Is Your Mind Rotting? Oxford’s Shocking Choice for 2024 Word of the Year

Oxford University Press has selected brain rot as the Word of the Year for 2024, reflecting growing concerns about the negative impact of consuming sensational content on social media and platforms like YouTube. The term highlights fears over the decline in intellectual engagement and critical thinking caused by excessive time spent on low-quality online content.

According to The Guardian, Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, revealed that more than 37,000 people cast their votes for their favorite word from a shortlist of six finalists, with brain rot emerging as the top pick.

Brain rot refers to the mental and intellectual decline that results from overindulging in trivial or intellectually unchallenging content online.

Oxford University Press noted that the term gained significant traction in 2024, symbolizing widespread concern over the effects of excessive, low-quality content consumption, mainly through social media platforms.

Caspar Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, explained that the term “brain rot” highlights a significant issue in our digital lives, particularly in how we spend our downtime. He noted that it was unsurprising that so many people identified with this phrase, leading to its selection as “Word of the Year.”

Other notable finalists included dynamic pricing (the practice of adjusting prices based on demand), romantasy (a genre that combines romance and fantasy), and slop (AI-generated, low-quality online content).