Make It an Anti-Brainrot Summer (and beyond)

During this quarters book club, a member shared a paper with the group titled: “Demystifying the New Dilemma of Brain Rot in the Digital Era: A Review” - a sobering compilation of observations, studies, and emerging research on the phenomenon of “brain-rot.” A couple highlights from my knowledge vault:

Join the Book Club

Coincidentally, the word “brain-rot”, although recently awarded Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2024, is not a new term. In fact, the appropriately blunt label for the cognitive decline and deterioration of a person’s intellectual state, actually debuted in 1854 in Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Difference? 1854 Thoreau introduced brain-rot as a result of society losing its ability to think critically and overconsumption of passive, secondhand ideas as common sense. Modern evolution:

“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.”

Brain Sci. 2025, 15, 283 https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15030283 Brain Sci. 2025, 15, 283

Common theme: dulling of the mind and overconsumption of low quality information.

Any chance this sounds familiar to you? It sure does to me!

The line that stood out most to me in the paper was “further depletes meaningful involvement in real-life experiences.”

The combination of those specific, individual words resonated deeply.

Depletes.

Meaningful.

Involvement.

Real-life.

Experiences.

Absorbing each word independently helps articulate a very important human experience as it relates to our current environment.

“Depletes” perfectly encapsulates the gradual draining of mental resources the more we surrender our time and attention to our screens.

“Meaningful” should be the anchor by which we qualify an activity worthy of our time.

“Involvement” signals the importance of being physically, mentally, and/or emotionally engaged with what is in front of us.

“Real-life” - needs no explanation.

“Experiences” emphasize the importance of an endless pursuit of knowledge and discovery (plucked from my knowledge vault):

While I read a lot about screen time, overconsumption of low-quality information, addictive social media habits, and other related material, this seemingly simple arrangement of words had the most profound impact on me.

I am coming up on my 1-year anniversary of my digital rehabilitation endeavor. I have made a tremendous lifestyle change as it relates to how I spend my time and what my “relationship” or interaction with screens/social media looks like. It took time and it also took hitting what felt like rock bottom (where I believe brain-rot is sitting and waiting.)

Books. Books. Books. Bury yourself in books. Pick one book for the summer, or devour a stack of them. I’ll share my reading list below:

Trying something new stimulates your brain by releasing dopamine. Novel experiences force your brain to build fresh connections, sharpening your mind.

Trying new activities promotes neuroplasticity. (Dr. Lara Boyd) This is the brain's amazing ability to grow, change, and form new pathways.

Your Summer Challenge: Schedule a minimum of (1) New Activity per Month

If I had it my way, I would try something brand new every single day. That’s what I envision retirement looks like. Let a girl dream.

Here are a couple of mine:

If you’ve been around for a while, you know I am a big advocate for writing. It does not matter what level of proficiency you are - I am not a fantastic writer, proper grammar escapes me often, and sometimes my sentence fluency is so bad it I know it would send my former English professors into a blind rage.

The point is to do it, and do it often.

Any fans of Julia Cameron? Consider adopting a morning pages practice for the summer. Her approach is pretty rigid as far as requirements/constraints. In my opinion - writing is of the utmost importance - how you do it doesn’t matter.

Create a list of hobbies that you enjoy that enrich and bring meaning to your life. What fulfills you? Create a master list of hobbies that you can reference in pockets of downtime throughout the summer. Fill your time with things that make you feel alive.

If you fancy a habit tracker, create one for the season. If you are feeling more creative, consider documenting your summer in a creative writing piece. My challenge to myself is to write my summer like a “Coming of Age” movie script.

(P.S. - I’m 33… the age hath cometh.)

We love research as a hobby here. Pick a topic that interests you and conduct a summer research project from start to finish. Assign yourself a “final project” so that you can measure your pursuit of knowledge with a tangible end point.

If you want a community to do this with, you can join us in The Beginner’s Mind Book Club - a research driven book club for nonfiction nerds who love to learn :)

Join the Book Club

Trade a few episodes of your usual Netflix sessions for a lecture. I like to create a playlist on YouTube and add as many lectures/presentations on topics of interest by experts in their field as I can - that way when I take some time to relax, I have a lecture bank to pluck from instead of defaulting to Grey’s Anatomy reruns. At the end of the lecture, I like to write a quick synopsis in my own words to save in my knowledge vault.

Find a friend, pick a topic, do some research, and present your findings over dinner. Good conversation is a gift.

I’ve been known to make a Powerpoint or two for a good girls’ night dinner and drinks.

Much love,

Flossy Fay.