My favorite example of microbrainrot that I’ve stumbled across is the subreddit dichotomy of r/wunkus and r/ihaveihaveihavewunkus, which I think collectively deserve some linguistic attention at some point.
The subreddits are for posting animal content (mostly cats) that have a certain degree of “wunk” to them. I can’t accurately describe “wunk”, but if you look at enough posts, you’ll understand. r/ihaveihaveihavewunkus (which I wish I knew more about the origins of) has a pretty common flair for posts that do not meet the sufficient level of brainrot compared to r/wunkus. There are also flairs for “25% Rot” and “75% Rot”. I’d be interested to get statistics on how people would quantify brainrot in a context like that, and how you begin to draw brainrot thresholds between the subreddits.
The indescribable but understandable idea of "wunk" you mentioned reminds me of the instagram account for a cat named Panko. Whenever they post a picture of her they include a poll, with the options "Pank" or "Ponk". Sometimes it's a bunch of pictures in a row on the account's story. And almost every single time I feel like one of the 2 words better fits with the image, like 70-90% of the votes are in agreement. The polls don't even include a question, but I feel like there's a "right answer" that just makes sense. Somehow everyone agrees to click either "Pank" or "Ponk" and it's interesting to me how we all just *know* without any real definition for those words.
Unsure if you’ve touched on this topic already, but an interesting more recent source (or perhaps rather more accurately perpetuation) of brain rot vocabulary is Spotify’s daylist feature which curates a playlist for you based on the time of day/day of the week you’re listening. Spotify describes said playlist with a caption stringing together buzzwords that essentially act nonsensical brain rot, especially given the context. To give an example, my current daylist that Spotify created for me is entitled “trap gyatt anthemic Wednesday evening” with the caption “You’ve listened to bangers and grind time on Wednesdays in the evening”. I’m interested to hear if others have noticed this or if anyone else has examples of brain rot being co-opted by companies like this?
This topic has weighed heavily on my heart for some time, and I truly appreciate your exploration of the "brainrot" phenomenon and its evolution into "microbrainrot." If you'll indulge me, I’d like to offer a few thoughts in response.
I’d like to position your construct within the broader trend of "memeification," where the internet—and particularly social media algorithms—reduces complex ideas, cultures, and identities into simplified, often absurd fragments. This memeification does more than flatten culture; it erodes it. These reductive, algorithm-driven memes, while initially amusing, bypass the deeper, more nuanced realities they reference, leaving us with a hollowed-out version of the world.
What you describe as "microbrainrot" is, I believe, symptomatic of a larger, more insidious problem: the failure to take serious matters seriously. When individuals and communities reduce vital discourse to bite-sized, memeified fragments, they undermine informed dialogue. In such an environment, there's little room for the complex, or the profound. Instead, the algorithm churns out absurdities that cater to shallow impulses, making it increasingly difficult for people to engage meaningfully with the issues that impact their lives, communities, and futures.
This unwillingness to engage seriously with the world around us directly contributes to the erosion of social norms and governance structures. Institutions, laws, and standards—once requiring thoughtful reflection—are now subject to mockery, trivialization, and neglect. This "unseriousness" has a cascading effect, chipping away at the very pillars that uphold society itself. As serious matters are trivialized into punchlines and absurdities, the structures that ensure social stability, justice, and collective action weaken. The consequences are profound: without engaging in meaningful discourse, upholding norms, and holding institutions accountable, the fabric of society—its ethical and democratic foundations—begins to decay.
In this way, memeification is not a fleeting digital trend, but a catalyst for the erosion of a society that no longer values the serious or the substantial. As the pillars of governance and social cohesion crumble under the weight of unseriousness, we risk losing the mechanisms that have allowed us to function collectively, peacefully, and productively for generations.
At its core, this is the heart of Western decline—the dying of the light. Yet, instead of resisting this decay, we have embraced it, allowing ignorance and apathy to take root.
As it is written in Jeremiah 5:21, “They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.” For those who turn away from truth, who close themselves off from meaning, the world becomes a hollow façade—empty, distorted, and fragile.
The anchors of society—institutions, norms, and principles—were never meant to be permanent. They endured because they were carefully maintained through seriousness and thoughtful engagement. Now, in abandoning that seriousness, we have allowed these anchors to erode. Without them, we are adrift in an ocean of distractions, untethered from the foundations that once held us together.
The collapse of these pillars leaves behind only the illusion of greatness. Like Ozymandias’s ruined pedestal proclaiming, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"—now surrounded by "the lone and level sands stretching far away"—we too risk becoming a civilization defined not by our achievements, but by the emptiness left in their wake.
Our neglect will leave future generations to confront the remnants of a once-vibrant society—full of potential, now barren of meaning.
