Experts throw light on why Gen Z can’t stop watching the Internet’s dumbest content
If you are one of those watching Mindless YouTube videos or have Instagram obsession, and keep doomscrolling aimlessly, then you are not alone. Welcome to the world of Brain Rot Reel Reality.
Infinite Absurdity Scroll
It’s 11 PM. You’re watching an AI-voiced SpongeBob reel debating Plato’s cave while Subway Surfer gameplay whizzes underneath. The next video is a split-screen of a cat doing taxes and Andrew Tate ranting about masculinity. You blink, but the scroll continues. “TSPMO,” says one caption. “ICL,” says another. Some-where, a Donald Duck fart edit. And you still keep watching.
The world of brain rot content is visually loud, emotionally overstimulating, and increasingly unavoidable on Gen Z’s feeds. It’s not comedy in the traditional sense. Nor is it educational or even coherent. But for millions of young users, it’s oddly irresistible.
Meaninglessness Matter
For Delhi-based Rishabh Mishra (20), an undergraduate student, it’s partly passing time and attention economy. “I scroll to kill time or when I am in between real-life activities or travelling,” he says. “My feed is very unhinged, and the reels I send give me a lot of attention.”
This digital validation loop is at the heart of much of Gen Z’s relationship with content. What used to be passive viewing is now part-performance, part-identity construction. Still, calling brain rot content “deep” might be stretching it.
“It is content that caters to the lowest common denominator,” says Rohit Chopra, Professor of Communication at Santa Clara University. “It might have some of the characteristics of reflexive irony, playfulness, or nihilism… but in my view those are accidental… ‘Brain rot’ material is, at its core, a pornography of indulgence, and, as such, largely sterile and banal.”
False Bonhomie
According to Akshansh Singh, an advocate based in New Delhi, part of the appeal lies in the specificity and exclusivity of the content. “The main reason that I feel memes work is because they get more specific. They turn into an inside joke,” he explains. “There is a feeling, however false it may be, of being part of a ‘community’ of sorts.”
This faux-intimacy is precisely what keeps people hooked, scrolling not only for entertainment but also for inclusion. Singh adds, “There are those who engage with brain rot memes, and those who do not. It’s kind of an exclusive group, but everyone’s already in on the joke.”
Emotional Armor Irony
What sets this content apart is its rejection of sincerity. For Singh, irony becomes a mechanism for detachment. “Irony probably helps us detach with our seriousness and engage from a little more distance,” he says. “For regular people… taking yourself too seriously is always prone to ridicule.”
Priyanshi Nautiyal, a counselling psychologist, agrees that brain rot is often a coping mechanism. “Memes and reels serve as a coping mechanism… watching someone laugh at the content we find humorous reduces the feeling of alienation and creates a sense of belonging.”
But she also warns against mistaking stimulation for stability. “Such a fast-paced emotional roller coaster can feel mentally stimulating in the moment, but it often leads to emotional exhaustion.”
Short Attention Span
The format itself, rapid edits, clashing sounds, hyper-niche jokes is designed to hijack attention. “Chronic exposure to such content can be detrimental to attention span, emotional regulation, and our ability to tolerate boredom,” Nautiyal notes.
Singh, who once deleted Instagram for an entire year, shares this concern. “I used to be addicted to Instagram at one point… It has not been a problem since,” he says. “As far as my attention span goes, it has reduced quite a bit with time, but not dangerously so.”
Calm Chaos Cauldron
Interestingly, for some users, the appeal of brain rot is not because it matches their mental state but precisely because it doesn’t. “I'm calm, composed and punctual… quite literally the opposite of brain rot and irony memes in fact,” Rishabh explains. Singh echoes a similar idea. “It can feel comforting, to constantly ridicule without ever being vulnerable.”
Platform Logic
These trends don’t exist in isolation. The platforms themselves shape what’s created, shared, and seen. Chopra points out, “These algorithms have all kinds of biases embedded in them… They are incredibly powerful… The worry is that they present this as an illusion of choice.”
Even cultural expressions are moulded by platform logic. “Indian modes of satire and humour… might make their way onto TikTok or X but in the short formats that all creators across the world have to use,” Chopra explains. Rishabh offers a candid Indian context: “Getting viral on the internet is like a golden ticket to a better financial situation. So people are hell bent on doing things as bizarre as possible.”
Commodifying Chaos
Though brain rot content feels anarchic, it still follows the logic of monetization and winner-takes-all virality. Chopra says that very few creators in the brain rot economy are able to successfully monetize
and sustain their careers. “The owners of the platforms are the ones who benefit.”
Even visibility is ephemeral. “There is a perverse egalitarianism… people may generate a video… that goes massively viral… But that labour… goes uncompensated in monetary terms.”
Despite his criticism, Chopra acknowledges the subversive potential of memetic culture. “Palestinians and their supporters are also using memetic culture to draw the world’s attention to the brutality to which they are being subjected,” he says. “These platforms… are megaphones for bringing urgent issues to the world’s attention, often through so-called ‘non-serious’ idioms.”
But even if it doesn’t lead to change, brain rot still reflects how young people are feeling: overstimulated, disillusioned, and emotionally overwhelmed.
The Inverted Mirror
When asked what his feed says about him, Rishabh responds, “I think it's a perfect mirror of my mind as it's all inverted of how I actually am.” It’s an apt metaphor. Brain rot content doesn’t just reflect culture; it warps it, distorts it, and loops it back in memes, reels, and acronyms that change daily. It's an overstimulation of style. Detachment as design. Chaos as comfort. But somehow, it works!
