The impact of brain rot culture on high school classrooms

Claire O’Connor, Sam Waters, Ryan Bacharah

Editor-in-Chief, Staff Reporter, Staff Reporter

For those who have been in a classroom at all this year, there’s a reasonable chance they’ve heard certain phrases from the students. 

“67! Rizz!” 

These seemingly gibberish words are what’s known on the internet as brain rot. Brain rot is a slang term used two ways. It describes low-quality and easy-to-understand online memes or content and also describes the deteriorating mental state of people who consume that content. Because many high schoolers are online to the extreme, they’ve become increasingly exposed to brain rot. 

While some students may find brain rot funny, it often winds up being disruptive during lessons and makes it harder for teachers to teach. 

Brain rot’s prevalence in classrooms may also indicate the short attention spans that these memes promote, making it harder for students to pay attention in class.

“I would say it [brain rot] has permeated everything at this point,” English teacher Samantha Darr said.

Teachers have also experienced brain rot’s infusion into the classroom and how its associated slang has changed student vocabulary.

“Brain rot has affected my class,” personal finance teacher Tarik Joyner said. “Sometimes I think it’s just, you know, when we’re doing replies, I see people kind of referencing memes or talking about things like the rizzler and such. So, you know, it shows up.”

Although brain rot is often discussed in a negative light, history teacher Michael Vereb doesn’t think the slang that comes with it has to be a bad thing.

“I recognize that students have to be at school forever,” Vereb said. “I want students to be able to laugh and smile. It [brain rot slang] is generally fun and light hearted and inconsequential, so whenever it is added, it doesn’t bother me, and it hasn’t been enough that it’s a distraction.”

Vereb believes that sets of vocabulary like the slang associated with brain rot aren’t specific to Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

“I think there have been iterations of that for every generation,” Vereb said. “You know, just stupid, right? It’s just stupid. Everyone has their stupid things, and it’s just a new iteration now for your generation. It’s a new phenomenon. It’s a new label with a new medium for it, but the same idea has existed.”

Joyner also has a more positive opinion on brain rot slang, even making sure he keeps up with the new slang to connect with his students.

“I have young people who live at home,” Joyner said. “You know, they help me keep up with what the current slang is. But I also like to talk to kids and students, and they help me understand what the cool words are.”

While Joyner and Vereb didn’t express completely negative opinions about brain rot, students did. 

“I think it’s caused a lot of disruption in the classrooms, especially with the ‘six seven’ thing,” junior Hannah Borden said. “Like, every time it pops up, people just shout it out, and it’s just annoying. Like, it’s not even funny.”

Freshman Riley Sonnenday has also noticed the negative impacts of brain rot in the classroom.

“I feel like people can get off task really quickly when they hear it,” Sonnenday said. “And like, they can start joking around rather than doing their work and listening. And it can just be really easy to just forget about what they’re doing as they were joking around with their classmates.”

Although Borden and Sonnenday have observed significant effects, senior Cam Woodall hasn’t noticed as much of a difference day-t0-day.

“I don’t actually think it’s had that much of an impact,” Woodall said. “I think there’s just like, you know, occasionally some interjections of people, when someone says something that is related to brain rot.”

Woodall is more concerned about the implications overall on younger generations.

“I mean, social media in general is just, like, short-form content,” Woodall said. “So it obviously decreases people’s attention span. But then, like, with the brain rot and stuff, it’s just, it’s so mindless, you know, that people don’t have to think about it. So it’s so easy to watch it.”

Many students are ready for teachers to take more direct action in stopping brain rot’s negative impacts on education.

“I feel like teachers just really need to take charge in that moment,” Sonnenday said. “And I mean, they can adapt to it, but they just need to know how to control their classroom and just the laughing breaks and be able to fix it so they can get back on task quickly.”