The Brain Rot of Social Media
A short story of how being a creator on social media rotted my brain.
I was on MySpace in 7th grade. My profile song was “Ocean’s Avenue” by Yellowcard, my profile picture featured my luscious black locks down to my chin. When MySpace died I, like many others, turned to Facebook. There I stayed for my teenage years and most of my twenties, interrupted only by the occasional Instagram scroll.
One of my myspace pics. Yes I had an “emo” phase.
I never cared much for social media. Over the years I saw how it shifted from a fun way to share experiences with my IRL community to a constant bombardment of information, memes, and quick dopamine hits. Throughout law school I dedicated my Instagram to posting zoomed-in pictures of my friend Sam’s face; pure mockery.
My Instagram during law school had photos like this. The caption was always the same: “My friend Sam.”
I’d never feel happy after scrolling social. If anything, I’d feel worse. More pessimistic, more scattered, less grounded. In college I’d go months without so much as logging onto Facebook. I attribute some of my academic success to the focus that cutting out social media provided.
Fast forward to 2021. I’d quit working in Biglaw and a post on LinkedIn about my mental health went viral. I took to Tiktok and told my story again on video, going viral again and again. In the process I was achieving my goal: raising awareness of mental health and by sharing my own experiences helping others better understand their own mental health journeys. My audience grew and grew, my reach widened and widened.
The power of social media was unlike anything else I’d seen in my life. With a click of a button I could reach millions of folks, without the help of a major news organization or platform supporting me. It was just me - @juliansarafian – reaching people. The democratization of media itself – how groundbreakingly cool is that!
The prospect of becoming a content creator was exciting. Making a living while giving career advice, talking about the law, and mental health sounded fulfilling. I wanted to take it seriously.
I knew I had to pay attention to the trends and conversations happening on Tiktok if I wanted to succeed as a creator on it. So I had no choice but to start consuming the content on the app.
My opinion on consuming social media hadn’t changed since becoming a creator. I felt at my core that it was still trash. Curated, superficial, thirst-trapping, gray-matteresque, meaningless noise that left my consciousness as quickly as it entered it.
But consuming was a catch-22. If I didn’t I’d be left out of the conversation and culture and my content wouldn’t “pop.” If I did I’d be subjecting myself to the brain rot I’d successfully avoided for most of my youth.
Brain rot it was!
I didn’t know it but I quickly became chronically addicted to social media. Spending hours scrolling Tiktok became a habit. “Time to do some research” I’d say to myself as I opened my FYP to aimlessly scroll. So too did I become addicted to the attention the platforms gave me as a creator: the follower growth, the comments, the likes, the views, but that’s a story for another time.
ITS ROTTING MY BRAINNNNN
A year into this endeavor I noticed disturbing changes. The first was the total and utter destruction of my attention span. I could no longer sit still or write a simple email without checking my phone or flipping through tabs. I’d lost the ability to do deep work.
Second was using social media as a crutch to find peace in the moment. Sitting with friends was good, but sitting with friends while scrolling social was even better. Ditto for watching TV or exercising. An “itch” to consume had developed.
Third, my expectations about the world changed. Why wasn’t my partner always looking super hot? My friends are fun but they’re boring a lot of the time. I’d grown so accustomed to the constantly curated dimension of social media that I started projecting it into the real world.
All three of these things were terrible for my mental health. “I’m so glad I have a short attention span!” said no one ever. Short attention spans make it harder to accomplish tasks, manage anxiety, and think deeply. Using social media in social settings took me out of the moment and diluted my time with others. And expecting perfection from the world was a recipe for constant disappointment.
Social media was doing to me what it does to everyone who consumes it: rotting my brain. But Julian, you knew this was going to happen by consuming it. Are you really surprised? No, I am not. And I’ve cut down heavily on my use in the last year, focusing instead on reading books, spending time outside, and writing. And what do you know – my mental health has improved!
The scary thing to consider is how many folks remain chronic users of social media in my generation – rotting their brain day in and day out. The prevalence among GenZ is even higher. Many can’t hold a 20 minute engaging conversation without checking their phone. Loads don’t know how to connect with other folks in an authentic way. And mental health conditions like anxiety and depression are at historic highs.
GEE, I WONDER WHY!???
This piece isn’t going to convince folks to get off social media and honestly, that’s not even the point. Social media has the power to move mountains and I’ve seen that firsthand in my work as an advocate. It’s not going anywhere and, if anything, it’s only going to become more powerful.
But, but, but…
With great power comes great responsibility.
We all must be on guard for the corrosive affects social media has on our health, both mental and physical. Those of us with addictive personalities need to tread even lighter. Because no matter what the content you’re viewing is, present day social media is designed for short, high-yield dopamine fixes. And that’s just not human. It’s brain rot.
And brain rot is BAD!