I dare you.
I dare you to read past the first few lines of this story—to delve into the heart of the article, not just skim the pithy headline and subhead. Engage with deeper thoughts about a crucial concept every parent must contend with: Brain Rot.
It’s Oxford’s 2024 “Word of the Year”—a mirror to society’s priorities. Early millennial selections like “carbon-neutral” and “carbon-footprint” reflected expert-driven concerns about the environment. By the late 2000s, words like “staycation” and “credit crunch” captured the mood of a financially anxious public.
Then came the 2010s, when smartphones were everywhere. Words of the Year began reflecting a world consumed by screens. “Tweet,” “hashtag,” and “selfie” were followed by later terms like “binge-watch,” “doomscrolling,” “nomophobia” (fear of being without a cellphone), and “parasocial” (one-sided intimacy felt by fans or followers) showing how deeply digital life permeated reality.
And now we arrive at “Brain Rot,” a term first coined by Henry David Thoreau in Walden. Oxford’s website defines Walden’s Brain Rot as the “devaluing of complex ideas in favor of simple ones.” That was in 1854. Today, Oxford defines Brain Rot as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”
We claim to want the best for our offspring, right? Yet a diet of trivial information leads to a society preoccupied with trivial pursuits, like a diet of junk food leads to illness, or worse, a lack of interest in what’s good. We envision our children growing into adults capable of thinking critically about weighty issues. Not just which candidate to vote for based on influencer endorsements, but how to evaluate a candidate’s policies and implications. Decisions about marriage, investments, education, and the future—these aren’t “feeling-focused” choices. They require research, contemplation, history, and dialogue.
It's not the teacher’s job to equip children for these challenges – it’s the parent’s job to encourage children to be known by those closest to them with a simple walk after dinner, a family game night, or just a short but meaningful, undistracted conversation.
Sorry if this sounds like the Waltons, but I’m not wrong. Science confirms that excessive screen time makes us dumber and more anxious (yes, mom and dad, too) – no need to rehash what we know.
I think there is another challenge we face – the loss of knowing how to rest. Contrary to what we tell ourselves, rest isn’t scrolling through curated feeds. It’s exploring, exercising, eating with friends, or marveling at a sunset without worrying about capturing it for likes. After all, a sunset’s beauty doesn’t diminish because no one else saw it—it’s still one of life’s greatest mysteries, akin to the galaxies, God, love and attraction, and how DID the Egyptians build those pyramids?!
I’m 1,000 percent sure of this truth and 1,000 percent sure I failed in implementing it with my kids. I yelled. I confiscated phones in anger.
Our oldest, now 20, still resents that we withheld a phone until he was 14. He felt left out, weird, and embarrassed to borrow other kids’ phones to call home. We believed we were sparing him unnecessary stress. Our younger kids had earlier access to phones due to schools requiring them for classwork. This inconsistency created friction, but our home rules—no phones at the table, no multitasking conversations with phone activity —still spark eye rolls. Yet even our most phone-addicted child insists she won’t let her future kids have a phone until they are teenagers (she says as she scrolls…. Go figure.)
Sorry to remind you of this, but no parent is immune - every parent faces a choice: let virtual and social media drive family life or develop strategies for managing it. There’s no in between. Without guardrails, it will infiltrate every aspect of life and become virtually impossible to reverse. By failing to set limits now, we’re dulling our kids’ senses and stifling their appetite for real-world experiences.
This is a call to action. Parents, wake up!
The Brain Rot of today poses a far greater threat to adults and kids alike than Thoreau’s concern ever did. We’re allowing our kids to exchange the mysteries of life for shallow digital distractions. This doesn’t mean digital devices have no place, but they don’t belong at the dinner table, behind the wheel, or as a crutch during tough moments. Parenting is hard. Own it. Practice your “no” muscles while your kids flex their patience muscles and over time you will find more meaningful interactions that give you, the adult in the room, a chance to probe a little and find out what makes them tick.
This is the “permission slip” for parents to be bold and get off their phones too. Examine your own habits; change them if need be; create guardrails for your family.
This is no joke. The stakes are high. Bold parenting is hard, but I believe you are up for it. I dare you to take the first step.
When wearing her work hat, Lisa Mozloom is a media and presentation training coach and PR practitioner at The M Network, but at home she is a woman passionate about raising three teens and loving her husband.