Rotting in Real-Time: How Social Media Is Rewiring Our Minds

In this episode of Untamed Social, we dive deep into the concept of "brain rot" caused by social media overload. Jess and Anna share personal experiences of anxiety, panic attacks, and the mental strain from constant negativity on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. As we dissect the rapid evolution of internet slang and viral trends, we ask: are influencers and streamers driving the culture, or are brands overdoing it with their trend-based strategies? Plus, we take a fun quiz to find out just how much "brain rot" we really have!

From relatable social media woes to how to avoid burnout in the digital age, this episode is packed with insights, laughter, and a lot of truth.

Whether you’re a content creator, social media manager, or just a casual scroller, we guarantee you’ll resonate with this one. Make sure to hit that like button, leave us a comment on your experience with social media burnout, and subscribe for more candid takes on digital life from Untamed Social!

Transcript

Jess Boozel: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Untamed podcast. I'm Jess.

Anna Dobbert: I'm Anna. 

Jess Boozel: And today we're going to be talking about rotting in real time and about brain rot. I lately have been experiencing a lot of anxiety and I've always been a type of anxious person throughout my life but this is the first time I'm feeling like physical effects from my anxiety and I'm starting to sort of have panic attacks every now and again. So something that I'm doing is trying to figure out my triggers and one of my triggers I've noticed is social media. Surprisingly for a social media manager, it's social media. And I really think that the brain rot has just got to me to the point of, I don't want to deal with it anymore. So I force myself to not be brain rot at this point.

Anna Dobbert: That makes a lot of sense. I feel like also, how intense social media is now, like specifically in this box of brain rot, it's so much noise, so much noise and confusing things and like, lights and colors, that I could see how that could get really overwhelming.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, it definitely does. Especially whenever I feel like my For You page is filled with negativity and I just can't escape it. I try to look up positive things and then it just keeps finding its way to worm its way back in. And I'm like, no, please stay away. So honestly, the brain rot things I feel like are kind of helpful because they're like the happy things that don't really mean anything, if that makes sense.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, they're like a little sillier. I mean, let's let's start off by like describing what like what's your interpretation of brain rot?

Jess Boozel: My interpretation is something that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. But whenever you put it down and you look at it, like if you get it, you get it type thing.

Anna Dobbert: Mhm.

Jess Boozel: But if you were to say it to someone that is outside your niche, if they don't really understand it, it's like something so niche and to you, it's like, where did you even come up with this?

Anna Dobbert: I feel like I agree with what you said I feel like my interpret my interpretation of brain rot is more about like. Like, have you seen those TikToks that are people mimicking having a conversation with quote, their friend who is brain rotted, and they're just like consistently using these phrase, like, phrases from clearly TikTok and like, internet and trends and things like that? That's the first thing that comes to mind. The second thing that comes to mind is also like, bedrotting. Like, have you heard the term bedrotting?

 Jess Boozel: Yeah, I think so.

 Anna Dobbert: I feel like they're kind of connected, like, I feel like, bedrotting got this whole article written on it about how like, Gen Z has this thing called bedrotting and like, I know about bedrotting. I stay bedrotting. Um, and I think it kind of translated that into coining the term brain rotting, but I find it kind of fascinating because I think they're like quite linked of like, I feel like so many young people, myself literally included in that boat, enjoy spending a lot of time doing absolutely nothing but like screen five inches away. Like I looked at my screen time. Oh my gosh. So my cousins were here this weekend and one of them just randomly asked me, he was like, oh, what's your screen time like?

Cause he was seeing how much I was like doing work on my computer and watch TV at the same time. He's like, what is your screen time like? I was like, oh, I don't even know. Like, I don't, I don't check it for my own personal wellbeing. And it was like eight hours. And I was like, I don't know how we, I don't even know how we got there. And now I'm like hyper aware of it. And like getting freaked out by it.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. Honestly, mine is around the same time though, but I want to go back to the first thing you said about, whenever I think, whenever you think of brain rotting, you think of people whenever you're trying to hold a conversation and all they can really say are things that they are basically mimicking from the internet and I 100 percent agree with that. Um, a lot of terms, I think, come from the internet nowadays, like slang has always been a thing. The 80s, they had different types of slang. We had different types of slang in high school. So I remember in high school a lot of the ones that we would use were like on fleek, boss, lit, deadass, things like that and it's just cool to kind of see how things have evolved to now we have rizz, the skibbity whatever that is, um, people say sigma a lot, and I honestly think it is the younger generation that uses it more. And I feel like that's a trend in itself, as in we always watch the younger generation come up with slang throughout the generations.

