Willa Mag

 

When our fingers keep swiping up to switch videos and our attention scatters in the colorful information flow, our brains might be experiencing a silent “rotting”.

In 2024, the Oxford Dictionary announced “brain rot” as its word of the year, describing this dilemma of the digital age: after consuming a large amount of low - quality Internet content and videos, our spirits gradually decline. The brain loses its sharpness in thinking, elasticity in emotions, and effectiveness in action. This crisis faced by humanity is exactly as the term implies: the brain is rotting.

Before discussing this issue, we need to first understand what a healthy brain actually means.

Neurologists often define brain health through three core dimensions:

Thinking: Can one maintain clear logic and effectively process complex information? Can one retain sufficient memory ability?

Feeling: When facing stress and setbacks, can one adjust emotional elasticity to cope, or does one often break down?

Action: Can one translate thoughts and emotions into actions? This includes completing daily tasks and forming habits.

If your brain starts to “rot”, it probably means that your abilities in these three dimensions are all on the decline. You might be able to rescue your brain through the following methods.

True relaxation is not shutting down, but immersive focus

We generally misunderstand that “rest” means doing nothing. So the most common way we relax is to slump on the sofa, browse social media, and watch short videos, waiting for interesting content to be fed to us by algorithms.

However, this kind of “shut - down maintenance” cannot allow the brain to rest fully. As early as 2014, a study showed that content received passively, such as short videos, although having a very high information density, has too low a cognitive load. Staying in this kind of information environment for a long time will weaken the function of the attention system (Katsuki & Constantinidis, 2014).

In contrast, what can really restore the brain's vitality is not zoning out, but immersive focus, that is, the “flow state” proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

When we engage in activities that require concentrated attention, have complex systems, are challenging, and have clear goals, our brains will enter a state of high concentration and pleasure.

That is to say, mental labor such as learning a language, a musical instrument, or programming might actually be the best rest for the brain. These activities can not only cultivate interests and a sense of achievement but also help us break away from the habit of passively receiving information and shift to actively constructing knowledge.

Some studies have pointed out that this kind of learning behavior with intrinsic motivation will develop the brain's Executive Functions System, which is located in the prefrontal cortex and is responsible for abilities such as planning, attention control, and emotional regulation.

It is precisely these functions that determine whether we can resist “brain rot” and maintain the brain's vitality.

Restore the “sense of touch”, an original sensory channel

A problem that many people don't think of is that mobile phones have made our range of touch too small.

Nowadays, mobile phones are getting thinner and lighter, and we only need one finger to browse endless information. This extremely simple operation also makes the body detached from the participation of other senses.

The “sense of touch” is the earliest - developed and most basic sensory channel for humans. It is not only an important part of human perception but also directly participates in the brain's sense of space, memory, and emotional regulation. The richer and more complex the touch activities are, the stronger the stimulation to the brain. These cannot be replaced by swiping the screen.

Even though the “paperless” trend is popular, students still use advanced tablets with capacitive pens to take traditional hand - written notes. This is also because hand - written notes can enhance learners' understanding and memory of content more than typing. Handwriting activates multiple areas in the brain related to language, movement, and stress regulation, 3.2 times more than when typing (Mueller, 2014).

Write a diary or copy excerpts from books with pen and paper, replacing typing with handwriting.

Engage in leisure activities that require the cooperation of both hands, such as assembling models, making collages, or crocheting.

Read paper books or magazines, replacing swiping with turning pages.

Bake, cook, or transform common small items with milk tea cups and take - out bags, replacing buying with making.

In an era full of visual information, returning to the sense of touch is a way to adjust and balance the brain's perceptual function.

Remove the inertia of “mobile phone addiction”

We all know that it is very difficult to “quit Internet addiction”. This is because we have formed a behavioral inertia. From picking up the phone to opening Douyin, it is more automatic and faster than shaking to jump to Pinduoduo.

James Clear proposed in “Atomic Habits” that the formation of any habit depends on four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. To break a habit, we can also start from these four aspects.

Humans are visual animals. Any red dots, vibrations, or sound effects are “cues” that make behaviors more likely to occur. To make the cues invisible, you can:

Turn off the notification permissions of most software, especially social, short - video, and shopping apps.

Set up a do - not - disturb period, such as from 21:00 to 7:00 after work.

Do not log in to social media on your work computer, physically separating work and entertainment devices.

Use the minimalist mode to weaken visual stimulation.

If what people carry in their pockets now is a non - smart phone like a PHS, there is no need to struggle to quit using it. To reduce the attractiveness of the phone, you can:

Uninstall some homogeneous entertainment apps to avoid switching to another app after getting tired of swiping videos.

Place work apps or uninteresting software on the home screen.

Select your favorite content in advance to avoid wasting time on long - term switching and refreshing.

