Understanding Internet-Induced Brain Rot
Picture a battery, any size. Now, picture the top of the battery corroded with white chalky dust.
This is your brain on the internet.
I’m mostly joking, but I love using absurd examples to illustrate problems. Fellow millennials and Gen Xers might remember the over-the-top “This is your brain on drugs” ads from the ’90s—especially if you saw them in junior high, a time ripe for parody.
But the truth is, the internet is a drug. We are all addicted, and we know it. In its long slide into enshittification, the internet has broken apart, become corroded and fragmented, and has done the same to us in the meantime.
We can’t entirely ditch cell phones, though some have tried. Alternatives like the Light Phone have emerged, and younger generations, shaped by the glow of screens, are embracing Luddism. While still niche, tech-lite movements are growing as more people recognize these devices’ grip on our lives.
Internet-induced brain rot is something we can resist. Like any addiction, it requires support and persistence to break. Qualities like discipline and focus, which have been stolen from us by these dopamine-hijacking technologies, will require physical distance from our devices and a powerful desire to get back to ourselves – to our minds and bodies.
What follows are a few unconventional ways to break the dissociative state that comes from scrolling – whether on your desktop or cell phone.
Get Physical
- Legs up the wall
Legs up the wall is a yin yoga posture that creates a sense of calm, potentially reduces leg swelling, and purportedly helps with circulation. I do this pose when I need to rest, but my mind is racing with thoughts of little consequence to my direct experience of reality. This pose naturally forces me to focus on the effects of gravity and blood flow on my body. You can do this posture for 10-15 minutes, and I guarantee you’ll feel more grounded and in tune with your breath and body by the end.
- Headstand
I stare at computer screens for my job – nearly 8 hours of my waking life requires looking into the internet like a magical portal. The eye strain and the effects of working online affect my focus and overall clarity. When I need to pivot to a personal, creative project, getting upside down does wonders. Perhaps it’s the increased blood flow to my brain, or maybe it’s the new, upside-down perspective I’ve taken on through this inverse posture, but headstands act as the perfect reset after staring at a screen all day.
- “Upside down” world
As a kid, I’d get on my bed or couch and dangle the top half of my body off the surface so that my head hung almost to the ground. Suddenly, I’d have a new perspective of the room. The ceiling was now my “floor,” and with my feet, I could “walk” along this new moon-like surface. I know this is one of my more unconventional recommendations, but I think what happens with “online” experiences is that the real world becomes duller and duller over time. Finding ways to infuse wonder or new ways of looking at things can help trip up this sullen boredom many of us are mired in.
- Algorithmic walking
Think of a place you’ve wanted to walk around. Before going, write down a set of directions. Ex: walk three blocks, take a right, take the second left, etc. Do this a few times until you reach a dead end. Don’t break your instructions! Embrace novelty!
Information Creation & Consumption
- Buy and read physical media
This one’s pretty straightforward. Go to your local gas station or public library and pick up a book, newspaper, or local weekly. Long ago, I used to get the Sunday New York Times. Not only did it force me to not flit from one appealing headline to another, but it also got me into the sort of flow state that reading encourages. Bonus: there’s no comments section in physical media!
- Writing exercise – write where you live
Put your phone away. Sit for a second with a pen and a piece of paper. Think about the place you live – your town, city, or home. Think about a spot within that place and write about a specific memory there. Describe what happened. Mention all the emotions you felt in the moment. Think about how the air felt, the colors, the plants and animals, the people. The weather and the light. Write all this down. Or, if you’re more visually inclined, draw a picture of the place using the colors and physical elements of the place – add symbols that represent your thoughts and feelings at the time.
- Listen to a song or album all the way through
Streaming services have changed the way we listen to music. Instead of being trapped in a car with only three CDs or relishing in our voluminous LP collection that we can play while farting around our living room, we can, with the ease of a simple click, skip tracks. Challenge yourself to listen to a favorite piece of music or something new and listen to it all the way through – no skips. Ask yourself: what is the artist trying to do with this creative act? Are there more prominent themes at play? Is it a concept album, pure white-hot rock and roll, noise, or metal? Double bonus points: 1. listen to analog media. 2. try to isolate the elements of the song including the bass line, drum’s rhythm, or vocals.
Getting real with yourself
- Tapping into kid self
What did you get up to as a kid? Did you lean in intently over a ham radio? Collect comics, coins or stamps? Build cardboard dollhouses? If there’s an adult analog to these early and formative creative experiences and expressions, can you bring that into the here and now?
Do something with your hands. Do these things s l o w l y and thoughtfully.
- Call someone you love
According to Claudia Glaser-Mussen, a psychotherapist in New York City, “Hearing the sound of a loved one’s voice is emotionally regulating.” Many of us prefer text, which is a more direct experience with our cell phones and not our loved ones. Calling loved ones for a short chat hijacks the “I want this to be as convenient as possible” parts of our brains and connects us directly to the ones we love and smooths the rougher parts of our emotional landscapes.
- Talking to yourself & Staring off into space
I told y’all these were unconventional tips!
People underestimate the power of being one’s own friend and advocate. Talking to yourself constructively helps us disrupt some of the more negative thought patterns we’ve attuned ourselves to over the years. These thoughts can go unchecked when we spend excessive amounts of time online. Social media and the internet are two mediums that do not lead to deep thinking or feeling, and talking to oneself may provide an antidote. Talking to yourself, especially if you ask questions like, “Is this true?” or “Is this helpful?” when a particularly destructive thought comes up, can help you reason through tough spots.
Staring off into space – in your living room or the doctor’s office lobby is a great way to take in your surroundings. Get comfortable being bored. Feed yourself the vision of blank walls or bad corporate art. Give your eyes and your brain a break.
Hopefully these tips surprise, delight, and potentially shake you up once executed. Regardless of what is going on in the world, regardless of what the internet offers us, we need to learn emotional resilience, how to engage reality directly and accompany one another through this thing called life. Spending more time offline can do just that.