Anna Dobbert: I was going to touch on that exact same thing of being like, I remember being a high schooler and using new slang as it came up. And like, a lot of those words are still in my vocabulary to this day. I say deadass too frequently. When my mom was here visiting, we had like an entire breakdown conversation because she couldn't figure out how to use it in a sentence. It like didn't compute in her brain. Whereas like, to me, it just felt like second nature. But I remember being that age and using new slang terms. And thinking that that's just kind of what, like, everyone was doing, like, that it had been created by older people and was being used by us like everything else was, like, fashion trends, like, the popular songs. And then now that, like, I'm 24, I'm like, no, slang is, like, so in this bubble of like, only the very young, like, starting it and then everyone else kind of picking up on it. And I couldn't see that when I was that age, obviously. But yeah, it's really interesting to look back and be like, oh, like, teenagers are just making things up and we're all listening. Like, we're all down with it for some reason.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, one of the trends that actually whenever you were talking about made me think of is the demure trend and recently my friend's mom used it. I can't remember exactly what the context was, but she said something along the lines of that was not very demure and she was like, mom, please, no, you're like 40. So whenever you…

Anna Dobbert: You’re like you don’t get it.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, whenever you say it's the younger generation making it, it really truly is.

Anna Dobbert: It's also like, they have gotten notably more bizarre and obscure. Like, I remember if we talk about, like, the slang terms from our high school years, they did sort of still make sense in the language, like, contextually. Like, lit, to be like fun or like crazy like made sense like it ignited the flame. Or like using the word lit to describe like being like drunk or high like that made sense. Some of these like when I took the BuzzFeed quiz that was about how brain rotted are you and like how much of these terms you know I was like some of these things just don't even make sense. Like they don't even seem like they're in the English language, like completely new terms as opposed to like repurposing old ones.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, I think another place that these slang words and things that people, young kids are saying nowadays also come from YouTubers and Twitch streamers and stuff. Like, I can't remember that guy's name, but the one that says, what's up brother? Um, do you even know what that means?

Anna Dobbert: I have no clue, but I remember when that was like a very big trend. I remember my boyfriend and my roommate said it to me once. I was like, guys, someone clue me in. What is going on?

Jess Boozel: I actually remember his name now. His name was, his name is Sketch. He is a Twitch streamer. I'm not exactly sure what video games he plays to where he streams, but he would always do that, say what's up brother, and then he had like other catchphrases and stuff, and that just caught on. So I guess it isn't just the younger generation, but I will say that I think that the younger generation really stuck to that more.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, yeah, they're definitely picking it up. Maybe not from within their own like age demographic, but definitely being the ones to like popularize them.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. Also, I did take a screenshot the other day. I have to look at my camera roll to find it, but it was a whiteboard that a teacher had wrote down words that weren't allowed to be used in the classroom, and they were all words like what we're talking about. So, uh, I can find it real quick.

Anna Dobbert: I did, I had seen a TikTok of a teacher who was like, this word, these words are banned from my classroom. And the first one was pookie. And I was like, okay, pookie is a slang term recently, like currently that I have heard, like my peers in my age demographic, like use pretty colloquially.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, I think I would use pookie. I almost said pukie. I think I would use that as a joke, but I don't know if I'd ever, like, say it seriously.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah. I have, I have one friend. She loves the word pookie. She'll, she'll call anyone pookie. I think that's so sweet.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, I think another word that I actually do hear a lot in my friend group is the word cutesy. I don't know where it originated or.

Anna Dobbert: That came from the demure one. Very cutesy.

