Generation Alpha is taking over the internet — and leaving their parents baffled by a stream of nonsensical videos and “brainrot” content. Allie Yuen, 16, from Chatsworth International School, says it is time to reclaim the meme.
It all began with a short video titled Skibidi toilet from a channel named DaFuqBoom. The video kicked off with the viewers in the perspective of a person entering the bathroom. We are then greeted by a male head emerging from the toilet, spinning his head around following the beat of the music — a questionable mix of songs including Give It To Me by Timbaland and Skibidi Bop Yes Yes by Fiki. It may seem meaningless or maybe even funny at first. However, there is no turning back from the damage that it has done. This single video ignited a chain of brain-tormenting entertainment. This entertainment is drilled so deeply into generations Alpha and Z that it corrupts our brains. This mental torture, this entity, is “brainrot”.
Brainrot. Our brains are deteriorating and it cannot be reversed. But it did not start out like this. In the early 2010s “memes” — a harmless sort of entertainment, mostly images, videos and texts with humorous meanings — spread rapidly throughout the internet. Some of the most famous, iconic and well-known memes are “Doge”, “Rickroll”, and “Distracted Boyfriend”. From 2012 onwards, funny six-second-long videos became a new trend. In 2017, the era of funny images, videos and audio that are overly saturated and accompanied by music or audio to intensify the chaos happening, began . Then, in 2023, came Skibidi toilet.
Skibidi toilet is not the only entertainment that decreased our mental stability, but it also created a new genre of entertainment called brainrot. According to psychologist Mark Travers, too much exposure to social media can impair focus, leading to difficulty concentrating. Having an addiction to social media influences our daily lives. It worsens our communication when talking with people and reduces the amount of time going out for some fresh air.
This is how the short video Skibidi Toilet lit a never-ending flame of brainrot, spreading everywhere like wildfire. It is fine to take in small amounts of brainrot for enjoyment. But alas, consistent consumption is a bad idea. of it can decrease our attention span and communication skills. Brainrot has turned generations Alpha and Z into empty-minded zombies, rotting and deteriorating day by day. Hopefully, we can rebuild our once-magnificent kingdom of memes, and redeem ourselves from the undying sloth that brainrot brought us.
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- (Siddarth Sriram, 2024)
- (The Straight Times, 2023)
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