The term brainrot is a word that was coined by Gen Z, and many students at BVN like Junior Jayden Ward and sophomore Sheza Aamir say that brainrot has an impact on their lives at school.
“[Brainrot] is stuff online that doesn’t have any meaning, it’s just stupid, and we just find it funny,” Aamir said.
These widespread, meaningless sayings have reached BVN through social media and have become common in many classes.
“I mostly see [brainrot] on TikTok and it’s mostly just memes or people saying “What the sigma?”” Aamir said.
According to Nick Dunn from Charle Agency, TikTok has about 1.6 billion active users each month making it one of the most popular social media platforms currently.
“Definitely social media [caused the emergence of brainrot]…” Ward said.
Besides social media, Aamir said it may have originated during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“It could be how we were all bored, you could say it started during COVID, perhaps, and everyone just started making memes, they became big, and everybody just started making them in real life,” Aamir said.
Regardless of its popularity, brain rot can be divisive. For example, Dani Di Placido from “Forbes” described skibidi toilet as “grotesque.”
On the other hand, Ward said, “Honestly, [my favorite brainrot trend is] the skibidi one that’s my favorite one.”
This divide poses the question, is brain rot humor genuinely funny or just another trend that will come and go?
“I think [brainrot humor is funny] yeah, I feel like I laugh at it cause it’s really stupid…” Aamir said.
“Used in the correct situations [brainrot is funny]…” Ward said.
With the arrival of Brainrot to BVN, many students find it funny and have been joining in on the jokes.
“I’d say [brainrot has affected BVN] in a positive way because I feel like everyone’s more funny… it just makes it more positive like happy… maybe you see the news reports or something and see some type of brainrot on there it makes everyone laugh,” Aamir said.
The basis of brainrot is nonsense, which can become confusing to those who are not looped in on the jokes and sayings.
“I feel like [brainrot has divided the different generations] a lot. I feel like millennials or something would not be saying this… I feel like they’d find it so weird… they would not be saying stuff like this and making memes out of this,” Aamir said.
Aamir went on to say that brain rot trends change daily, which could lead to even more confusion between generations.
“I think we got a couple centuries until [brainrot humor] ends… it’s gonna get worse and worse,” Ward said. “It kind of kills the brain.”