Jess Boozel: Ah!

Anna Dobbert: Very demure. They're like one in the same.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, okay.

Anna Dobbert: Because I, I will say that one. I'm less likely to say very demure, very mindful. I am known on occasion to be like very cutesy. So I'll say, I'll use that, that one will come up a decent amount. But I feel like I just use a lot less slang the older I get. And especially, like, I feel like at some point in my life, I became sort of like, um, almost like had disdain towards sounding like I was talking like the internet. Like I was like, I don't want to be like someone who, who sounds like that.

Specifically because like, for a period of time, internet slang and like talking like the internet was basically just using AAVE or like a blaccent and saying that it was like, this is how everyone talks on the internet. So I remember in that moment being like, I don't, I don't really think that's my vibe. And I haven't picked up much slang since then. But I have picked up very cutesy.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, personally, I think I say slay a lot and I say period, but I also find myself not saying that out loud, but saying it through text message. I don't say it out, I'll say period to confirm things I think in out loud. But other than that, I think I mostly use slang with texting.

Anna Dobbert: That makes a lot of sense because I feel like texting at its core was about like being abbreviated and shorter and like faster messaging. And so that would make sense that you would find slang to like be more natural in that sense than like actually speaking it.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. I think something that's really interesting is the way that brands hop on to these slang words and these trends. And I think for some brands, depending on who you are, I think they could really benefit you. Um, one of the brands that I see this work for the most, I think, is Netflix. If you've ever taken a look at their Instagram. It is basically all brain rot, all trends.

Maybe not the content itself, but if you look at their captions, it is all trends and whatever is going on at the time, they use it. They're very quick with it. They're very good with it. At the same time, I look at Netflix and I think, you are not one to set an example, because no matter what you do, it, you're gonna get the views, you're gonna get the likes. It doesn't really matter what Netflix does. But at the same time, you look at what they do and you think, is that helping? Like, is that a post that did better because it used slang? Or is it just because it's Netflix?

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, well I think definitely if you're gonna be a brand on social media, being relatable is like a super useful tool, and one of the best ways to do that is to talk like how people talk on the internet. The advice that I would give if you were a brand wanting to sort of tap into that kind of social media marketing that was like on trend, maybe appealing to a more youthful audience. Two big things. Number one, actually have young people be advising, like, you on it. I feel like you see slang misused or trends misunderstood by brands, and it just puts such a sour taste in your mouth, maybe because I do understand how to, like, articulate some of the slang and the trends, and I'm like, this just is kind of embarrassing. Um, and then secondly, just to do that in moderation. Like, I think for brands, sometimes if you go full brain rot, it really is gonna come off like you're trying too hard, because they know at the end of the day, like, you're a team of people. You're not just someone kinda figuring out as they go along.

So, I think one, definitely, like, consult young people on it. People who fully understand the trend, and then, to use it in moderation.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, to go with the using in moderation, you want to make sure that you're adding in your brand's actual content, because while you want to appeal to this different audience, you also want to keep up your own morals and your own core values. You don't want to lose sight of that.

Anna Dobbert: Well, and also if you think about content, that's like adding value, like you don't want followers who are not actually interested in whatever it is you're selling or whatever it is you're like service providing. And if you're just doing trends, you're gonna get a little bit stuck in content that has less value and is more, like, entertainment and appeal. And you're gonna have eyes on it that, like, kinda isn't gonna do much for your long term goals. Like, why be on social media just to, like, do the social media thing? You're on social media to market, to be part and to push your product or your service. And so if you, if you go full brain rot and you just do trend after trend after trend, you're not actually going to convert anyone. You're not going to be speaking to the audience who's ever going to buy something from you. It's just less useful.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. And I think that it's fun to hop on these trends and everything, but like you said, I agree. That you don't wanna lose yourself, you don't want to make people not realize who your brand is. Like, maybe you show up on their For You page multiple times, but if they can't recognize who you are, and you're not actually benefiting off of it other than views on social media, then it's probably not the strategy for you. Another thing that I think could be a negative with incorporating all of these slang words and this brain rot content is you have to be careful of cancel culture these days, because some things, they might be good in the beginning, a trend might be good in the beginning, and then suddenly it shifts. It has a shift where it's like, no longer okay, it's canceled, whatever. So I think that your brand just has to be careful whenever you do follow these trends, that you watch out for where they could head.