Since the phone is always at hand, we can satisfy our impulses in just one second. To make the response more difficult, you can:

Use a phone - locking box or software, starting from 30 minutes and gradually increasing the locking time.

Watch movies and TV shows on a larger screen such as a projector or TV, which can reduce operation opportunities to some extent and help with concentration.

Place the phone in a room farther away or in a drawer that is not easy to see.

Habits are formed because there is pleasure as a reward. And making the reward work in the opposite direction can make it easier to break bad habits. You can:

After realizing the addiction pattern, attach negative consequences to the behavior. For example, when you subconsciously open a short - video app, immediately imagine: Three hours have passed, and you've achieved nothing. You've had another day of brain rot! After long - term deliberate practice, the brain will package this kind of thinking, and when you take out the phone, you'll think of being a lazy person. Then it will be easier to break the mobile - phone addiction.

Design rewards for positive behaviors: for example, after insisting on in - depth reading before going to bed for a week, buy yourself some small items you like as a reward. (Please try not to use “watching short videos” as a reward for “not watching short videos”).

Return to offline life

One of the key manifestations of “brain rot” is that our connection with others and the real world has become weak.

However, the brain's Default Mode Network is more active during social interactions than when receiving information. This shows that we are naturally more suitable for thinking and growing in social interactions rather than being isolated and immersed in the screen for a long time (Lieberman, 2013).

So for the sake of our brains, we can choose more offline ways to have fun. For example, make an agreement with friends that the one who looks at the phone first treats everyone. Or experience the rich handicraft courses on the market once a week. Even a 20 - minute walk in the park can help the brain regain its vitality.

In addition, since the ages of 6 - 12 are the critical period for the development of the brain's multisensory integration ability, the damage of the short - video environment to children's patience and attention far exceeds that of adults. However, children do not have the ability to choose healthier behaviors independently, so the demonstration of adults is particularly important.

Rather than scolding children for playing with their phones, it's better to take them to explore nature, observe animals and plants, or experience handicrafts. A simple bedtime story or even an animated series is better than short videos.

Sleep is the most powerful brain - repair activity

During deep non - rapid eye movement sleep (NREM), what we experience is one of the greatest known neural cooperation performances. During this period, the brain's cerebrospinal fluid will wash over various regions of the brain like waves, removing the metabolic waste (including substances related to Alzheimer's disease) accumulated during the day from the body (Walker, 2007).

Short videos and social media, as strongly stimulating content, along with the blue light emitted by the phone screen, will delay the time to fall asleep and reduce the probability of entering deep sleep. This is why you still feel tired, distracted, and have blurred vision the next day after falling asleep while looking at your phone.

Creating a comfortable sleep environment is crucial for the brain.

Avoid exposure to blue light one hour before going to bed and don't take your phone to bed. Draw a clear line between “using the brain” and “repairing the brain”.

Keep the bedroom cool, dim, and quiet, and choose skin - friendly bedding.

Engage in activities that help the body enter a resting state, such as gentle yoga, soaking feet, or meditation.

Sleep is the foundation of all brain - repair activities. So, to resist “brain rot”, we not only need to reduce information intake and concentrate our attention but also, most fundamentally, restore the brain's self - repair ability.

Exercise provides supplements for the brain

British nutritionist Andrew Huberman mentioned in his podcast that the effect of exercise on the brain is not “indirect help” but “direct activation”.

Studies have shown that people with exercise habits produce more myelin in their bodies. Myelin is a lipid layer that is responsible for improving the speed and efficiency of nerve signal transmission. It wraps around nerve pathways, making them smoother and faster, allowing us to react more quickly, remember more clearly, and have more stable emotions when facing problems.

In addition, exercise can also trigger the process of neurogenesis in the brain. This process is commonly seen in the brain activities of infants, but adults can also stimulate the brain through moderate exercise to enhance learning ability and emotional elasticity.

Neuroscientist Tara Swart proposed that the following conditions are required for exercise to trigger neurogenesis.

The intensity should be moderate. You can choose gentle aerobic exercise to avoid a too - high heart rate.

It should be intermittent. Exercise three times a week, or exercise for a week and then rest for a week.

During the alternation of exercise and rest, the brain will naturally release brain - derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is one of the most crucial factors for promoting neural plasticity. Eating deep - sea fish and dark - green vegetables also helps repair the brain's neural structure.

In conclusion

In the Internet age, it is unrealistic to maintain the brain by “quitting” electronic products.

Digital content can indeed bring us relaxation and comfort at certain times. Fighting against “brain rot” is not about opposing entertainment but about providing more options to connect with the world.

After all, the human brain is such a precise and great evolutionary achievement that it needs to be explored and nourished. We can't stay away from the digital world, but we can live more soberly in it.