Skibidy Toilet acts as a shibboleth, a marker of in group status. This is similar to 67 in that the internal meaning is not important, the reference identifies the group it applies to and also pushes away those who do not belong. The use of the term brainrot to describe Skibidy Toilet is missing how it is used.
That said, brainrot does exist. Content which only serves to keep you on platform mindlessly consuming with no curation or decisions from you, the viewer. TV has this effect when you just watch because it is on, say flicking through channels, or when the content is specifically built to create emotional investment without payoff or informational gain.
Cable news is a perfect example of it, constantly raising the stakes without ever actually delivering on making you informed and able to react to the news. “If it bleeds, it leads” journalism is all about keeping your attention on the same page the ads are on, waiting with bated breath for the next update to the story. But most stories don’t actually impact you at all. Someone shooting up a school in the USA is a terrible, awful thing. Such a horror that serves no purpose. But is that my business half way around the world? No. That is meaningful to the people in the local area, those who vote in local elections to change policy. It helps nobody for me to see the details of how a shooter planned their killings, not to learn their names or see their faces.
TikTok and similar video platforms have perfected this with the feed. They show videos and measure how much of each video you watch as well as how long you stay on platform per session. They tweak your feed to increase your overall watch time and bit by bit teach you that the next little dopamine hit is just around the corner, just one more video away. This is reflected in YouTube Shorts and other platforms and has been shown to be incredibly effective at keeping people on platform for hours at a time.
So what can we do to reverse/heal brainrot? It seems the best thing is to stop using these platforms. Stop engaging with things that are emotionally engaging but ultimately useless. If you can’t effect it then it is unwise to know too much about it. Knowing there is a war in Ukraine and that Russia is the aggressor is enough to decide whether you should donate money somewhere, so watching videos of people who have been killed in the street is not going to make your donation more effective, nor will it change your decision. Know enough to make a choice about sonething then move on. Learn about your political positions enough to vote correctly then find out who is a good candidate in your area and vote. Learn which groups are being oppressed most and decide what you will do about it, but don’t get dragged down by how bad everything is. Knowing it is sufficiently bad to demand action is not only enough, it is the limit of what you should consume.
Next find engaging things that take concerted focus and time. Ideally they would be things that build gradually, like a skill or a story. Try to avoid things with the red flags of dopamine hacking, so loot boxes, flashy level ups, random drops, and so on. If you can make a comparison to gambling it is a warning sign. Go for longer, slower things. Ideally make something, like with knitting, 3D printing, or cooking.
I would also recommend using RSS feeds to simplify your intake of news and so on. Find reasonable sources and get their feeds for the topics you care about and put them into a feed reader. Have it set to update once per day, but no more. This puts a cap on the news the same way an old school newspaper did, by giving you a current snapshot fixed in time with no further minute by minute updates. Measure how long you spend reading feeds per day after a week or two and decide if you are happy with that. If you aren’t remove the feeds you get the least from.
But by bit this slows things down and kills the brainrot, returning your attention span and helping you reclaim your peace.
Skibidy Toilet acts as a shibboleth, a marker of in group status. This is similar to 67 in that the internal meaning is not important, the reference identifies the group it applies to and also pushes away those who do not belong. The use of the term brainrot to describe Skibidy Toilet is missing how it is used.
That said, brainrot does exist. Content which only serves to keep you on platform mindlessly consuming with no curation or decisions from you, the viewer. TV has this effect when you just watch because it is on, say flicking through channels, or when the content is specifically built to create emotional investment without payoff or informational gain.
Cable news is a perfect example of it, constantly raising the stakes without ever actually delivering on making you informed and able to react to the news. “If it bleeds, it leads” journalism is all about keeping your attention on the same page the ads are on, waiting with bated breath for the next update to the story. But most stories don’t actually impact you at all. Someone shooting up a school in the USA is a terrible, awful thing. Such a horror that serves no purpose. But is that my business half way around the world? No. That is meaningful to the people in the local area, those who vote in local elections to change policy. It helps nobody for me to see the details of how a shooter planned their killings, not to learn their names or see their faces.
TikTok and similar video platforms have perfected this with the feed. They show videos and measure how much of each video you watch as well as how long you stay on platform per session. They tweak your feed to increase your overall watch time and bit by bit teach you that the next little dopamine hit is just around the corner, just one more video away. This is reflected in YouTube Shorts and other platforms and has been shown to be incredibly effective at keeping people on platform for hours at a time.
So what can we do to reverse/heal brainrot? It seems the best thing is to stop using these platforms. Stop engaging with things that are emotionally engaging but ultimately useless. If you can’t effect it then it is unwise to know too much about it. Knowing there is a war in Ukraine and that Russia is the aggressor is enough to decide whether you should donate money somewhere, so watching videos of people who have been killed in the street is not going to make your donation more effective, nor will it change your decision. Know enough to make a choice about sonething then move on. Learn about your political positions enough to vote correctly then find out who is a good candidate in your area and vote. Learn which groups are being oppressed most and decide what you will do about it, but don’t get dragged down by how bad everything is. Knowing it is sufficiently bad to demand action is not only enough, it is the limit of what you should consume.
Next find engaging things that take concerted focus and time. Ideally they would be things that build gradually, like a skill or a story. Try to avoid things with the red flags of dopamine hacking, so loot boxes, flashy level ups, random drops, and so on. If you can make a comparison to gambling it is a warning sign. Go for longer, slower things. Ideally make something, like with knitting, 3D printing, or cooking.
I would also recommend using RSS feeds to simplify your intake of news and so on. Find reasonable sources and get their feeds for the topics you care about and put them into a feed reader. Have it set to update once per day, but no more. This puts a cap on the news the same way an old school newspaper did, by giving you a current snapshot fixed in time with no further minute by minute updates. Measure how long you spend reading feeds per day after a week or two and decide if you are happy with that. If you aren’t remove the feeds you get the least from.
But by bit this slows things down and kills the brainrot, returning your attention span and helping you reclaim your peace.