Anna Dobbert: They also, things look and sound outdated at a rate that we haven't seen before. Like, if, say, 30 years ago, you saw an ad that was calling, like, this new pair of pants groovy, you'd be like, oh, that seems kind of outdated, but like, it's fine. Or like, maybe it's retro. Whereas now, the trend cycle, and even like, with words and with language, is moving so quickly that in, genuinely, in a matter of months, some of these, like, slang terms and trends are going to appear like, ugh, that was so March of 2024, and not be as evergreen, and not be as useful in your long term strategy, which is kind of weird to say because social media is growing at such a rapid rate and it's consistently, it's just this cycle that you have to jump into at some point. And so because of that, we can't like archive or save things in the same way like we would be, we used to be able to. So like, yes, everything's going to be pushed down in your feed and in your stream. And it would be a rare day that someone could like, scroll back to 2016 and see you using the term deadass incorrectly. But I think as we're seeing that turnover rate of things looking and sounding outdated, get faster and faster and faster, we're going to start running into like, like sometimes do you ever get on your For You page, like a TikTok that someone posted months prior and you're like, why is this on my For You page today? Since things like that are like definitely still an option, um, you do have to be very mindful of when, how useful is this going to be? Like, how fitting will using this language be in two months and consider that and keep that on your mind.

Jess Boozel: I completely agree with that. Trends absolutely go out of style. What is trending now might not be trending in a month and they just go that quickly. Um, it is so crazy that I also find that trends remind me of specific times like until this past like Hurricane Helene and everything that song I can't remember exactly how it goes, but it's a type of song that's used on TikTok for hurricane videos. It was used during Hurricane Ian and then whenever Hurricane Helene was announced and everyone was packing up to leave Florida and stuff, people were using that sound again. It's a song about, I hear the sound of thunder roaring through the wind or something like that.

Anna Dobbert: Mm hmm. Folsom Prison Blues.

Jess Boozel: Okay.

Anna Dobbert: It's like a creepy version of Folsom Prison Blues. Yeah.

Jess Boozel: Very creepy. But, people started posting it to Helene, and I remember in the comments people were like, oh, this gives Ian vibes.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah!

Jess Boozel: Because they related the sound, yeah.

Anna Dobbert: Or like, do you ever get those TikToks where it's like, summer or like winter 2021 core and it'll be like the TikTok audios that were trending during that time. Those always trip me out because I'm like, are we experiencing nostalgia for three years ago? Like, isn't that, shouldn't that be a, like a bit farther back? Like lately I've been having nostalgia for summer 16, summer of 2016. I feel like we're far enough away from it that I can be like, man, that was a really different time. That was like almost a decade ago. But sometimes I get ones on my TikTok that are like, uh, 2022, like, favorite sounds, like the nostalgia, and I just get so confused by them. I'm like, that's, that's really around the corner. Like, you could still listen to those songs if you wanted.

Jess Boozel: Yeah, so I have seen those trends where it's like, do you remember all of the 2020 TikTok sounds and stuff like that? And that gets me into the question of how do you know whenever you're really brain rot or if you're just like having memories of these trends and also you're just, you know, the trends, what's the difference between being brain rot and knowing the trends? And so right before this, podcast episode, I asked Anna to fill out this Buzzfeed quiz that we both took. It was, um, all about how to know whether you are fully brain rot or not. And Anna, we have not shared our results yet, but I got a 11 out of 18. It said that I am not fully brain rot yet, but it is coming to me and I must beware.

Anna Dobbert: I got a 13 out of 18. And I don't, I guessed a lot of them correctly. I used my context clues. It says there is no help for you. Your brain is certified fried. My condolences.

Jess Boozel: Okay, so I was only two off.