The monuments of our civilization—our institutions, values, shared truths—are crumbling into the desert of indifference. What was once mighty now lies in ruin, as we turn away from the very light that sustained us.
The wreck of our time will not be statues or empires, but the erosion of meaning, the collapse of cohesion, and the triumph of the trivial.
When a society fails to resist the dying light, it drifts aimlessly, unable to navigate the very shadows it has created. In the end, all that remains is darkness—because the light we failed to honor and sustain will inevitably fade.
Sincerely,
I am Jack's complete lack of seriousness.
P.S. - Thank you for continuing to fight the good fight—and the dying of the light. Godspeed.
A good example of this is the subreddit r/BatmanArkham. They have words like "jonkler" and "aslume" and phrases like "are we insane?" that are only funny in the context of the past jokes or the content of the subreddit.
Loved it. I would also like to point out that "solo polyamory" isn't just an attempt to be overly inclusive, but microlabeling: sure, it may be a thing, but that's usually just called "polyamory" and no one would understand what you're talking about if you said "solo polyamory". It is an insanely specific thing to even THINK about let alone create a new term for.
And it's not like there's anything wrong with this kind of microlabeling! but internet culture (myself included) finds it funny, especially when we build memes around it. So yeah, solo poly hijabi amputee is a thing now. Heehee hoohoo
I know! That's why I said, "sure, it may be a thing" and "there's nothing wrong with that kind of microlabeling." If some people call themselves "solo polyamorous" then that's a thing. I don't really see how you got that takeaway from my comment. 😅 It's ok tho!
I was attempting to comment on your statement that "no one would understand what you're talking about about if you said 'solo polyamory'. It is an insanely specific thing to even THINK about let alone create a new term for". Plenty of people I know or have interacted with wouldn't be confused in the slightest for that term to be used because they are in the polyamory/ENM/CNM community, and in that specific community it is a valuable microlabel.
Oh, gotcha. Didn't know that! My point is that in general, monogamous people internet culture, people have never heard this term before, which is largely why they find humor in it.
My favorite example of microbrainrot that I’ve stumbled across is the subreddit dichotomy of r/wunkus and r/ihaveihaveihavewunkus, which I think collectively deserve some linguistic attention at some point.
The subreddits are for posting animal content (mostly cats) that have a certain degree of “wunk” to them. I can’t accurately describe “wunk”, but if you look at enough posts, you’ll understand. r/ihaveihaveihavewunkus (which I wish I knew more about the origins of) has a pretty common flair for posts that do not meet the sufficient level of brainrot compared to r/wunkus. There are also flairs for “25% Rot” and “75% Rot”. I’d be interested to get statistics on how people would quantify brainrot in a context like that, and how you begin to draw brainrot thresholds between the subreddits.
The indescribable but understandable idea of "wunk" you mentioned reminds me of the instagram account for a cat named Panko. Whenever they post a picture of her they include a poll, with the options "Pank" or "Ponk". Sometimes it's a bunch of pictures in a row on the account's story. And almost every single time I feel like one of the 2 words better fits with the image, like 70-90% of the votes are in agreement. The polls don't even include a question, but I feel like there's a "right answer" that just makes sense. Somehow everyone agrees to click either "Pank" or "Ponk" and it's interesting to me how we all just *know* without any real definition for those words.
Holding space for the perfect verbalisation of self-reflexive meme trends I’ve been noticing online lately but couldn’t explain 🧘🏻♀️
Congrats on the book!
Cover looks awesome!
I guess it's no different to how we have inside jokes between friends, except now we're forming them with strangers on the internet.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fiber-optic-cable-core,
speaking of "repetition"
Unsure if you’ve touched on this topic already, but an interesting more recent source (or perhaps rather more accurately perpetuation) of brain rot vocabulary is Spotify’s daylist feature which curates a playlist for you based on the time of day/day of the week you’re listening. Spotify describes said playlist with a caption stringing together buzzwords that essentially act nonsensical brain rot, especially given the context. To give an example, my current daylist that Spotify created for me is entitled “trap gyatt anthemic Wednesday evening” with the caption “You’ve listened to bangers and grind time on Wednesdays in the evening”. I’m interested to hear if others have noticed this or if anyone else has examples of brain rot being co-opted by companies like this?
Dear Adam,
This topic has weighed heavily on my heart for some time, and I truly appreciate your exploration of the "brainrot" phenomenon and its evolution into "microbrainrot." If you'll indulge me, I’d like to offer a few thoughts in response.
I’d like to position your construct within the broader trend of "memeification," where the internet—and particularly social media algorithms—reduces complex ideas, cultures, and identities into simplified, often absurd fragments. This memeification does more than flatten culture; it erodes it. These reductive, algorithm-driven memes, while initially amusing, bypass the deeper, more nuanced realities they reference, leaving us with a hollowed-out version of the world.
