Oxford’s 2024 word of the year reflects the ‘perceived risks’ of social media

There’s a word for the feeling you get after endlessly scrolling through social media – and Oxford chose it as its word of the year.

Oxford University Press (OUP) has named “brain rot” as the 2024 Oxford Word of the Year.

The term is defined as “the alleged deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially seen as a result of overconsumption of material (now especially internet content) considered to be irrelevant or unchallenging”.

Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said in Monday’s announcement that “brain rot” speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life and how we’re spending our free time.

“It feels like just another chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s no wonder so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year,” he added.

“Brain rot” was chosen as the word of the year after more than 37,000 people took part in a public vote on a shortlist of six words that reflected the past year. Language experts also considered public comments and corpus data when choosing the word.

In 2024, the term has gained prominence as a way to describe the effect of consuming an extreme amount of low-quality content online and on social media.

The use of “brain rot” has increased by 230% in frequency this year, although it actually first appeared in the dialect more than a century ago.

According to the OUP, the first recorded use of “brain rot” was in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden.

But in the digital age, the term has new weight and is being used in more widespread ways, both among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, as well as in mainstream journalism, health care and conversations about the concerns of social media overconsumption.

Earlier this year, the Newport Institute, a behavioral health care provider, began offering treatment for brain rot, defining it as “a condition of mental fogginess, lethargy, decreased attention span, and resulting cognitive decline from an excess of screen time”.

Grathwohl said he finds it “fascinating that the word ‘brain rot’ has been adopted by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the communities primarily responsible for using and creating the digital content to which the term refers.”

“These communities have amplified expression through social media channels, the very place that is said to cause ‘brain rot’. It demonstrates a somewhat cheeky awareness among younger generations of the harmful influence of social media they have inherited.”

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or phrase that reflects a theme from the past twelve months, which can either be a term of enduring cultural significance or provide an insight into the society of the time.

The six contenders from this year that the public voted for included Brain Rot, Modesty, Stripping, Dynamic Awards, Romance and Knowledge.

“Demure” was chosen as Dictionary.com’s word of the year for 2024.

Last year, OUP chose “rizz,” a Gen Z slang term short for “charisma,” as their word of the year.

Meanwhile, Collins Dictionary crowned “brat” word of the year, with a nod to Charli XCX’s record.