations or “slop” which refers to poor content generated by artificial intelligence”details France Culture .
The word of the year, designated by the University of Oxford, aims to highlight terms each year that reflect contemporary social and technological concerns. The previous words chosen were “climate emergency” in 2019, “confinement” in 2020, “vax” in 2021, “Goblin mode” in 2022 (which describes the moment when, worn out by everyday life, we decide to retreat into our homes in pajamas) and “rizz” in 2023, synonymous with charm or success in the art of seduction.