What you describe as "microbrainrot" is, I believe, symptomatic of a larger, more insidious problem: the failure to take serious matters seriously. When individuals and communities reduce vital discourse to bite-sized, memeified fragments, they undermine informed dialogue. In such an environment, there's little room for the complex, or the profound. Instead, the algorithm churns out absurdities that cater to shallow impulses, making it increasingly difficult for people to engage meaningfully with the issues that impact their lives, communities, and futures.
This unwillingness to engage seriously with the world around us directly contributes to the erosion of social norms and governance structures. Institutions, laws, and standards—once requiring thoughtful reflection—are now subject to mockery, trivialization, and neglect. This "unseriousness" has a cascading effect, chipping away at the very pillars that uphold society itself. As serious matters are trivialized into punchlines and absurdities, the structures that ensure social stability, justice, and collective action weaken. The consequences are profound: without engaging in meaningful discourse, upholding norms, and holding institutions accountable, the fabric of society—its ethical and democratic foundations—begins to decay.
In this way, memeification is not a fleeting digital trend, but a catalyst for the erosion of a society that no longer values the serious or the substantial. As the pillars of governance and social cohesion crumble under the weight of unseriousness, we risk losing the mechanisms that have allowed us to function collectively, peacefully, and productively for generations.
At its core, this is the heart of Western decline—the dying of the light. Yet, instead of resisting this decay, we have embraced it, allowing ignorance and apathy to take root.
As it is written in Jeremiah 5:21, “They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.” For those who turn away from truth, who close themselves off from meaning, the world becomes a hollow façade—empty, distorted, and fragile.
The anchors of society—institutions, norms, and principles—were never meant to be permanent. They endured because they were carefully maintained through seriousness and thoughtful engagement. Now, in abandoning that seriousness, we have allowed these anchors to erode. Without them, we are adrift in an ocean of distractions, untethered from the foundations that once held us together.
The collapse of these pillars leaves behind only the illusion of greatness. Like Ozymandias’s ruined pedestal proclaiming, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"—now surrounded by "the lone and level sands stretching far away"—we too risk becoming a civilization defined not by our achievements, but by the emptiness left in their wake.
Our neglect will leave future generations to confront the remnants of a once-vibrant society—full of potential, now barren of meaning.
The monuments of our civilization—our institutions, values, shared truths—are crumbling into the desert of indifference. What was once mighty now lies in ruin, as we turn away from the very light that sustained us.
The wreck of our time will not be statues or empires, but the erosion of meaning, the collapse of cohesion, and the triumph of the trivial.
When a society fails to resist the dying light, it drifts aimlessly, unable to navigate the very shadows it has created. In the end, all that remains is darkness—because the light we failed to honor and sustain will inevitably fade.
Sincerely,
I am Jack's complete lack of seriousness.
P.S. - Thank you for continuing to fight the good fight—and the dying of the light. Godspeed.
This Makes me think of so-called Millenial writing
A good example of this is the subreddit r/BatmanArkham. They have words like "jonkler" and "aslume" and phrases like "are we insane?" that are only funny in the context of the past jokes or the content of the subreddit.
Completly cromulent
Loved it. I would also like to point out that "solo polyamory" isn't just an attempt to be overly inclusive, but microlabeling: sure, it may be a thing, but that's usually just called "polyamory" and no one would understand what you're talking about if you said "solo polyamory". It is an insanely specific thing to even THINK about let alone create a new term for.
And it's not like there's anything wrong with this kind of microlabeling! but internet culture (myself included) finds it funny, especially when we build memes around it. So yeah, solo poly hijabi amputee is a thing now. Heehee hoohoo
Just because you may not be familiar with a term doesn't make it not real.
I know! That's why I said, "sure, it may be a thing" and "there's nothing wrong with that kind of microlabeling." If some people call themselves "solo polyamorous" then that's a thing. I don't really see how you got that takeaway from my comment. 😅 It's ok tho!
I was attempting to comment on your statement that "no one would understand what you're talking about about if you said 'solo polyamory'. It is an insanely specific thing to even THINK about let alone create a new term for". Plenty of people I know or have interacted with wouldn't be confused in the slightest for that term to be used because they are in the polyamory/ENM/CNM community, and in that specific community it is a valuable microlabel.
Oh, gotcha. Didn't know that! My point is that in general, monogamous people internet culture, people have never heard this term before, which is largely why they find humor in it.
i’m obsessed w u 😭
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/687/867/6f5.jpg seems relevant
Banger
this is how i found out your name is alex. not sure how to feel about it
my name is adam
😭😭😭😭😭 mortified
consider: alex adamic ?
please get the joke
i love you so much mr. etymology