The term brain rot, first recorded in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden, has gained new meaning in the digital age. Over the past year, it has become popular on social media, especially among Gen Z and Gen Alpha users on TikTok.

The phrase beat out contenders like demure, lore, and romantasy in a public vote involving more than 37,000 participants. With the Oxford University Press aiming to encapsulate the zeitgeist of 2024, brain rot feels like the perfect term to describe a year dominated by endless doomscrolling, viral memes, and TikTok recipes nobody ever cooks.

Capping off a year that proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that non- A.V. Club readers are spending too much time ingesting the worst shit imaginable online, the Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” Word of the Year.

Oxford's 2024 Word of the Year - 'brain rot', highlights growing concerns over the mental impact of endless social media scrolling and the consumption of low-quality content