According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the term ‘brain rot’ is defined as the “supposed deterioration

A slang term for supposed mental damage done by overconsumption of trivial online content triumphed over a shortlist that also included “lore,” “demure” and “slop.”

This may have been the year of "Brat summer," but by August another buzzworthy phrase had usurped it in the pop culture lexicon.

Oxford's 2024 Word of the Year, brain rot, highlights worries about social media content affecting mental health.

Brain rot means ‘supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging’

Capping off a year that proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that non- A.V. Club readers are spending too much time ingesting the worst shit imaginable online, the Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” Word of the Year.