You’re not doing anything.  

Not thinking.  

Not even particularly entertained.  

But you’re still scrolling. 

It’s 1 a.m., your phone screen is dimmed, your spine is shaped like a question mark and somehow, you’ve just watched a video of someone restocking their fridge like it’s a competitive sport. You don’t even have that many condiments. But here you are.  

 You’re not even sure where the past 45 minutes went. Welcome to the sweet, numbing haze of what the internet now lovingly calls brain rot. 

What started as an internet meme is now a legitimate mental health experience. One that feels weirdly restful and vaguely decaying at the same time. You are not struggling neither are you thriving. You are not even really coping. You are just buffering mentally paused, emotionally idle, thumb still scrolling. It is not because you’re lazy or undisciplined. It’s because your brain which was designed to handle small, digestible amounts of stimulation is now trying to process everything all at once, all the time. News, reels, texts, ads, DMs, influencer breakups, trending trauma all competing for your attention in 15-second bursts. 

This kind of overstimulation doesn’t always feel chaotic. And that is the scariest part. Sometimes it feels like calm. Passive scrolling, binge-watching, the “rotting but relaxed” culture we joke about, it tricks the brain into thinking it’s resting. But is that really rest? Or have we just trained ourselves to believe that overstimulation is some kind of break as long as we’re lying down and not doing anything productive?  

Rest is when your mind slows down, not when it’s being bombarded with micro-dopamine hits from content loops you didn’t consent to enter. You think you are recharging, but your nervous system is still lit up like a Christmas tree. It’s not rest however it is pseudo-relaxation.  

That fog you feel later? That weird irritability? That inability to focus on basic things like boiling pasta or replying to a message from three days ago? That’s attention fatigue. It’s your brain running on fumes because it never got a real break. Instead of recovery, you’re feeding your exhaustion more noise. 

Of course, fully digital detoxes sound great in theory, but most of us aren’t trying to become forest monks just to function. So maybe the alternative isn’t quitting but becoming conscious. Sitting still without filling the silence. Letting your mind wander without putting something in your hand. Looking out the window and doing nothing on purpose. It feels boring at first because your nervous system has forgotten what quiet feels like.  

In my opinion, brain rot isn’t just a loss of focus it’s the slow erosion of how it feels to be alive. But you can claw it back not with dramatic self-reform, but with simple, deliberate pauses like a little less input, a little more space and maybe next time, when the algorithm tries to entice you with “10 Things I Eat When I’m Sad in Paris,” you’ll take a breath and log off. 

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