The death of language or a new form of communication?

Digital slang is taking over everyday conversation — pervasive and inescapable, the jargon is a sign of being chronically online, earning the name “brain rot.” This evolving dialect blends irony, exaggeration, and a touch of absurdity into everyday phrases and comments. Oxford University Press, which crowned it 2024 Word of the Year, defined it as the decline of intellectual function due to the consumption of online content, reported The Atlantic.

The origin story: Brain rot speech emerged from the hyper-online corners of social media that thrive on quick, witty, and entertaining language. The rise of short-form content has contributed to diminishing attention spans and encouraged the proliferation of snappy shareable phrases, accelerating mainstream adoption. What began as inside jokes in niche communities has rapidly transformed into common vernacular.

Unlike past internet slang — based on quoting memes or pop culture moments — this new wave creates distinctive and peculiar sentence structures that become instantly recognizable. When circumstances appear particularly dire, one might say “It’s giving apocalypse.” Does this construction follow traditional grammar rules? Not exactly. But it adds personality, humor, and reflects a shared understanding of a broader cultural moment. Similarly, placing “not” before a statement to express surprise or approval has become commonplace: “Not you driving all this way to come see me,” or “Not me finishing an entire pizza in three minutes.”

It’s giving harmful. The ironic detachment these phrases carry often diminishes the gravity of serious topics, softens emotional expression, and maintains — or forces — conversational levity. Some experts worry that this linguistic trend might impair our ability to communicate meaningfully as people become accustomed to using irony and humor as shields to avoid vulnerability and expressing genuine thoughts and feelings. This could stunt emotional development, especially among younger users who are still forming communication habits.

It might not be that serious: Some linguists argue that this evolution is a natural progression of language with important sociolinguistic functions. They suggest that rather than representing decline, brain rot speech demonstrates the creativity and adaptability of human communication — though they acknowledge the importance of maintaining the ability to shift between different registers of speech depending on context.