Anna Dobbert: I knew some of them. And what was funny about it as I was taking this quiz is I felt like, even the Buzzfeed writer of this article didn't fully understand the terms. I was like, you are describing them in a way that, like, makes it seem like you're a millennial and you, like, asked your kids to describe it and you still, like, didn't fully comprehend it. Which was kind of funny to me. But then some of them were, like, absolute misses. Like, all the ones about streamers, I was like.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know any of the streamers. Um, some of them I knew, like the, there was a question about what the blank, and I've seen people say what the sigma, but I've never used that myself. So it wasn't that I'm so brain rot that I used it. It was that I'm so brain rot that I knew what it was, type thing.

Anna Dobbert: I'm, like, aware of it. Yeah. That makes, I feel like that's what a lot of these were, but the one that I did, I wouldn't even have called this, like, brain rot, but I guess, like, thinking about it now, it does make sense. One of the prompts was, what is it called when you get a weird and random TikTok while scrolling? And it was mythical FYP pull. And I feel like I have used that or, like, some variant of it of being, like, crazy FYP pull or something like that. But, what was funny about it is, I wouldn't necessarily see that comment on something that was like, weird and random. I felt like that wasn't like, an entirely accurate descriptor for what I would call like, a mythical FYP pull. It's like, even higher than that. It's when you see people doing like, beyond insane things on the internet. Like, I feel like that's when you would say it. So calling it just like, oh, a weird and random TikTok. Honestly, every TikTok I see is weird and random. It is a random assortment of videos. That's like the name of the game.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. I will say that I didn't actually know that one. I got it correct, but I just guessed. I had actually never heard of that before. Um, the one that I was like, oh yeah, I actually, like, use this, is, um, it said fill in the blank. I built this For You page, blank by blank. And it was brick by brick. And I actually, I don't think I've actually commented that myself. But I have seen it.

Anna Dobbert: You know about it. I, I feel similarly. Like I've definitely gotten, or like, even like felt the feeling that that phrase is trying to encapsulate of like, you see something that's so like, not necessarily something you would be interested in, but like, you could see how it ended up on yours. Be like, ah, I built this for you, page brick by brick.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. Yeah, it's like whenever I see it, I agree.

Anna Dobbert: Yes.

Jess Boozel: Yeah. It's like, yeah.

Anna Dobbert: There's also some of them that are so random, and I'm like, I just know that like 14 year old teenage boys are behind it and like it just, that energy just exudes out of it. Like there was a picture of the galvanized square steel, and I knew what that was from just like, existing on this planet earth, have no clue what that could possibly mean. In like, slang, TikTok, internet, like what, what are the teenagers talking about galvanized square steel? Like what do they, what do they want from it? Like what's happening with that? I have no clue.

Jess Boozel: I felt the exact same way looking at that question. I think it was like at the very bottom. I was like, is this like a trick question to see if like. I thought maybe it was a trick question to see if your brain is good.

Anna Dobbert: Yeah, are you paying attention at your construction job? Like.

Jess Boozel: Yeah.

Anna Dobbert: Overall, I did find the quiz to be interesting, cause I would have never placed myself as like, knowing a lot of like, the brain rot internet slang, but I do actually, like, after taking it, I do comprehend a decent amount of what's going on. I may not know exactly what it means, but I could like, probably use it in a sentence. 

Jess Boozel: Yeah, I completely agree. Honestly, I felt like it is brain rot in a certain way, but it wasn't my type of brain rot. Like, I'm just in a different niche than what this quiz was geared towards, but I still, like you, I knew of some things, and I think that's why I got such a low score was because I knew some things, but like, it also wasn't geared towards me.

Anna Dobbert: That makes sense.

Jess Boozel: So, overall I think we've learned that if you're a brand and you're wanting to use these brain rot tools on social media because it is such a high trending thing right now, I would just say be careful. Use it if you think that it is going to benefit you, but if you think that it's just a meme, it's just for fun, it's not going to benefit you in any way, it might not be the right strategy.

Jess Boozel: That's it guys Thank you for watching Untamed Social's podcast.

Jess Boozel: Bye!

Anna Dobbert: Bye!