Brain Rot Is Real, and I've Had It

I'll be honest with you. There have been nights when I told myself, "Just five more minutes," and suddenly it's 2 a.m., and my thumb hasn't stopped moving. The doomscrolling. The endless screen time. My brain felt heavy and empty at the same time.

That's brain rot. And it snuck up on me.

So here's what I started doing. I looked at what I was actually consuming and asked myself one question: Is this adding anything? Most of it wasn't. So I got ruthless. I muted, I unfollowed, I started skipping anything that felt irrelevant to my life. No guilt, just kept it moving.

And I noticed something. When I focused on content that actually made me think, that taught me something small, that didn't leave me feeling worse, my screen time didn't even drop that much. But my mind felt clearer.

I'm not saying I've figured it out. But I am saying brain rot isn't about how long you're on your phone. It's about what you're letting in while you're there.

-Oluwasemire from MANI