Oxford’s Word of the Year 2024 reflects ‘perceived dangers’ of social media

There’s a word for the feeling you get after endlessly scrolling on social media — and Oxford chose it as their word of the year.

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

The term is defined as “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.”

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 are using our free time.”

“It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that 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 participated in a public vote on a shortlist of six words that reflected the past year. Language experts also took public commentary and corpus data into consideration 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.

Use of “brain rot” has increased 230% in frequency this year, though it actually first appeared in dialect more than a century ago.

According to 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 a new weight and is being used in more widespread manners, such as among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, as well as in mainstream journalism, healthcare and conversations regarding concerns of overconsumption of social media.

Earlier this year, the Newport Institute, a behavioral healthcare provider, began providing treatment for brain rot, defining it as “a condition of mental fogginess, lethargy, reduced attention span, and cognitive decline that results from an overabundance of screen time.”

Grathwohl said he finds it “fascinating that the word ‘brain rot’ has been adopted by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to.”

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

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression reflecting a theme from the past twelve months which either could be a term of lasting cultural significance or provides a look into society at the time.

The six contenders from this year that the public voted on included brain rot, demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy and lore.

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

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

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