Which word captures the sprightliness of 2024 : “ mastermind rot ” or “ enshittification ” ? Both have been spotlight by separate dictionary publishing firm as row that reflect the zeitgeist of the past year – and both show how online refinement bear on to determine the elbow room we communicate with each other ( for better or bad ) .

“ mind rot ” has been grant the UK ’s Oxford Word of the Year for 2024 . Per their definition , the word describes “ the supposed deterioration of a person ’s mental or intellectual State Department , especially regard as the result of overconsumption of material ( now particularly online content ) considered to be trivial or unchallenging . Also : something characterize as probable to lead to such deterioration ” .

In other Holy Scripture , it describe the feeling ofscrolling through inane television and memesfor hours upon hours until the mind seems to seethe with a strange sense experience , simultaneously dulled and fizzing with stimulus . Prolonged photo to this no-good state can result in the borrowing of on the face of it nonsensical lyric .

“ Brain rot ” was picked as the Oxford Word of the Year by a public ballot regard 37,000 hoi polloi . Their voting seems to be in tune with the wider temper of our time as the usage of the term increase 230 pct between 2023 and 2024 .

“ I notice it fascinating that the term ‘ brain rot ’ has been adopted by Gen Z and Gen Alpha , those communities mostly responsible for for the use and creation of the digital subject the condition refers to . These communities have hyperbolise the saying through societal media channels , the very home said to cause ‘ brain rot ’ . It march a somewhat cheeky ego - awareness in the younger propagation about the harmful impact of social media that they ’ve inherit , ” Casper Grathwohl , President of Oxford Languages , said in astatement .

“ Looking back at the Oxford Word of the Year over the preceding two decades , you may see society ’s growing preoccupation with how our virtual life are evolving , the elbow room cyberspace civilization is sink in so much of who we are and what we talk about . Last year ’s winning word , ‘ rizz ’ , was an interesting exemplar of how language is increasingly formed , shaped , and partake within online community . ‘ brainiac rot ’ talk to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life , and how we are using our free time . It feels like a true next chapter in the ethnical conversation about human beings and engineering . It ’s not surprising that so many voters bosom the term , indorse it as our choice this yr , ” Grathwohl added .

Despite its strong tie-up withinternetculture , the parole has been around for at least 170 years . The first published mention of the word appear in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau ’s bookWaldento describe how smart set tends to underappreciate complex idea . Thoreau writes : “ While England endeavours to cure the potato rot , will not any endeavor to cure the wit - rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally ? ”

“ Brain rot ” has competition , though . Meanwhile , “ enshittification ” has been crownedMacquarie Dictionary ’s Word of God of the Yearover in Australia . The excerpt process involves a citizens committee of editors who hoard a farsighted tilt of words across 13 categories , eventually narrowing it down to a short list . This final inclination is then stage for a public balloting .

Per their definition of “ enshittification”:noun , the gradual decline in quality of a service or product lend about by a reduction in the quality of service provided , especially of an online program , and as a consequence of profit - quest .

describe the significance of theword , the commission said it ’s “ a very basic Anglo - Saxon term wrapped in affix which elevate it to being almost conventional ; almost respectable . This word captures what many of us feel is befall to the macrocosm and to so many aspects of our lives at the instant . ”

Merriam - Webster , an American publishing firm of dictionary , is yet to bring out their Logos of the year , although our stake is on another Holy Writ that summarizes how the forward-looking world is becoming increasingly strange , uncertain , and possibly a second shite .