You may have heard that the Oxford dictionaryтАЩs “word of the yearтАЭ this year was “brain rot.тАЭ
I found that interesting for two reasons. The first is that it is clearly two words. The second is that unlike prior words of the year тАФ like 2013тАЩs “selfieтАЭ or last yearтАЩs “rizzтАЭ тАФ “brain rotтАЭ is neither new nor changed from its original intended meaning. Its first use was recorded in 1854 and said to be “indicative of a general decline in mental and intellectual effortтАЭ тАФ which, well, yeah.
Since the selection for OxfordтАЩs yearly word is done by public poll, this leads me to my first prediction in this column of observations for tech in 2025: The brain rot economy will show signs of weakness as people grow more wary of what is being served up to them by algorithms as they scroll endlessly. In the past year, the flood of AI slop content has made looking at Facebook even more pointless тАФ and eyeballs will go elsewhere.
