In freshmen classrooms, the rise of brainrot has become a distinguishing feature of underclassmen communication. Terms like skibidi, fanum tax and rizz, fill the hallways, and our student body is composed of strongly differing opinions regarding the current slang.
“Brainrot” refers to the nonsensical and repetitive concepts that are developed through social media platforms, largely TikTok and Instagram. Students typically use brainrot terms for comedic purposes, but the ubiquity of the meaningless phrases has recently caught the attention of several upperclassmen and staff members.
“I use these terms almost every sentence, probably more than regular language,” freshman Yael Kleinerman said. “I just do it to make people laugh and enjoy time with my friends.”
Many freshmen tend to use these words to share a laugh, however some students believe that brainrot makes conversations pointless due to their meaningless nature.
“They’re just saying terms that have no meaning, but they sound really weird or bad,” junior Seth McLelan said. “Since you say them a lot, they’ve lost their initial punch – they’re like filler words.”
While the overuse may appear frustrating to many, it seems that the lack of definition is more of the issue when it comes to brainrot. There are a wide variety of other slang words, but they aren’t as hated because they serve more of a purpose. Devour, for example, is often used to describe how someone did something exceptionally well.
“Typically boys use slang to be funny, but for girls – they use slang terms to hype eachother up,” freshmen Nour Alsayyed. “I mostly use period, purr, eat, or devour.”
Skibidi, sigma, dogwater and other similar terms are semi-interchangeable and act as random interjections. However, like Alsayyed, senior Dillon Dey uses a variety of other slang that has a function.
“If I want to agree with someone, I’m like ‘okay bet,’ or if I want to go somewhere I’m like ‘I’m down,’” Dey said. “It’s not as corny.”
Juniors report that while they used slang words as freshmen as well, the terms weren’t as weird or widespread as brainrot terms are now.
“It’s frustrating when that’s all they say,” McLelan said. “I feel like they don’t know how to speak and it seems very immature.”
Staff members have also struggled with managing their brainrot-filled classrooms. While some teachers use the phrases playfully in order to engage with their students, others have gone to the extent of banning certain words – fanum tax, for instance.
“Teachers try to interact with these words,” freshmen Ben Tordovitsky said. “Some teachers also get frustrated. In middle school, some teachers banned the words, threatening to write up any students who used them.”
While some thoroughly enjoy using internet slang and see it as a way to express themselves, and others are fed up with the repetitive jokes, the debate regarding brainrot persists.
“These terms kind of show how we are as a generation,” Alsayyed said. “Very silly, goofy and not that serious.”
